Life after Google: An Insightful Clickbait
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What thoughts came across your head after reading the previous paragraph? You might think what this man is talking about. Do I really need an account to view the content? Why would I have to do this? Anyway, let me do it because I have done stuff like this a hundred times. Then you realize that was the actual content of this book review. You might also break into a little laugh after realizing you were being teased. Isn’t this introduction appealing and attractive? This is precisely how the author George Gilder introduced his book: Life after Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy. The book’s introduction is a coup because everything seems too familiar to be real. It is natural for people in 2022 to follow those procedures to get information and participate in the digital world. That also means people are indifferent or obedient to leaving traces on the internet.
The extensive collection of people’s personal information is the most significant problem of the recent decade. After so many data leak events like Facebook and Cambridge Analytica’s case, people start to worry about the safety of their personal information. Most scholars, governors, and users think that the current big data system needs more proactive, strict regulations. Many countries promoted their data privacy bills like ITPDCA in the U.S. and GDPR in the EU. However, in George’s book, he did not touch on the legislation measures, which dominate the discussion of data privacy. His argument is instead a bit radical. After examining the most influential representative in the big data world, Google, George formulated a brave, non-mainstream and profound prediction of what the world looks like in the future: Google’s years of hard work, its mature, efficient big data business model is leading the world into a dead end because of the insecure nature of data mining. George has high hope for emerging computer science technology: blockchain, a remedy to the big data world. His main arguments are concentrated in the book’s first half, shining a bright light on Google’s big data empire, and progressively unfolding the root causes of Google’s failure in the future. However, George did not build on the well-knit argument in the book’s first half. Instead of discussing the implementation and applications of blockchain, George put too much effort into interrogating the history behind blockchain and cryptocurrencies, which made this book impractical and anticlimactic.
George’s argument is built on the foundation of the fatal flaw of the current digital world: security. As he said in his book, “Security is the foundation of all other services and crucial to all financial transactions. It is the most basic and indispensable component of any information technology.” (Gilder 19) Insecurity is the crevice that will destroy the giant business castle built by Google after we head into the fourth industrial revolution, which is driven by data. Google needs a humongous amount of data to deploy machine learning and artificial intelligence to unearth users’ patterns and forecast the future. Google has built the world’s most intricate and cumbersome data center to gather data. This whole idea of collecting data in one place, as George suggests, is the root of the crisis. He says, “Putting data in central repositories solved hackers’ hardest problem for them: It told them which data were important and where they were, putting the entire Internet at risk.” (Gilder 185) Hackers can simply tell whether the data is important by the extent of data protection. Data centralization is helping hackers to pinpoint important data. Indeed, recent history has proved his concern has come true. People in charge are seeking safety on the premise of data centralization, but as George said, “The concentration of data in walled gardens increases the cost of security. The industry sought safety in centralization. But centralization is not safe.” (Gilder 21) George warns the world could be more wrong if it insists on the current big data system. Like what he envisioned in his book Life after Television, published in the 1990s, that the internet would be the mainstream after television, George gave the hope of new information architecture to fanciful, mathematical rigorous technology: blockchain, which he thought is immune to the security problem.
According to George, blockchain could be more than a solution to the current problem. It almost sounds like the invention of blockchain is the salvation of humankind. The laws of blockchain would change the information hierarchy from Google’s top-down to bottom-up. In a bottom-up hierarchy, users have concrete control of their piece of information thanks to blockchain’s idea of public and private keys. By using a private key on authorizing every transaction, the transaction has been time-stamped and digitally signed. What’s more important is that each block containing this transactional information serves as a ledger. The ledger is shared with every single participant in the transaction. Therefore, the ledger is immutable since other people can see the accurate ledger. This empowers the blockchain system to its absolute security. Unlike Google’s data centralization, blockchain gives jurisdictions back to users’ hands. Users do not have to obey every sign-in, log-in, sign-up procedure.
Blockchain’s benefits to society seem too good to be true. George’s first half of the book unfolds a fanciful, exciting path for transforming society into a more secure shape. His strong recommendation for blockchain made readers not stop wondering how society should implement blockchain. Unfortunately, readers might find themselves disappointed in the book’s second half. George’s obsession with the chronology of blockchain technology in the second half of the book certainly cannot serve as evidence of the implementation of blockchain. Chapters after the first half of the book are in a tedious structure. He would introduce the founder of a certain cryptocurrency or the inventor of a branch of blockchain technology at the beginning of the chapter and then continue his writing in an interview fashion. The author’s persistent use of personal anecdotes, interrogation of the history of bitcoin, and the invention of other cryptocurrencies show nothing but how well-connected he is in the academic world. The description of bitcoin’s history seems attractive at first. However, the weight of the historical background made this book unbalanced. George spilled his ink on three entire chapters speculating the identity of bitcoin’s father: Satoshi. Then, he spent another three chapters unfolding the history of other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum. The overuse of personal anecdotes and documentaries about cryptocurrency’s history does not help solidify his argument. Instead, he should focus more on how to implement the blockchain.
What is missing in the book is the most crucial part of the discourse: the implementation of blockchain in real life. The first obstacle that stands in the way is how to handle the relationship between big data and blockchain. As George said in his book, they seem to have opposite attributes. Imagine an ecosystem in which blockchain completely replaced big data. In this ecosystem, people lost the advantages of big data. They can no longer get personalized recommendations on YouTube or Amazon. The efficiency of the market would plummet. The world has already given people with benefits of big data. Consumers would not accept the loss of what they already own. Instead, they would seek more benefits in the blockchain, which is built on the existing big data ideology. The combination of big data and blockchain seems to be an optimal society model. However, this would require all industries to expect a dramatic change. How many industries could successfully incorporate blockchain is unknown, and George did not give readers any hints in his book.
In addition, George forgot to ask the opinions of general users and data controllers. Even though most Americans are somewhat concerned about their personal data being collected by companies, most users also think big data is indispensable in their lives. According to pew research center’s study in Nov 2019, about 79% of Americans care about data privacy. However, 62% of Americans said they think they can’t go through life without data collection. The implementation of blockchain would have to persuade these 62% of Americans at the first place, and these people are not going to compromise easily. Not only may general users not live in a world without big data, but data controllers like companies would also fight back to maintain the efficient business model they already constructed in the big data world. More importantly, governments have a high likelihood of rejecting bills about blockchain. Like George said in his examination of Google’s empire, “Google may talk a good game about privacy, but private data are the mortal enemy of its system of the world.” The government may pretend privacy matters, but privacy is also the government’s enemy. Governments could use data collection as a surveillance tool, but there are many other vital, beneficial functions big data plays in government decision-making. The most influential global disease COVID is a perfect representation of the indispensability of big data in policymaking. Governments developed applications and websites for close contact tracing thanks to big data. Without these tracing processes, confirmed cases would skyrocket even more. When society faces these challenges again in the future (which is almost inevitable), how would blockchain address these problems? George did not give his answers to these questions in his book.
From the previous analysis, we can come to a solid conclusion that blockchain is not omnipotent. All those potential obstacles to implementing blockchain are the products of blockchain’s shortcomings. At the very end of the book, George only acknowledged a single blockchain shortcoming that bitcoin is not suitable for becoming a currency since it is deflationary in the long run. Disappointedly, this has nothing to do with the difficulties of implementing blockchain. The conversation of implementation has a much higher priority than bitcoin since bitcoin is a derivative of blockchain. A byproduct cannot thrive on its own without a robust carrier. In his book, George avoided the important and dwell on the trivial.
Security is the catalyst of George’s book, but many statistics have shown that blockchain may have created even more security problems. Indeed, blockchain is secure technology-wise, but this security grants many criminals and people active in gray areas opportunities to take advantage of this anonymous and secure transaction method. Crimes regard to derivatives of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, in 2021 hit an all-time high volume. According to Reuters, “Cryptocurrency-linked crime surged to a record high last year in terms of value, with illegal addresses receiving $14 billion in digital currencies, up 79% from $7.8 billion in 2020, according to a blog from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis released on Thursday.” (Gertrude paragraph 1) It seems like transaction security cannot be fair to every user on the internet. But how to implement the blockchain with specialized user treatment. When data controllers must figure out the user’s identity to evaluate whether the activity is legal, blockchain has no difference from big data.
when a newborn technology was introduced to the world, there will be skepticism and critiques. It is understandable that people are worried about the new trend, but anxiety among the public would never stop promising, new technology from becoming the mainstream in the future. Two hundred years ago, people were concerned about the invention of the train. Thirty years ago, people were worried about the worldwide web. Now, blockchain is on the cusp of the old system and new world order. George Gilder uses his profound worldview and keen insight to explain why the old big data system of Google would fail and why blockchain would rise as an heir to the old system. “Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and Rise of Blockchain Economy” opened readers’ eyes. Nevertheless, George Gilder’s thoughts only stay on the conception of blockchain on paper rather than implementations in real life. Determined, brave, innovative ideas are essential for enlightening the world. But in a world full of problems like climate change, poverty, and digital insecurity, people need substantial solutions rather than an imaginative blueprint.
References
1. Gilder, George F. Life after Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy. Regnery Gateway, 2022.
2. Auxier, Brooke, and Lee Rainie. “Key Takeaways on Americans’ Views about Privacy, Surveillance and Data-Sharing.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 10 Nov. 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/11/15/key-takeaways-on-americans-views-about-privacy-surveillance-and-data-sharing/.
3. Auxier, Brooke, et al. “Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control over Their Personal Information.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center, 17 Aug. 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/15/americans-and-privacy-concerned-confused-and-feeling-lack-of-control-over-their-personal-information/.
4. Person, and Gertrude Chavez-dreyfuss. “Cryptocurrency Crime in 2021 Hits All-Time High in Value -Chainalysis.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 6 Jan. 2022, https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/cryptocurrency-crime-2021-hits-all-time-high-value-chainalysis-2022-01-06/.
