Google and the World Brain

In a BBC documentary, “Google and the World Brain,” the issue of author copyright is explored. Google has scanned and published out-of-print books that are still covered by copyright.

Interviewed, Kevin Kelly (twitter) (also here and here), the co-founder of Wired, makes a startling remark. In his view the whole issue of copyright is archaic. He explains that all authors draw their ideas from previous authors and therefore don’t own their own ideas.

It’s wonderful to witness such bloviating on the cusp of the New Civilization, in which “you didn’t build that” is taken to unprecedented levels.

Kelly should start a publishing firm; all his authors would work for free. After all, nothing is original, nothing is new, and these writers are merely rearranging other people’s words.

You might be surprised at how many people actually believe this tripe Kelly is passing along.

It’s part of the vastly expanding operation aimed at the individual.

The “modern” position is, we’re all one great big group. Kelly adds an historical touch. We’re just recycling the past.

Rimbaud was just redoing Shelley. Dylan Thomas was adding a few exhibitionist touches to Shakespeare, who was aping Sophocles. Plato was mimicking generations of Egyptian high priests. Socrates was staging dialogues based on arguments between cave men.

If we could climb into a time machine, we could travel back to the age of the Neanderthals and find all subsequent ideas of any value in their conversations. Certainly.

And I’m sure the Neanderthals were stealing thoughts after listening to what ants and gorillas and cabbages were saying.

The individual imagines and creates? Ho-ho-ho. Ridiculous. Kelly has put a lid on that fiction. Perhaps he’ll publish a list of authors from whom he’s borrowed, and then we can read their work and ignore his.

Yes, it’s all spiritual collectivism, and we’re melting down into one cosmic goo-glob, and it’s marvelous. Everything is free.

“It’s all information” is the code phrase, as if all data are like all other data, and therefore diminished—in which case “information is power” means degraded and shrunken power.

When it comes to intelligence—that is, actual intelligence—the capacity to see how a book is unique, rather than “like” another book, is far more important than the perception of sameness.

And Kevin Kelly notwithstanding, the individual creator is real, not a fiction.

A book isn’t just a whole bunch of data, and it isn’t just a whole lot of borrowing and reshuffling from past authors.

The very basis of meaning, without which we would all be swimming in a sea of gibberish, isn’t a phenomenon of the Group. Meaning ultimately comes down to each individual and his perception. We may share a common language, but individuals shape it and individuals understand it. Or don’t.

The move to wipe out the entire concept of the individual and erase it from human consciousness is a propaganda op. It is far easier to wield control over a group.

“We” isn’t an advanced form of “I.”

Here is where things are heading: “I/we is/are together.” Then: “We are together.” Then: “We.” Then: Nothing. Oblivion.

The failure to see this is a direct consequence of the failure of a person to know he is an individual.

That Google would even consider digitizing and publishing books that are still under copyright, that still belong to the author, reveals how casual their concept of the individual is.

“Just another greedy mega-corporation” doesn’t capture what is really going on here.

Jon Rappoport is the author of two explosive collections, The Matrix Revealed and Exit From the Matrix, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com