Google head warns politicians about truth and the Internet
Imagine being able to check instantly whether or
not statements made by politicians were correct. That is the sort of service
Google Inc. boss Eric Schmidt believes the Internet will offer within five
years.
Can you handle the truth?
Imagine being able to check instantly whether or not statements made by politicians were correct. That is the sort of service Google Inc. boss Eric Schmidt believes the Internet will offer within five years.
Politicians have yet to appreciate the impact of the online world, which will also affect the outcome of elections, Schmidt said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday.
He predicted that “truth predictor” software would, within five years, “hold politicians to account.” People would be able to use programs to check seemingly factual statements against historical data to see to see if they were correct.
“One of my messages to them (politicians) is to think about having every one of your voters online all the time, then inputting ‘is this true or false.’ We (at Google) are not in charge of truth but we might be able to give a probability,” he told the newspaper.
The advent of television taught political leaders the art of the sound bite. The Internet will also force them to adapt.
“The Internet has largely filled a role of funding for politicians … but it has not yet affected elections. It clearly will,” Schmidt said.
“It has broken down the barriers that exist between people and information, effectively democratizing access to human knowledge,” Schmidt wrote. “This has made us much more powerful as individuals.”
I sort of envision this like having Mr. Spock in a box. Ask if a specific statement on Middle Eastern politics from the President is true or false — and receive a measured Vulcan answer like, “Likelihood of truth = 6%; likelihood of false = 94%.”
Posted: Thu - October 5, 2006 at 06:41 AM