What the Internet is Hiding From You

He was head of MoveOn.org, and I'm supposed to believe he has no political motive for decrying the fact that something HE pioneered the use of as a political action tool doesn't reach EVERYONE? I suspect his motive is not that he feels we're in danger from the "invisible membrane" but that he feels we're in danger of being beyond his reach.

I know that everything I read on the net is filtered by the provider. That's one reason I read what is free, and don't provide information to facebook that it can use to filter me. Ditto Google. Ditto Yahoo. Ditto ...

I keep ME somewhat secret, believing it in MY best interests to do so. What I don't get is why so many people tell the commercial side of the internet all about themselves, and then expect the commercial side of the internet NOT to use the info for commercial purposes.

But I DO expect the commercial side to respect ME, and whatever private data I HAVE to give them to do business with them.

Eli's complaint sounds like so much sour grapes, to me.

And I care less about the squirrel than I do about Rwanda. But I don't know any squirrels OR Rwandans. Except one squirrel. His name is Eli.

Most people I know (and based on much of what I read, this can be expanded beyond my small circle of acquaintances) do not need an external filter for what they choose as sources of information. People tend to accept as Authority only that which supports their own philosophy or belief system, not even bothering to familiarize themselves with the opposing views of any particular argument.

I learned a long time ago, one scores points in a debate not by offering supporting arguments for one's own position, but by shooting holes in the arguments of one's interlocutor. To achieve this, one must familiarize oneself with "the other side". Most people tend to reject anything emanating from the other side naturally, without the benefit of any external filter. Such external filters normally aid people's natural desire to avoid anything that demands critical thinking and analysis.

Another factor- he who shouts the loudest generally has the least to actually say. This is why any conventional "search" of the Internet regarding controversial subjects is most likely going to yield garbage, no matter which side of the issue one is interested in. By appropriate choice of search terms, one can pick the side of a discussion one prefers, without the help of Google, Facebook, Twitter, AOL or any other search engines. I suspect I could, were I so inclined, search CR4 for posts supporting the possibility of achieving Over Unity...

Good observation, I think. Of course, it agrees with my view, so I would consider it a good observation, by definition.

And I, too, think you could find posts in favor or the idea of Over Unity. But you'd only survive the search if you DON'T have an allergy to nuts. And we'd hate to lose you to frivolous search in pursuit of proof, so I'm willing to accept your argument "as read".

Thanks, as usual (well, often, anyway!) for a well thought out and stated answer.

I decided a few months ago to switch to Ask.com because they give you the opportunity to use "Eraser" to delete your search history. Of course, how does one verify it?

I don't know if Google has something equivalent. Maybe they do and I just couldn't find it. It is pretty easy to compare equivalent searches on the various engines to see what is at the top of the list on results. Ask says you can't compare that way because their search engine is based on parsing a question format; not just "terms." I'd be shocked if there IS a search engine that doesn't "filter." Technically speaking, a search algorithm becomes a filter, by definition, even if secondary and/or advanced filtering isn't applied.

I doubt that anyone that is really looking for viable information uses Google or Bing much any more (I see that Bing returns pretty much the same garbage as Google). There are a lot of good search engines out there, mostly topic-specific- but I'm not about to tell anyone what I use, because I don't want it to become so popular that marketers start gaming it, too!