[waterlesscloud]

It's seemed pretty clear to me for some time that Google's real mission is AI/singularity oriented and everything else is just a step along that road. It may not be what the day-to-day view is in the trenches, but it seems like the high level plan.

A hire like this one certainly reinforces that perception.

I don't know if it's truly possible to accomplish, but it's fascinating to see a major company taking steps in that directions.

[mmahemoff]

I've looked at Google this way since George Dyson wrote his "Turing's Cathedral" essay after he visited in 2005 [1].

The comments about book scanning led to some controversy at the time [2], which gave a glimpse into Google's AI motivations that have now become much more explicit, thanks to projects like Google Now, Google Glass, and self-driving cars.

1. http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dyson05/dyson05_index.html

2. http://www.zdnet.com/google-side-steps-ai-rumours-3039237225...

[nostrademons]

"Organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

If you take that to the limit, the logical consequence is some sort of planet-wise consciousness that can instantly pull up any of humanity's collective knowledge at a moment's notice.

[Raphael]

Doesn't it already do that?

[nostrademons]

Google employees tend to be harsher on our current achievements than the general public. :-)

[swah]

Thinking about it, I dont think so. Because if you ask google and also ask a folk that is an expert on something or loves the subject, the person will give you much better information and links.

[dbyrd]

Google has thousands of employees who all have a moderate amount of autonomy. I don't think they have a singular goal. They just do a bunch of stuff around organizing the world's data. Naturally AI/singularity oriented projects tend to emerge.

[xianshou]

Google: maximizing the sum of consciousness.