Author: George Gilder
| Short Summary |
| Life After Google (2018), The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy by George Gilder, looks at the future of the internet. |
Detailed Summary
“Money is not a magic wand but a measuring stick, not wealth but a gauge of it.”
― George Gilder
Google’s incredible capacity to “search and sort” draws people worldwide to its search engine and other services, including movies, maps, email, and calendars. And it appears that all of these luxuries are available to the general public for free.
Instead of paying for these benefits directly, users force to submit to advertising. This “aggregate and advertise” technique only works for so long. Then there’s the entire security issue since the Internet firewalls that protect all of these passwords, and personal data are becoming increasingly ineffective.
Life After Google Summary – Key Points
What do you think life will become after google? Are you curious to know this? Let’s delve into the rise of bitcoin and blockchain to learn more.
Big data
Google has created a massive storehouse of data – a digital representation of the real world. Books, languages, maps, and even faces have been added to the mix, starting with the internet. The issue is that because Google wants access to all information, any privacy is incompatible with its business model.
Advertising accounts for 95 percent of the company’s revenue. So, you’re paying them with your attention and time. Nobody wants to be bombarded with obnoxious advertisements. Google has grown remarkably deceptive in its use of sponsored links at the top of search results.
“In the age of Big Data, the von Neumann bottleneck has philosophical implications. The more knowledge that is put into a von Neumann machine, the bigger and more crowded its memory, the further away its average data address, and the slower its functioning.”
― George Gilder
Rise of bitcoins and blockchain technology
In the book Life After Google, the author has explained the concept of cryptocosm.
In this scenario, personal data decentralizes from any universal and targetable central hub. Instead, it is held by each and every one of us. A public and a private key are assigned to each online account user. A public key is used to encrypt every message that is transmitted to a user.
It can only be decrypted with their private key. Therefore, it can only be read by them. Their response employs their private key once more, resulting in a unique digital signature that verifies their identity.
This produces a “block” in the crypto realm, which records all of the information about the most recent bitcoin transactions. It also contains a timestamp, which indicates when the block was created.
Every creation and transfer is recorded in the subsequent block. In chronological order, all of these blocks are related. This refers to as a blockchain. Anyone can trace a bitcoin’s history back to its inception — it’s entirely unhackable and extremely safe.
Bitcoin can’t become standard
Moreover, in the book Life After Google, the author describes Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision for bitcoin and how it appeared to be flawed. Bitcoin can’t become a standard because it’s already a token of exchange. Due to its fixed supply, it doesn’t have the ability to react to demand changes, except for wild fluctuation in its value.
For approximately two hundred years, governments worldwide guaranteed their currencies against the value of gold. Satoshi Nakamoto tried to fix this after the 2008 financial crisis, wanting to make bitcoin the new and improved gold standard. He devised a mining method, making solving the algorithmic problem of creating blocks and the accompanying bitcoin more difficult.
Nakamoto sought to counteract the increase in computing power. He also set a limit of 21 million bitcoins for the entire supply, halving the amount that may be mined every year.
Over time, he planned to establish a stable supply of bitcoins, allowing it to serve as a new gold standard. According to economic blogger Mike Kendall, Bitcoin can’t become a standard because it’s already a token of exchange.
You might like to read the book Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits Summary.
Who would I recommend Life After Google summary to?
It recommends to the tech geeks who love reading about complex technology and technical stuff. Moreover, people who have an interest in bitcoins mining should give it a read.