Google, let me see the world as…

Right now, one of the biggest problems are knowledge bubbles. We tend to only read articles that agree with us, and as a result we only see people that agree with our point of view. Reading outside of our bubble is getting harder and harder. So I would like to ask Google to help us.

Google right now knows more than a few things about me: I am a male, 47, with a degree in Math, interested in … [long list], Italian, with a daughter, and so on. So when I go online, I see the internet in a certain way. I see advertisements that fit me, I see video on youtube that I have a high probability to view, I see results for my search that have been selected for me. Some time ago it was possible on the last point to ask google to give us neutral results. Now I don’t see the button anymore. But I think google shouldn’t just bring back that button. It should go one revolutionary step ahead. It should let me chose a different persona, and let me see the world as them.

I want to see the world as a black woman who is 30 from the United States, and with a degree in social science;

or I want to see the world as a Japanese male engineer, 50 years old;

or as an Incel; or as an immigrated muslim from Libia; and so on. Or someone might want to see the world as a 47 years old male from Italy with a degree in math. Google knows enough that it can give us this world view, and average it out among 100 people with the same caratteristics, thus eliminating any link that is too personal.

Would this be shocking? I hope so, I wish so, I am sure it would. That’s why I want it to happen.

Those bubbles are making us all “safe”, but are also dumbing down everybody. I might get offended by what I see? Don’t worry Google, I can handle it. I will read it, deep breath, and move on. But this will help me expand my worldview.

Many years ago, before Facebook, there was Myspace. Before Myspace there was Orkut. Before Orkut there was Livejournal (LJ). Apart from Orkut all the other services are still alive, but they are not thriving. Not even Facebook is thriving any longer. But there was something that livejournal had that no one copied. And it was great. Not only, in LJ you could subscribe to other people’s page (like “princess ghost” here, random person I just found for this article). So to read all your friends update in a singular page (very similar to the facebook wall). You could also look at the friend’s page of another person. So you would basically see the world through their eyes (here is the page of princess ghost friends, how she sees the world).

It was an amazing tool to find new friends. Interesting people you would never meet were dicscovered in this way. New friends were formed. And the bubble felt less claustrophobic. If someone was disagreeing with you on many points you could basically go to their friends page and see the world as they see it.

Google, make it happen. Let me log in with a fake persona, describe who this person is, and show me the world through their eyes.