Tag: Google

“Google Doesn’t…Know What Truth Is”

Neal Pollard

It has been six years since the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma. This film warns of the effects of social media, social networks, algorithms, and surveillance capitalism. It is what might be described as an alarmist or even a conspiracy theory piece if not for the fact that those who are featured throughout are some of the pioneers, engineers, executive, and early contributors of such platforms as Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Apple, Google, Twitter, Instagram, and developers of AI.

I was most struck by a quote from someone with whom I would have little in common with ideologically. Her name is Dr. Cathy O’Neil, graduate of UC-Berkeley and Harvard, a mathematician and data scientist who understands algorithms at a level few of us do. She suggests that the data plugged into algorithms are subjective. In a TED talk, she warned of “data laundering” and “weapons of math destruction.” She warns that much is driven by money and personal bias rather than objective truth.

In The Social Dilemma, she said, “Google doesn’t have the option of saying, ‘Oh, is this conspiracy? Is this truth?’ Because they don’t know what truth is. They don’t have a… They don’t have a proxy for truth that’s better than a click. If we don’t agree on what is true or that there is such a thing as truth, we’re toast. This is the problem beneath other problems because if we can’t agree on what’s true, then we can’t navigate out of any of our problems.”

Others in the documentary echoed this existential concern that objective truth is elusive and disappearing in the world of technology and, therefore, the world as a whole. While none of them appealed to God or the Bible, I would suggest that it alone holds the key to providing what they crave and clamor for. Like modern day Pilates, growing numbers flippantly ask with a wave of the hand, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). They don’t know and don’t seem to care. Meanwhile, Jesus urges, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). He affirms Himself as the moderator, definer, and revealer of truth (John 14:6). It is not bullying or destructive. It is comforting and protecting.

A world falling apart without objective truth–which is being noticed even by those with no interest or sympathy for Christianity–longs for an emotional and spiritual anchor they can trust. They want truth. Through His Word, Scripture, Jesus offers us the only solid rock that will hold the weight of the world. If these documentarians are anywhere close to right, we are falling deeper into a hole that offers the destruction of objective truth. As a countermeasure, Jesus offers His truth. It will navigate us out of all our problems, most of all our greatest problem (John 1:29; 8:24,34).

Books by the Pollards

A Tiny Spark Snail Mail Club (Kathy Pollard)

Heaven’s “Start Up”: The Ultimate “Rags To Riches” Story

Monday’s Column: Neal at the Cross

16174665_10154303308455922_2453812807432667966_n

Neal Pollard

Some of the wealthiest companies, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Amazon, Mattel, Google, Tesla, and The Walt Disney Company, started in the quaint, quiet haven of a garage. Often, they had little more than an idea of a product or service, but they refused to stop until they achieved success. These rags to riches stories intrigue us and fire our imaginations.

Have you thought about the “start up” that began in heaven? It was conceived in the eternity before time. A couple of millennia ago, a poor couple staying in an obscure little village laid a newborn baby boy in an animal trough. This Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him as He kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Nothing more is said about this amazing adolescent until He is thirty years old and began sharing new ideas and promising the thing every person in every place in every generation absolutely cannot afford to be without. 

Though He was executed for His radical claims, thoughts, and actions, His followers refused to keep what He had to offer hidden. Many of them gave their lives to advance this cause, they believed so much in it. Most of them were poor, uneducated, and ordinary people, but they relentlessly carried His offer to every creature under heaven. People began to describe their efforts by saying these men have turned the world upside down! 

And indeed they have. Those who heard the Man who started it all shared it with those who shared it until this ultimate hope went everywhere. Today, multiplied centuries today, their work lives on. Taking that same, original plan, written down in one Book, people of every race, color, country, and economic strata continue to start from nearly nothing and grow in extraordinary ways. 

No wonder! That newborn is God in the flesh. What He came to offer is the eternal salvation of our souls. Where He offers it is in His body He calls the church. Anyone can have it, if they are willing to give Him everything they are and have. At this very hour, there is an untold number of men, women, and young people who desperately want what He has to offer, but they need to know how to get it. That’s where we come in. He is counting on us to share His offer today, while there’s time for them to take advantage of it. If we truly believe in the power of it, nothing will keep us from getting this indescribable gift to the masses!

29472998_1861193667226061_7295196647418494976_o