The whole world seems to be about balance. For instance, it is possible to in fact die from too much water. And in our modern interconnected society of instantaneous updates and information overload, our attention spans and the very way we think is being affected.

Google is a search engine much heralded for returning the most relevant results, but its algorithms can be manipulated. This is why almost half the time a Google search will turn up pure garbage. Google, like all search engines, revolve around keywords, which are just text strings to a computer, a literal string of text, or characters on a screen.

Whether the result really is about “gobbledygook” is more a matter of chance than any computer artificial intelligence, even with Google’s widely praised ninety-some-odd-point formula for calculating relevancy.

This makes for the keyword-mentality, prevalent enough without Google but now all but the norm with Google’s advent. The keyword-mentality focuses on keywords, or buzz words, and devotes mental resources to scanning for buzz words rather than listening deeply. The keyword-mentality values “relevancy” above understanding; the keyword-mentality sees what it wants to see and hears what it wants to hear.

To be certain, this is really a psychological state native to the human species and in no way something search engines have introduced into the world. But in our wired world of the worldwide web, where search engines determine at least half of all traffic, all the hundreds of millions of users using these search engines to assist them scan – instead of understand – information is really a dangerous development, encouraging and further entrenching a closed mindset, one that already knows what it is purportedly searching for.

For true search and inquiry don’t begin from propositions, which can only close off certain avenues of investigation while promoting others. To truly ask is to be totally open to the possibilities, without judgment and without sifting.

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