The internet is dead. Long live the internet. Recently I have
had this epiphany. Well it’s not that sudden as an epiphany might denote, but it’s
come off late. In the last ten years of reading stuff, I have learnt that nothing
is the truth. Nothing is the whole truth, the complete truth and nothing but
the truth. Everything is questionable. Everything has a bias and everything is
subjective. My guru Dharen, said something once. He said – there is science and
then there is truth. He spoke about his experience with Parachute hair oil. He said
there is science that hair oil doesn’t permeate the scalp more than a certain level
and has possibly no effect on the brain function… but there is also the truth that
during exam time, my mom puts oil in my hair and then I study and what all I study
goes through in the brain. There is science and then there is truth. See – this
is the truth – there is no real complete truth. We search for truth everywhere
in our lives and place such a premium on it. But in effect there isn’t any! Everything
becomes exciting when it offers to tell the truth but then slowly slowly it
starts lying. But if there is no truth there can’t be lies as well. But surely
there is obfuscation and theories that come from either side as either side use
the new propaganda to convince the world of their side of the equation.
Basically I have become a skeptic of everything. Earlier newspapers
were the upholders of truth. Today only a fool will believe whatever a
newspaper will tell you. But as I see around me – there are tons of fools. A
book I read many years ago – called ‘mindset’ by john nasbitt – in which he
said –I turn to eth sports page as I know that is the only bit of truth in the
newspapers. The score is the score. Today when I came to office I picked up the
Bombay time – the tabloid edition of the daily newspaper. A young kid in the team
asked me – is that the first thing I read. No – I replied. I read the paper
today at home. The first thing I read is the sports page of the Times of India.
Then I read some other pages, then I read the first article of the Mumbai
Mirror. The Mumbai mirror on the first page will generally take up some expose
of something that is ailing Mumbai – some civic or social issue. I like that article.
And then to get insights into what the world is veering towards in terms of
attitudes and expectations I look at the Bombay times. So first fact, then interpretation
and then fiction… as a marketer – all three are important in different
circumstances – I would even veer towards saying it’s in the wrong order.
Fiction is extremely important for marketers… movies (read: popculture) tell us
the most about ourselves…
So newspapers also lie. Then came the internet. The internet
with its promise of democratizing information gave so much of it to all and
sundry. Now people were not and will be not judged by what they know but how well
they will search. This was told to me by a very intelligent man – one of my
first mentors – Aditya Shastri. This was in 1997 when I first saw the internet
in his office. It was pretty cool. His words have become prophetic. With internet
now reaching mobile phones, information has exploded in terms of what is
available in the palm of your hand and everywhere you are. So conversations in
parties that talk about certain data used tobe done from memory and now if some
contentious point comes out – the internet comes to the rescue and closes all
conversation. I hope with this getting more and more omnipresent people will be
more circumspect in what they talk. They will possibly learn to use words like ’from
my memory’, ‘possibly’, ‘likely’, ‘mostly’, ‘I believe’ etc… cause anything
said will and can be verified by a quick mobile search.
So I loved that google would be able to help us a lot on
spreading knowledge and information. It truly allows us to do tons of research
and helps us find the ‘truth’. I used to
joke that whats the internet to believe anything. Tomorrow I would write something
and if it ranks on google then would that make it true? Today google has become
the answer for what you want as the answer. Whatever you want you will get
google to answer that for you. You want to know how microwave is bad for you –
there will be billions of links – ditto for why this is all a sham. Just because
its forwarded or on a link that looks nice, doesn’t make it true. So many
people believe any shit that they see. In the middle there was a video of a
lion roaming around in thane… people believed it to be true… er… one question –
Which is the LAST refuge of the Asiatic lion? THE LAST REFUGE? You idiot. You don’t
get lions outside Gir in India.
So the omnipresence of google is going to be used for both
parties – the for and the against. Its up to you to analyse the data presented.
The past possibly belonged to the believer – the future with so much data will
belong to the skeptic. Everything is but a probability. You play probabilities.
You read everything, listen everything, trust nothing and build your beliefs,
values and judgment. That’s all.
