Canada's Biggest Influence

By infiltrating the minds of Canadians, the search engine giant has become the most influential presence in the country.

“We want to make Google the third half of your brain.”

– Sergey Brin, Google co-founder and president of technology.

Putting aside the puzzling and humorous inaccuracy of this statement by a brilliant mind, if one analyzes Google’s intent, it is clear that this company not only owns Canada, but the world.

In order to answer the question of who most influences Canada, we should first provide a framework for doing so. Assessing this matter from a political perspective, one might turn to a Hobbesian characterization of the state of nature. In the modern sense, this is the realm of international affairs, a war of all against all, whether states or individuals.

Then, if the international system is comprised of sovereign nations, which are populated by sovereign individuals, the brain is the ultimate unit by which to assess who, or what influences a nation such as Canada.

This is because one’s brain is a means of independence and autonomy, and therefore symbolic of one’s sovereignty.

Within the political science context, independent human beings implicitly form a contract with the state in which they surrender some of their agency to live in a civilized environment.

So what does it mean that a corporation, as opposed to those in power with whom we enter into this contract, desires control of this means of independence and individuality?

In a country like Canada, which is engaged in an eternal struggle to define itself in the shadow of the United States, it means that Google threatens sovereignty. This is because our actions and the information we access are subject to the limitations and arbitrary rhythms of a corporation’s technological inventions. This corporation’s allegiance is to its own well-being, as opposed to Canada’s constitution.

Perhaps this is a reach, but in the current era of globalization, this is a real threat to identity and independence.

Picture a scenario that occurs billions of times a day: A human being forms a question in his or her mind. It used to be that one would ask someone more knowledgeable, engage in discussion, or visit the library. This process activated a mental journey unique to every individual that would turn up unique answers.

Now, when a question appears in one’s mind, our instincts have now been re-honed so that we begin typing google.com, if it is not already our homepage.

This virtual repository of information has a homogenizing effect in terms of independent thought and on the investigative journey.

Given that 80 per cent of Canadians use the internet (and presumably Google) regularly, Sergey Brin and his colleagues have already infiltrated the brains of our nation.