In case you haven’t noticed for yourself, let
me tell you that it is a tough, unforgiving world that we live in. The tendency for the strong to survive
by preying on the weak is sometimes called the Law of the Jungle. All animals in the jungle have to fight for
themselves and the weak can expect no sympathy.
Some aspects
of human society operate differently. In
well run countries, you can go to hospital when you are sick and get help from
the government if you can’t work. But
companies are expected to follow the Law of the Jungle. If there is an advantage for your business,
you had better take it – even if it will cause great harm to the rest of
society. If you manufacture goods
in a more expensive way in order to protect the environment, then another
business will come along and do it the cheap and dirty way, and probably kill
you off.
Following this logic, businesses will
naturally burn through all of the Earth’s resources, cut wages for their
workers to the minimum allowable level, pollute and damage if it is cheaper,
and try to kill any other businesses that attempt to behave responsibly. So it is surprising and refreshing when a
company comes along which argues that things can be done differently, that you
can help the world and be successful at the same time.
When Google was getting started in the
early 2000s, they adopted a company motto which sounded very refreshing. It was, “Don’t be evil.” The creator of Gmail, Paul Buchheit, said he
“wanted something that, once you put it in there, would be hard to take out.” Google later said in a letter to investors, “We
believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served... by a
company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short
term gains.”
What a lovely sentiment! It’s like a tiger in the jungle seeing the
last family of deer and deciding not to eat them. He could satisfy his hunger now, but then
there would be no deer to eat in the future.
A smart animal shouldn’t follow the Law of the Jungle all of the time.
So fifteen years on, have Google made good
their promise not to be evil? Well, you
can make your own mind up. I read two
stories about Google in the news today which might help.
The first story was that Britain has signed
a deal to collect taxes from Google that they should have been paying in the past. Google has paid a big-sounding 130 million
pounds, but the UK government has been heavily criticised by the EU for the
deal. They say it means Google has been
paying a tax rate of only 3 per cent in Britain since 2005. Normal sized companies that can’t make their
own special deals pay a 20 per cent tax rate.
The other story about Google was that they
have produced an artificial intelligence programme which has beaten the
European champion of go. Go is a
strategy board game first played in China which uses lots of black and white
stones on a large board. It is harder
for a computer to win at go than at chess because there are a far larger number
of possible moves and outcomes.
Apparently, the number of potentially different games of go which can be
played is larger than the number of atoms in the whole universe. Well, it’s nice to know that UK taxpayers’
money is not being entirely wasted. Who
needs hospitals and schools when we could have a computer really good at board
games instead?
Google has already changed its motto from
“Don’t be evil.” It is now “Do the right
thing.” I liked the first one
better. After all, do the right thing
for whom? I think they should change it
again, to better reflect their values.
My suggestion is the title of this blog: “Do no evil, lose no board
games, pay no taxes.”
a tendency – a trend
to prey on – of an animal, to attack and
eat; to exploitan aspect – a side; one part
to manufacture – to make or produce
to forgo – to do without
a sentiment – a feeling or thought
No comments:
Post a Comment