Thought experiment visualization: the view through a pair of Search Engine Spectacles

Artist: Caspar Lam (casparlam@aya.yale.edu) Title: Subject to Terms of Use Description: Thought experiment visualization: the view through a pair of Search Engine Spectacles Statement: Empedocles believed that the flow of effluences between objects and our eyes formed our perception. Our eyes are lanterns lit by Aphrodite herself with beams grasping whatever reached forth from the world. It was a romantic view, but the Greek poet did not have the machinations of the information age in mind where search engine crawlers exist to splay open anything and everything into databases of information. We have come to see the world as blocks of stuff. We do not perceive depth. If, in our greed for speed and convenience, our eyes were to fully merge with the purring servers scattered across remote, energy-rich locations, search engines would rejoice in delight. But what is the price we would pay?