In Google We Trust

Been on vacation. No updates for a while. Wife and I traded the city for a week of concentration on the dogs, the beach and not much else.

And yet, there was always the laptop. The phone. The technology. The access.

It's not a groundbreaking thing, it's not really news to anyone. But the other day, when Twitter underwent the whole Denial of Service Attack, a ton of folks I know were bummed out. Even being denied access to that one service for a few hours pretty much ruined their days. Not judging, just noticing. I was more baffled than bummed. I like Twitter as a service and tool. But regardless, whether baffled, bummed or whatever, the dependency we have on things that exist in a purely virtual sense got me to thinking.

What if Google gave out?

I, like a lot of people, trust el G grande more than ever. And more all the time. I've utilized their apps to create a virtual epicenter for my life. From the docs I save, work and collaborate with others and my personal and professional identity and access to personal photos and videos and everything else. Hell, I even roll with a G1 instead of an iPhone. I can walk up to any connected PC or 3G-covered area and in seconds have everything one used to keep on their hard drive (and I suppose kept in their home or office before that).

My point is this: I trust Google not to fail. I depend on Google. Rely on it. I feel a little like Dr. Colossus when Chief Wiggums let him out of jail but warned him to stay away from Death Mountain: "But all my stuffs there!"

Google: All my stuffs there.

A theme that's presented itself to me in the last few months is the interdependent relationship we have with technology. There are folks out there doing some really interesting theoretical and applied thinking around it. Cyborg Anthropologists. Had the pleasure of sitting down with a smart cookie named Amber Case recently and had a great conversation about the evolution of technology and how woven into the fabric of our lives it has been, is and will be.

More to come on it soon. Interesting stuff that's really on the bleeding edge of the very concept and definition of "identity" right now (and next).