Google has had an unofficial motto for many years: b Donbt be evil.b It came up as a joke during a meeting (including, among others, Paul Buchheit and Amit Patel) seeking a mission statement. A particular Googler liked it and went around anonymously doodling it on whiteboards until it became a permanent part of the culture. Although it was not originally intended for distribution outside the company, it became known, and was explained in Googlebs 2004 IPO documents. Part of the humor of the slogan is that it shouldnbt need saying at all. Itbs satisfied by having the tiniest modicum of ethical achievement; almost nobody is evil according to the moral code they aspire to live by, except, perhaps, for comic-book villains, Jeffrey Dahmer, and certain pedophile priests. The only reason itbs even worth mentioning is that Google was born in a world dominated by Microsoft and Doubleclick, which were generally agreed to actually be evil, and Google aspired to do better. b Do no evilb is a distortion. ----------------------------- The slogan has always been a serious irritant to certain people --- mostly, the most cynical, those who think b goodb and b evilb are merely hypocritical terms used by the powerful to conceal their pursuit of their own interests; but perhaps there are some sincere people irritated by it too, those who are disappointed by Googlebs choices and priorities. Of those rankled by Google, a few have been so dishonest as to rewrite the slogan as b Do no evilb. This may appear to be a small difference, but itbs not. Almost none of us *are evil*, but every moral agent does *do evil* from time to time. Doing no evil is an impossible goal except for the dead. Youbd have to be incorruptible and probably omniscient. Perhaps certain critics of Google would like to paint the company as a hubristic, arrogant know-it-all. But the ones who have a real case to make donbt need to resort to lying about it, and the ones who are lying about it probably donbt have a real case to make. b You can make money without doing evil.b ---------------------------------------- Some critics might point to this quote, from [Ten things we know to be true][], to show that the company really does think it can b do no evilb. I donbt think thatbs what it means. You can debate different interpretations, but in context, I think it refers to avoiding *net* evil, more evil than good, not avoiding the merest taint of evil. [Ten things we know to be true]: http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/tenthings.html Summary ------- b Do no evilb is an aspiration to godlike perfection. b Donbt be evilb is something anyone can do, and should. The distinction between the two could hardly be more pronounced. Anyone who brings up b Do no evilb as a supposed slogan of Google is trying to trick you because telling the truth would undermine their points. Conflicts of interest? ---------------------- I have never worked for Google and probably never will. For ethical reasons, I donbt keep my email in Gmail, even though itbs a pretty good mail service. Google is a big proprietary software vendor, even though theybve made important contributions to free software. But lots of my friends, family, and Burning Man campmates work at Google, and even more have in the past. Ibve eaten lunch at Google headquarters any number of times. In short, I donbt hate Google, but I donbt love it either. But I want whatever criticism it receives to be deserved. -- To unsubscribe: http://lists.canonical.org/mailman/listinfo/kragen-tol ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE