Searching the internet should feel like navigating a grand library of knowledge, where you could weave insights across cultures, industries, and millenia.

Of course it doesn’t feel that way. Today, searching the internet feels more like navigating a landfill.

Indeed, the obsessiveness/compulsiveness of my research has convinced the Google robots that I'm one of them, so they must challenge my humanity each time I try to use their service. Paradoxically, because I'm apparently one of those newfangled "smart" robots (my word, not Google's), no single humanity test is sufficient, since I might be learning ... See more