Google and the World Brain

Director Ben Lewis in person!

In 1930, H.G. Wells envisioned a “World Brain” that would store every word ever written and theoretically dwarf the power of any nation. Seventy-five years later, enter Google, with a project to digitize every book ever published and make them all available on…where else, but Google. Ten million books had already been scanned before authors, publishers, and the heads of some of the world’s great libraries screamed copyright and intellectual property infringement. Is Google’s project utopian or is it primarily for the benefit of its own algorithms and, maybe, the NSA? Superb editing plays the hubristic, naïve young Googleteers against the protectors of renowned university and national libraries, who are aghast and infuriated but who also wish they had Google’s deep pockets and technological expertise. Director Ben Lewis has assembled a marvelous cast of characters to tell a story that will make you laugh, maybe till you cry.