This is the English version of the article originally published on this site on June 15, 2025
The technologies we develop not only increase our comfort but also offer clues about the future that awaits us. Making the future more tangible depends on better understanding the roots from which these clues emerge. To be honest, making sense of these times of rupture we are experiencing is not something we can achieve without taking stock of human history.
Indeed, we are going through an extraordinary period. The cutting-edge technologies we have today are an extension of that ancient process that began with the first question humanity asked in times filled with uncertainties. The progress we have made, especially in our current era, cannot be explained solely by developments over the last 50 years. I believe that every new discovery, including artificial intelligence, must be evaluated as a whole with the murky times from which humanity emerged. The words of Sundar Pichai, as a guest on Lex Fridman’s program, push me to explore these thoughts lying deep in my subconscious.
Today’s technological developments clarify the landscape ahead even further. The immense amount of information we produce feels like a mere crumb of what we will achieve in the future. In this sense, seeing the big picture is possible by evaluating current technologies from a broader perspective. The point we have reached today actually contains humanity’s deepest dreams. What comes next is the beginning of a completely different story.
In this article, we will discuss where our unending curiosity, which has brought us to this point, will take us. We will try to explore this by understanding the history of the concept of search. This journey will allow us to better grasp the nature of searching. Let us not forget: even though technology changes, the essence of human questions will not change. Because as long as the human being remains at the center, the fundamental motivation will stay the same: “To understand and to be understood.”
From Cave Walls to the Digital Universe
We have progressed from the cave walls where we carved our first questions to an age where we now write on the walls of the digital world. It would be wrong to think of questioning as something unique to humans. Nature itself was asking questions about life even before breath existed. Billions of years ago, the vibrations of the first living cell sought answers to the question, “How can I survive?” When this silent inquiry was etched into DNA, the first link of life was formed.
When humanity, who never gave up the effort to understand, asked “why?”, the foundations of language were laid. Civilizations pursued these questions, and each innovation brought another question along with it. Every word we type into a search bar today still carries the fear, curiosity, and resilience of that first cell. Even though billions of years have passed since the initial question that first cell asked to survive, something remains unchanged: through the narrow space of the search bar, the ancient history of life whispers something to us.
The nature of searching lies deep within. The desire to ask something and to search for something is the fundamental code within us that helps us find our way in nature. Every query we type into the search bar today is the purest form of the dialogue we establish with the universe.
Everything begins with a question. The words we use to make abstract and scattered thoughts meaningful may leave our queries somewhat blurry. But just as life presents us with a plan that aligns with the intention hidden behind our words, search algorithms arrange our thoughts on our behalf. Like Aladdin’s magic lamp, each interaction with the search bar resembles the magical words that release the genie inside.
In fact, every search is a ritual where we show the courage to confront the unknown. When we type “Where is the nearest pharmacy?” into Google, we are asking, “What do you know that will protect me from illness, in fact, from death?” When we search for “What is love?”, perhaps we are seeking a glimmer of hope for a love we have not found reciprocated.
Every Question We Ask Enlarges Life
It is no longer enough to view every new technology that emerges today merely as an innovation. They are perhaps the first signal waves of a giant tsunami heading our way. In this rapidly changing environment, the meaning of questions is shifting, and new questions we need to ask are emerging. However, this rapid increase in knowledge expands our lives in ways we cannot control. As the flow grows, our awareness diminishes, and we fail to capture the right question. In our rush to keep up with the speed, we settle for superficial answers. The answers to our queries in the search bar become a summary of the responses algorithms have prepared for previous panicked questions. This situation turns us into more passive consumers of information.
In fact, every query we type into the search bar is a question we ask life. Behind that wall lie trillions of life experiences from billions of people. Just as a soup contains a mix of salt, oil, water, and spices, life contains a bit of all of us. We all seek the answers to our questions in someone else’s experience. When we articulate what we are looking for as clearly as possible, every word—beneath which lie thousands of stories—becomes transparent. Ultimately, the clearer the information, the clearer the goal, and the more comfortable our journey of meaning.
Even as I write these sentences, I am actually touching someone else’s memory. These thoughts, which I have built upon and am now conveying to you, draw a different picture in your mind. In truth, search functions like a reflection of humanity’s collective intelligence. We complete our own deficiencies with answers discovered by others.
Search: The Universal Algorithm That Increasingly Brings Us Together
We can also liken this to a baby gradually increasing the number of connections in its brain. A baby just beginning to explore its surroundings, even without consciously asking, figures out through instinct what touching a hot stove means. Each interaction with the environment creates new circuits in its brain that communicate with each other.
Today, modern humans, 300,000 years old, are still in infancy when measured against cosmic time. As humanity satisfies its curiosity, its collective memory grows, and the connections in its brain multiply. Just like completing a Lego set, as we place the pieces correctly, the large structure we struggle to understand becomes increasingly visible. With each question, we pick up something from nature’s intelligence. We understand more clearly that every piece of discovered knowledge is connected to another. Perhaps this situation is leading us toward a singularity—a point where knowledge and understanding converge, pulling us closer to one another.
As Search Evolves, Reality Transforms
Just as today’s world, shaped by the past, is built upon search, the future is also being shaped on the same foundation. However, the most fundamental difference between the old and the new is that the future is being built on artificial intelligence technology. We carry the legacy of the past into the present through humanity’s questioning, but this time, AI itself is in the kitchen.
Humanity continues its new story alongside artificial intelligence. We are entering a phase where it is not just about informing people but also about feeding machines. The human contribution to the entirely different specialties placed before us, made from the materials we provide, is gradually diminishing.
This situation could lead us to a world dominated by AI’s perspectives. For example, while tools like AI Overviews summarize sources and generate original content, human-generated content may no longer be considered “original.” In such a future shaped by AI-generated answers, facts themselves could change. So much so that there is a possibility history could be rewritten. For instance, a fabricated answer given by AI could even have the potential to portray a dark historical figure like Hitler in a “good” light. Just as a compass shows opposite directions when its magnetic field changes, when developing technology influences our perspectives, today’s facts could be turned upside down.
Does Data Have the Power to Transform Reality?
In this landscape where more intelligence is being produced, it seems inevitable that the nature of search will change. In a time when Google’s monthly token production reaches 480 trillion, this means about 60,000 AI-generated pieces of content per person. We are creating such a volume of data that meaning itself risks being lost. In a crowd where everyone is shouting, mediocrity inevitably increases. The answers we receive today from keyword-based searches risk soon transforming into a personalized reality offered by artificial intelligence. To be honest, the meaning of reality seems likely to transform. Artificial intelligence simulates and presents before us the subjective consciousness that nature has endowed us with.
So, what does this mean? For instance, while we get similar results for searches about climate change today, by 2030, we might receive vastly different answers based on our psychological profile, political leanings, or even our genetics. In such a scenario, we could all become prisoners of our own perspectives. Search engines could customize results based on users’ search histories. In fact, we can say this has already begun. For example, ChatGPT can create a profile of me by examining my previous searches.
This situation will also enhance the predictive search capabilities of search engines. Thus, before we even type a query, search engines could anticipate our potential needs and present us with relevant information. This brings the risk of creating a comfortable but potentially isolating information flow.
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The Role of Humans: Asking the Right Question
With the evolution of search, the internet is becoming a smarter, more personal, and more integrated platform. This transformation brings challenges along with opportunities for users, content creators, developers, and businesses. The internet is ceasing to be just a repository of information; it is becoming an intelligent life assistant sensitive to individual needs. However, shaping the future that this transformation will bring in the way we desire depends, to some extent, on us.
Perhaps the main revolution lies not in the answers but in the quality of the question. In this sense, humanity is moving toward a future where we will learn to ask better questions through artificial intelligence. We need to understand that it is wrong to ask questions as if we are addressing only one person. Millions of people searching for the same topic receive answers from millions of others based on their own perspectives. Superficial questions like “Which is the best phone?” drown us in ads from companies tracking the digital footprints we leave behind. Instead of result-oriented questions, asking questions that initiate a conversation, with purpose and context, yields much better results.
Unlike humans, AI seeks our thoughts only in our words. Every word we use indicates an intention, and the conversation flows in that direction. Currently, machines are programmed to answer questions rather than to ask questions that would correctly understand intention. However, this marks a significant threshold for humans to reconsider the question, “How should I ask?”
What About Those Who Don’t Speak English?
Although developing technology creates great opportunities, it also has a side that increases global injustice. No matter how well browsers perform language translations today, their native language is English. Therefore, translations cannot achieve a perfect level. No matter how much AI expands language support, it cannot fully grasp the cultural nuances, slang, and idioms of every language. For example, a slang expression like “Allah belanı versin” in Turkish cannot be directly translated as “God damn.” Even if AI translates it with a softer expression like “Oh darn!”, such slang does not actually exist in Turkish in that way.
For content produced in different languages to be discovered and ranked, algorithms need to understand local cultural contexts well. Features like ‘Deep Search’ or ‘AI Overviews’ need continuous improvement to operate with the same depth and accuracy in foreign languages. The underlying principle is that search algorithms should be unbiased and fair on a global scale. But let us not forget that algorithms, which always serve a purpose, cannot be impartial. Therefore, no matter how many improvements are made, the spirit of languages will likely continue to be lost in translation. This could lead to non-English content not receiving the attention it deserves, fading into obscurity in the digital space.
Advanced technologies like ‘Beam,’ which rely heavily on AI, require high bandwidth and powerful hardware. However, the spread of such technologies remains limited in non-native English-speaking countries. When we add the inadequate internet infrastructure and low device ownership in many developing countries, the technological inequality grows even larger. This situation deepens the digital divide in accessing information and increases global inequality.
Is AI Creating a Less Culturally Diverse World?
Today, about 60% of web content and nearly 90% of the data used to train AI models is in English. This can cause search results in other languages to be filled with translation artifacts. In short, when questions asked in local languages pass through an American cultural filter, the originality and depth of meaning of those languages gradually fade. As a result, we are presented with content standardized by AI’s own language and style.
Despite all these challenges, as technology diversifies, human expectations of search naturally change. Although this transformation does not completely eliminate language barriers, it holds the potential to fundamentally change the way we communicate. A search model enriched with visuals and spoken interaction is now coming to the fore. It seems as though humans are in search of something that will complete them and integrate with them. To me, this evokes an internet where people can alleviate their loneliness a little and search while having fun.
The Two-Layered Web: Separate Worlds for Humans and AI Agents
Among the questions Lex Fridman asked Sundar Pichai, what intrigued me most was the concept of a “Layered Web.” Given current trends, it is highly likely that the internet will split into different layers for humans and AI agents. In fact, we can say this division has already begun to form to some extent.
We can think of the current internet as a “Human Layer,” designed primarily for human consumption. Websites offer visual interfaces, readable texts, clickable buttons, and experiences focused on human interaction. For example, questions like “What will I feel?”, “What is this telling me?”, “Who is here?” cater to human emotional and social needs.
However, AI agents, especially those based on next-generation large language models (LLMs), have begun using the internet in a completely different way. Operating largely in a hidden layer, these AI agents perform specific tasks such as data extraction, processing, analysis, and API interactions. While we take an emotional approach, they are entirely task- and information-oriented. They seek answers to questions like: “What is the structure of this data?”, “Where can I find the required information?”, “How can I perform this task most efficiently?”
Currently, AI agents extract information by mimicking the human web or using websites’ APIs. However, this process is not always efficient and does not fully meet the specific needs of AI agents. Especially as search becomes more visual and conversational, we can say that this structure designed for humans will no longer suffice for AI agents. The need to process larger amounts of information faster reinforces the inevitability of a two-layered web.
A second layer is critically important for energy efficiency and faster operations. Consequently, it would necessitate changes in security protocols, providing robust protection against malicious agents or automated attacks.
This represents a tremendous opportunity for the growth of knowledge. However, as we joyfully consume content with the comfort provided by technology, we are unaware that a virus is roaming within us. It is as if we carry a second entity inside us, one that may soon come to dominate our entire mind.
Every Query Brings Us Closer to a New Social Structure
AI presenting what is popular as reality, the loss of meaning of truth, the emergence of different truths, and the resulting historical distortions… The democratization of information but the overload caused by such intense information… Privacy violations and social isolation that may arise as search engines transform into conversational assistants… The prosperity brought by technology but the technological poverty experienced by non-native English speakers…
All these challenges are pushing the complex being called human toward different quests. We can trace the signs of these quests, especially in developments within blockchain technology. Humans never want to lose control over their destiny. At this point, blockchain-based search engines offer users more control over their data. In an age where data is a unique asset, users can thus prevent their personal information from being used or sold without their consent. In an environment where knowledge multiplies and becomes transparent, a decentralized world could bring the justice we seek.
Perhaps most importantly, blockchain-based search engines could play a critical role in the AI-agent-focused web layer we mentioned earlier. For example, they could make data structures more transparent, auditable, and resistant to manipulation. Additionally, securing AI agents’ access to accurate information reduces the risk of hallucinations (misinformation). This would not only be a critical step in preserving the meaning of truth but would also ensure that the future digital ecosystem is both human-centric and based on reliable information.
Final Words
The evolution from humanity’s first question to today’s search bar has brought us to a new threshold in accessing and interacting with information. While the old sovereign human continues its quest for meaning, its new partner, AI, carves its own path driven by efficiency and data processing needs.
This situation clearly shows that the internet will evolve into a more complex, multi-layered structure in the future. On one side, a visual and emotional web layer where humans experience the world, showcase their creativity, and form social bonds; on the other, a functional, data-driven layer where AI agents process data, automate tasks, and communicate among themselves.
When these two layers complement each other, they will take us to a very different plane. So much so that it is highly likely a smarter and more efficient digital ecosystem will emerge, serving humanity’s unending curiosity and pursuit of progress. This transformation, much like the advent of smartphones, could herald an era of smart questions.
A human who stops questioning stops thinking. A society that cannot expand its memory cannot maintain its independence against knowledge-producing societies.
Every word we type into a search bar is a message: “I am here. I want to understand. Help me.” Perhaps the greatest tragedy of being human is that we can never be fully complete. Yet the point we have reached today is a result of accepting this incompleteness and continuing to search. We complete what we lack from someone else’s memory, like neural networks in the brain. This cycle represents the continuous evolution of knowledge and humanity.
Searching means humanity does not stop. Because a human who stops is dead.
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