Wireless overview

For those unintiated to the world of wireless technology, CNN.com offers an overview of what the technology is about and what some of its effects are on our society.

Important ideas include that the future will see most of our devices and appliances (including cars and household machines) connected to the Internet. As a result, people who are away from the office are still finding themselves heavily involved in their work. Being 'connected' means being unable to disconnect from the world and have some downtime to contemplate life. In other words, it's another step in the western world's loss of "spiritual development."

In the article, an author (Dave Mock) is quoted as saying that, "...technology is ahead of our culture." But this is hardly new. New technology is always ahead of its time, and it causes people to change the way they do things such as communicate. What seems annoying at first gradually becomes commonplace and accepted.

But the really important issue concerning wireless technology, especially as it becomes ubiquitous in our various devices, is privacy. If we are constantly connected to the digital world, we stand the risk of having our digital lives intruded upon by hackers. Security will be an ever-present, non-stop concern in a world of wireless connectivity.

People's habits will become subject to scrutiny. For example, when we visit any site on the Web, when we click on any hyperlink, there is a history of that being stored on a server somewhere. Google has a huge repository of our 'clickstream' and intends to use that in future versions of its Web search engine to create personalized search results. To be fair, this use of our clickstreams is already being used by Amazon.com.

So, it sounds like there is a lot of concern about the wireless world we are heading towards. It's a good thing, I guess, that we talk about these issues because the more we talk, the more people become better prepared for this new world of ours. But just to be clear about my position, I'm all for wireless connectivity. If I want to take a vacation and contemplate spiritual matters, I'll do my best to leave my devices at home.

Google, Search, Omniscience

It's been a while since I posted to this blog (notwithstanding the post about the Da Vinci Code that I just made). The reason is that I've been reading a couple books about Google and the search game on the Internet, and I finally finished last night. Let's see if I can make any startling conclusions (yeah, sure!)

The first of the two books, The Google Story by David Vise and Mark Malseed, is a look at the company Google and its two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Without being too judgemental, the writers (primarily Vise) look at how the vision of Page and Brin set off a conceived plan to make all the world's information available for free (for the most part). That is a bold plan. And frankly, it's quite exciting.

From this book, I particularly took interest in a few quotes. For instance, Sergey Brin is quoted on page 68 saying, "A perfect search engine will process and understand all the information in the world... That is where Google is headed." In the infamous Playboy interview in 2004, Brin went on to say, "The solution isn't to limit the information you receive. Ultimately you want to have the entire world's knowledge connected directly to your mind" (see photo section of the book, second-last page).

Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, stated that "... the right model is to think of all the world's information in the equivalent of an iPod... you are carrying all that information with you..." (p. 256). But perhaps the future doesn't stop there, for Brin has the final word of this book: "Perhaps in the future, we can attach a little version of Google that you just plug into your brain... then you'd have all of the world's knowledge immediately available, which is pretty exciting" (p.292). All of which is heady stuff to imagine.

The second of the two books, The Search by John Battelle, takes a slightly different approach to the same larger issue. Google plays the starring role once again, but Battelle focuses on the idea of search itself in an age when people have come to expect that any information they could possibly want is available to them... if only they can find the right way to access it. Battelle coins a term, the "Database of Intentions." In essence, the process of searching for information on Google, Yahoo, or any other search engine is to display our intent - what is it that we want to find. By doing so, we leave a trail of our intentions through what is known as our clickstream (our history of searches on the World Wide Web).

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the most basic idea I take from these books is that we are moving into a new age, where we have come to expect that we can and should be able to know anything that we want to know at any given time. We aren't there yet; Google is only just beginning its efforts in this field, and it will take decades if not longer before we begin to come close to a full index of human knowledge.

I like how Battelle points out the grander intention behind Google's effort. Recalling Eric Schmidt's own words, "Google wants to help you find anything," (p.249), the point is made that text searches are only one aspect of the kind of information waiting to be indexed, searched, and found. There are videos, including people's own home videos (try Google Video); music (think Napster, then iTunes); and don't forget objects -- 'where are my keys?' In other words, we are in the process of creating a database of total knowledge.

Isn't that omniscience? Isn't that getting closer to a concept some people would call God? Is Google building the stairway to Heaven?

Or is it all a pipe dream? Can we ever hope to have all the world's information available upon request? And what would we do if we ever did reach that point?

If you find yourself thinking about these questions, you aren't the only one.

As an addendum to this post, I'd like to add a couple links. One is to a Google video of David Vise discussing his book. Additionally, there is a short preview of a clip on Google with Eric Schmidt predicting what the future holds, and it reminds me of what I said about the digital world consciousness. As well, John Battelle has his Searchblog, which continues the dialogue he began in The Search.

One more link I wish to post is to CNET News. If you click on one of the news tabs at the top (dark red buttons), you can see a graphic that displays various news headlines juxtaposed so that you may try to see relationships between hot tech stories. I think this is brilliant.

Da Vinci Code Web Quest

In anticipation of the upcoming release of the Da Vinci Code movie, I completed the promotional web quest that can be found here. It's a fun way to get yourself psyched up for the movie, especially if you've already read the book.

If you attempt the web quest, you will need a few things to assist you.

• The Da Vinci Code (novel)
• A word processor (such as MS Word or Notepad)
• E-mail
• A telephone (I used Skype since I was calling from outside North America)
• Google
• A pen and paper

I have to admit that I cheated a bit on a couple of the problems, using sites on the Web that provided clues, but I did complete the quest. The end result was a little anti-climactic, but satisfying nonetheless. It makes you realize -- just as reading The Da Vinci Code does -- that solving mysteries involving symbols and codes can be a fun mental exercise.