The Oracle of Delphi lies on the slopes of Mount Parnassus in Greece, and was arguably one of the most important shrines in the ancient world. People travelled from the known corners of the world to visit the shrine and have their questions answered by the Pythias, the priestesses of Apollo. The questions presented in the sacred shrine were as varied as the pilgrims, from every days worries like when to plant, to empiric stratagem by kings and warriors. Recently, when looking for a recipe for sprouted wheat bread, it occurred to me we have a modern dayOracle of Delphi- somewhere we can go with our problems and questions, from the mundane to the esoteric; we have Google!
Consider for a moment, what finding information formerly entailed. Yes, there have always been libraries, there have long been encyclopedia, but if you wanted to know how a Tesla coil works at midnight on a Tuesday, you were out of luck. Gone are the days of having to go to a library, drive to the county building, visit records offices in person, plow through dusty piles of mouldering books (and I like mouldering books). Now, any time, day or night, you go to Google, and the world is at your fingertips. There is no piece of information, no tidbit of trivia, or question on the cosmos that is so obscure that Google does not have an answer for you. Usually 157,512 answers, all in .087 seconds. It boggles the mind.
In only the very recent past, using Google, I have found: The window clips to repair two window sashes in our house that have been broken for 4 years. The address and a map to the location of a new house on the market I want to go look at. The weather forcasts for our trip to California in a few weeks. A pair of new church shoes in my size, very hard to find, and in the exact style I was looking for. A coupon for portraits to finally have Abby’s picture taken. What makes a rocket fire, for my inquisitive four-year old. The perfect stroller for my little girl, and on sale too, saving $$ rather than buying it at the store. New knobs for my kitchen cabinets at half the cost of the hardware store. How to get crayon off of painted walls. How to get permanent pen off of little boy skin. My soon-to-be-five year old’s supply list for kindergarten. Scripture references for a primary talk. What houses cost in San Antonio, Texas. And, er, where the Oracle of Delphi actually was. And the list goes on….
The knowledge we have, quite literally at our fingertips, is a wealth of which the ancients could not even fathom. There is absolutely nothing, that with only a few keystrokes, we cannot find out about. Wow. Talk about an oracle. What amazing times we live in.
We won’t even talk about how Oracle headquarters is right down the street from Google in Mountain View, California… Oh, and there are over 173,000 recipes for sprouted wheat bread, but the third one pulled up worked just fine for me!
My husband was playing Asteroids on line this morning. Don’t you love the Internet?
Yes, google and the internet are wonderful…I’ve thought about it a lot though…and its kinda frustrating as well from a teacher’s perspective. The information on google is a good starting point for research on art and artists, but its just a starting point. I find that If I don’t force my students to go the library they all just google the artist and all come to class with the same exact information. They get lazy about going to that cool old library and sifting through the art books…seeing better quality prints of the artwork and getting more “checked” facts about the artists. Anywone can post anything on the internet and it could be true or not. Anyways…its a blessing and a curse from my academic standpoint. I learn so much about art and artists by just going and browing the books…more than I could ever learn on google.
I love that the information is so easy. It truly is changing the world. Our children will grow up and shake their heads in amazement when they realize that we didn’t have computers as children! I can remember our first computer: A Hewlett Packard. I remember the prompts, the cd’s the backslashes, the actual programming one had to do just to get the computer to print out a typed page… on a printer that took almost as long as a typewriter would have!!
Did a teacher just use the word “kinda”. I ain’t no archiologist but I don’t believe that’s a word. Hi Chelsea!!!! congrats on getting married and I hope all is well.
I love Google! A wealth of knowlegde right at our fingertips!