© Mark Ollig
“The general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era,” is the definition of zeitgeist from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary.
Google’s zeitgeist events and videos bring together the world’s top intellectuals and leaders to share global search information and trends.
“Hear entrepreneurs, CEOs, storytellers, scientists, and dreamers share their visions of how we can shape tomorrow,” Google describes their zeitgeist video channel on YouTube.
I watched one of the videos and noted a user comment saying, “Google Zeitgeist is a collection of talks by people who are changing the world.”
Indeed. It is like the Bob Dylan song, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”
The spirit of the times, even the current pulse of the nation, can be somewhat understood through the accumulation and analysis of commonly-searched themes or specific word search queries Google processes.
In a world with a population nearing 8 billion, an estimated 6 billion smartphones are used to access information.
Using a smartphone, we have a portal for discovering nearly inexhaustible knowledge from the palm of our hand.
What was once thought of as science fiction is today commonplace.
We are also able to share with the world our original content immediately.
We can report and comment on news stories and events as they happen with others around the world.
“Imagine going from no information to the entire world’s information with one device,” said Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, during a conference in Paradise Valley, AZ.
Zeitgeist conferences talk about technology, what people are searching for online, and how these search results can determine the current mood of not only this country, but that of the world.
“How many of you have used Google in the last 24 hours?” Schmidt asked the audience.
Many hands went up. Schmidt responded, “I just wanted to see that; it made me feel better.”
The audience laughed.
He then went on to talk seriously about how technology and intelligent networks are changing the way we communicate with each other.
Schmidt said we now converse with others speaking different languages using universal language translation technology.
He took a smartphone out of his pocket, held it up, and said, “How many disagreements in society; wars, conflicts, prejudices, and so forth, have ultimately been because people could not communicate?”
Schmidt stated we could speak into our phone and have the language we use automatically translated via the power of the intelligent network servers in the cloud to the desired language on the other user’s phone.
“It’s extraordinary. This is really magic!” exclaimed Schmidt.
The 1960s science fiction “Star Trek” universal language translator has become a reality in 2021.
He went on to talk about how technology is helping solve specific global difficulties, assist in education and small businesses, and is being used to improve energy self-efficiency.
Schmidt suggested online search technology will eventually handle routine things we do during the day seamlessly through various forms of artificial intelligence.
He also talked about a new generation of robotics that will respond to gesture recognition and even physically represent us.
“I don’t like to stay out at night, so I’ll send my robot to the party and [it] can represent me,” mused Schmidt. “He’ll have a good time and report to me in the morning,”
The audience laughed, but Schmidt got serious again and asked, “You think I’m kidding?”
He said companies are building and using artificial robots right now, noting the robotic technology is unbelievably powerful.
Google registered the google.com domain name Sept. 15, 1997.
Ever since Google went online with its search engine a year later, the number of folks seeking information with it has soared.
Many people believe Google was the first search engine on the internet; it was not.
Archie became the internet’s first online search engine Sept. 10, 1990. It was created in 1989 by Alan Emtage at McGill University in Montreal.
The Gopher search engine was developed at the University of Minnesota and released online in 1991.
Google Zeitgeist videos are available at https://bit.ly/3En3PrF.
We live in the spirit of the times, and as Minnesota’s own Robert Allen Zimmerman wrote in his song from 1964:
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
