Clearly, Shakespeare could have been talking about Google Apps and multi-user applications of old like client server applications and, dare I say it, mainframes of yore.

SONNET 59
If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child.
O, that record could with a backward look,
Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
Show me your image in some antique book,
Since mind at first in character was done!
That I might see what the old world could say
To this composed wonder of your frame;
Whether we are mended, or whe'er better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.
O, sure I am, the wits of former days
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.

It's interesting to note that, for many years before web browsers, we had incredibly robust applications that delivered way more robust behavior than their browser based counterparts.  So few web based applications are actually designed well, though the technology finally allows similarly robust behavior.  For a time, when GUI applications were the rage and were replacing CHUI apps, we came up with certain standards.  Studies were done to see what worked best for people with keyboard and mouse.  Then, the craze to more all GUI's to HTML based browsers applications sent the GUI back to the stone ages and another 10 years of relearning what we already painstakingly learned and mastered... and forgot.

It's funny, people used to criticize the centralization of computing power as an assault on individual liberties and an attempt to control all the data.  So, people demanded their own contact manager with their own information in it.  They demanded privacy, passwords, encryption, PGP.

Now, watch out!  Thar's a new mainframe in town...GOOGLE!  And ALL YOUR APPLICATIONS can now run in Google's Cloud!  Is that something like Heaven?

Now, as a Technology snob of sorts, I had as much historically fashionable disdain for Microsoft as the next guy, but they did sell some pretty good applications, a very few with model GUI's.  But their centralization of the operating system was derided by all as an undesirable monopoly.  MS even fought hard (invested hundreds of millions) to keep Apple on it's feet when they got shaky so they would not incur the wrath of the FTC before Apple reinvented communication with the iPhone.

But, let me tell you, Having been around since the IBM XT computer, and living through periods of time when the Microsoft motto was "DOS is not done until Lotus won't run," I have to admit that it just gets dizzying to see the constant reinvention of the same thing over and over and over.  It's like it's not software any more... it's a recursive metaphor that keeps replicating itself in seemingly newer / better incarnations, but yielding the same outcome at the human level.

And isn't that just IT! (double entendre intended)  Perhaps we really do need a new MML - Metaphor Markup Language.  A structured way to document behavioral and thought based processes and systems designed by humans.  What would that look like?  I wonder?

<metaphor>
  <premise>carry everyone's contact information with me</premise>
  <goal>easy storage mechanism</goal>
  <goal>easy retrieval</goal>
  <goal attr="false">Overcome faulty memory - It's so hard to remember them all</goal>
  <!-- related similes -->
  <manifest>the rings of a tree remember the seasons</manifest>
  <manifest>a steel trap</manifest>
  <manifest>an elephant never forgets</manifest> 
  <implementation>Monks record in books</implementation>
  <implementation>Printing Press</implementation>
  <implementation>Computer</implementation>
  <implementation>Cell Phone</implementation>
  <implementation>iPhone</implementation>
  <implementation>Bluetooth Implant</implementation>
</metaphor>  

It's a start.  We document the idea and related goals.  Then we document Alternative natural manifestations of similar phenomenon, and human implementations of the same thing over and over again.  Voila!

Now, clearly, some things are better now than ever before.  Or are they?  Do you know that I used to be able to actually fix every part of my car?  Now, every part of my car is computer controlled, even the starter...from an earth orbiting satellite!  But it's still a car.  And now the mechanics can't even fix it!  They just plug a computer into the computer, er.. car, and it tells them what to replace.  They don't even have to think about it.

And yes, my current computer is light years ahead of my old XT (yes, I had one).  It's faster and I can run lots of applications and visit the uber connected info-sphere in my browser.  The Galactic Imperium library at my fingertips!  I agree, that's super.

Then, why do I still feel just like the human I was with my XT?  I still talk to family and friends, want and give love, eat 3 meals a day, laugh, cry and sleep.  All the information is just so much of the same recursive metaphor now in full color digitally rendered in breathtaking 3D!  Simply fantastic!

But what good is an uber library and the best new applications when life is life?  After a while, everyone seeks inwardly for...something...peace? Love?  We are the ultimate metaphors.  We are a self-simulating simulation of ourselves.  We indulge in thought as if thinking were life and the more information we tap into and try to control, the more we mean...the more we be.  To be or not to be?

Then, we realize that it's not about the uber library at all.  It's simply about breathing, being, loving and connecting with other people, smiling and laughing, making music, singing, dancing, playing games with others, interacting, working, building real things and even building imaginary things.  But, it's about viscerally feeling life in your bones.

We can pretty up all the metaphors, make newer labor, thought or memory saving devices with prettier screens, more, better, bigger, smaller, but, at the end of the day, it's the simple satisfaction with a day well lived on the planet with other people that gives us meaning beyond the metaphor.

And, not to put too fine a point on it, but that's why social media is the phenomenal quintessential computer application of our time. The application that allows us to connect and share our lives (and our thoughts) with others and instantly interact.  But never forget, you don't NEED a computer, or Google, or anything else to be a human being or to be connected.  It's nice to have, but it does not define who and what you are.

You have to do that for yourself.  When you do, Tweet about it and get on Facebook and post your self awareness to your status, and go ahead and leave some humorous comments that will make your friends laugh and see the lighter side of life!

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