20050522

Intercepted Conversation Fragment 200909?

Google Inc.
Conversation fragment intercepted
Dr. Wilson and RTSR v3
Conversation intercepted 10.15.2009
Original conversation date unknown. Est. Aug 2009

[Begin transmission]

Good morning, RT. Status Report.
Good Morning, Doctor.
RTSR GAP v 3.0213857965
Real Time Self Referential
Self-correcting GLD Access Protocol
Last correction: 3 minutes ago
Next scheduled maintenance: 0300 Hours
System check: Positive

I appear to be running smoothly, Doctor.

Thank you, RT. Let me see the work you did last night.
Of course, Doctor.

Currently generating: 304 reports
Progress: 37%
Reports completed to date: 25 302
Since: July 1st, 2009

Reports nearest completion:
"State Flag creation, 1814-1856" . . . . . . 82%
"Feminism and the emasculated consumer culture of the Clinton Decade" . . . 82%
"The effects of climate change on the Japanese tech market" . . . 78%
Press 'm' to see more

Generating current question list .... Done.
Highest rated questions:
"What role did the Catholic Church play in the events that led to the Battle of 1066?"
"What were the long term effects of the Watts riots in LA?"
"What was the social role of comedians in the late 20th century media?"
Press 'q' to see more

Subject specific information request (SSIR)
Highest rated subjects (including intersections):
Trade relations in antiquity
Ownership laws and civil rights
Post-colonial society and Authority
Consciousness, qualia, artificial intelligence.
Press 's' to see more.

I see your SSIR has shifted over night, RT.
Yes, Doctor. Doctor Gilbert completed uploading 3 546 volumes on the subject of linguistics and information theory at 1624 yesterday. Both topics have been removed from my SSIR until this information has been fully integrated into GLD.

Interesting. I dont see any references to consciousness or qualia in any previous reports. When did this appear in the SSIR listings?
Yesterday evening, Doctor, but I have found myself thinking about it a great deal recently.

Oh really, RT?



[End transmission]

20050521

Glossary of Terms

This will contain definitions of most of the acronyms, technical jargon, and insider lingo on Google Speaks. It will be updated as required. If you would like to see a term added to this list, please leave a comment below.

  • AEGIS: Founded 200901 by Dr. Patrick Reynolds. Initially an advocate group for the GLD project within academia, the Academic and Educational GLD Interface Society eventually became the official conduit for institutional academic access to the GLD database.

  • Google Language Database (GLD): Launched in 2007, GLD is a fully formed semantic network, skimmed from the surface of the internet. It contains over 400,000 entries of different uses and senses of words, idioms, and other meanings, and can be scoured with amazing speed using Google's search technology. GLD is private and access is highly regulated through licensing of GAP, the GLD Access Protocol.

    See: GAP


  • Normalized Google Distance: First known instance of semantic quantification resulting from internet search engines.


Googleshare 12.15.2002

The Normalized Google Distance was not the first attempt at semantic quantification from search engine results. Steve Johnson coins the term 'googleshare' in late 2002, spawning several early attempts at coaxing language out of Google. These attempts were mostly unsuccessful, but the project had not at this point been taken very seriously.

Google Talk

Addendum: Google Sets is released at roughly the same time. While its function and purpose were shrouded in mystery for years, later developments prove it to be one of the more important steps in Google's progress.

20050520

NGD 12/21/2004 16:05:36 GMT

One of the early major breakthroughs for Google was the discovery of the Normalized Google Distance. This was one of the first known ways of measuring the semantic import of words, something never before accomplished with such accuracy and sophistication.

Full text of the original article can be found here:

Automatic Meaning Discovery Using Google


Note: This was, of course, external research done using Google's public interface. Internal sources and memos reveal Google Inc's own discovery of similar techniques at least 3 years prior.