It came to me the other day. It came to me: the reason Google is getting into instant messaging. The answer is in an obscure movie reference from 1984: the character of SAL 9000 in the movie 2010: Odyssey Two.
The reason Google is getting into instant messaging has a lot to do with the "good" twin of the heuristically programmed algorithmic computer. They are working on a system capable of speech recognition and natural language understanding that will be interfaced through text messaging and (eventually) voice. One day we'll have buddy lists of both real communicants and Google's sentient agents. They'll tap Google News, Google Images, and the ubiquitous search, as well as Google Scholar and Google Answers. Try and imagine any question (contained in the terabytes of public information) that couldn't be answered in this fashion.
Today is Sunday, August 28th, 2005, and you heard read it here first.
