Oracles

Google as Oracle

Search as "ask the Oracle".

Turned off, an iPhone looks like a oracle pool from mythology. Like magic: turn it on, "tell me about China." Done. In this way, the iPhone functions as a scrying pool. Scrying is a term used to describe an object used to tell the future by using a reflective object or device. While the iPhone does not tell the future, it can show a scene from another place – or another time zone. Watching events happening real-time in Iran where the time zone is ahead of the West Coast of America is like looking a few hours into the future.

The iPhone is a powerful object because it is a mutatable, redefinable form. The screen of the iPhone can turn into any object. It can transform into a bubble level, flashlight, or fart machine. The liquidity of its surface allows it to be anything, instead of the former limitations of tangible, physical interfaces.

Computer wizards really are wizards in the most literal sense. Administered devices. Code as magic spells. Code books and libraries.