I was trying to follow a conversation today between two musicians discussing Sibelius. None of it made much sense to me, until one of them explained to me that they were not actually discussing Jean Sibelius, the great Finnish late romantic composer, but rather the music composition program.
Feeling curious, I did a Google search on the word “Sibelius”. It turns out that all the top hits are for the music software, not the composer. When I mentioned this, one of the musicians said “have you tried searching for ‘Apple'”?
OK, this is where it gets really weird. The entire first page of Google results — every single hit — is for the computer, not the fruit.
So I went to the second page. And discovered that the entire second page of results — again, every single hit — is for Mr. Job’s little company.
Finally, on the third page, you get to the Wikipedia entry on the pomaceous fruit. Then all the results go right back to the computer company, aso pretty much dominating the entire fourth and fifth pages, and many pages after that, (Fiona Apple just barely squeaks in on the bottom of the third page).
So what’s going on here? As we become ever more dependent on the internet, is our collective unconscious becoming sucked into cyberspace? Will quaint concepts from pre-computer reality become shunted aside, even famous composers and favorite fruits?
And don’t even get me started on windows…
There is also Sibelius Academy which is said to be connected to the Finnish prime minister’s residence via secret underground passageway (or something like that they told me there). I’m using Finale. 🙂
The problem works both ways. A review of a band called “Pets” referred to their name as “ungoogleable”.
You’re being ironic (I hope). Also, there’s something scary about a civilization that’s increasingly reliant on a compilation of commercial promotions (or a commercially polluted compilation of data?) for it’s knowledge and communication. Sorry for my tangent, but you reminded me of an ongoing concern of mine.