What to call it?

I need a name for something.

It's that æther of answers out there that we dip into when we want to know something new. Or when we already know, but can't seem to remember the exact name ... even though that name is right on the tip of our tongue.

I need a name for that æther.

There are lots of names for this already, I s'pose (yet none I've heard seems quite right)

I need a good name for that æther; because, I think it's more important than most people know. Because; I think, eventually, it will be all we know.

on a related note:
Do you know which land animal most closely resembles the whale? It's the hippo. Genetic insight, that one. And it's the sort of thing switching around the connections in our web of life on earth. When you realize the elegance of the new approach, there's really no goin' back to the ol' ways.

Once the periodic table is discovered, all other alchemical organizations seems to fall away to dust. Sometimes I wonder what elements hide outside of those hundred-some little boxes.

I just read this article from the NYTimes (waxing nostalgic for the dying art of taxonomy) -and- realized that this is the argument against Google ... against the æther. Alas, it will not succeed.

And this all kinda reminds me of the old quarrel against calculators. If students use calculators during tests, they'll never learn the fundamentals of math. -vs- Students using calculators on tests can solve larger problems, real problems (instead of spinning their wheels on basic math) -- and when they get to the real world, they'll have access to calculators and spreadsheets anyway, right?

So, it seems to me we've picked our horse. Kids get to use calculators on the SAT. Folk taxonomy yields to precise genetic mapping. And we all give-in to the information æther.

Never again to worry of things almost seen.