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Melek Pulatkonak - President of hakia - posted something extraordinary on my Facebook wall today. To be honest, the video was so profoundly inspiring and touching that I could scarcely watch it. This kind gesture made me consider what I have tried to convey to people these last 12 months. I thought about how we all qualify things - differently sometimes but often in the same ways. I thought of all the innovations, companies, blogs, widgets and the whole spectrum of fantastic innovation we have seen this year. Finally, I realized that in all my analysis my greatest tool for evaluation has been the evaluation of the people behind these semi-animate objects.

The Universe - 90% Intuition and 10% Math
At length I thought about the person who sent this video to me - and the friends I have across the Internet. What kind of person would just off-hand send something so beautiful and inspiring? I have endeavored to synthesize normative and intuitive thought atop mathematical probability and technology for some time. Hakia has been at the forefront of my suggestive or expressive ideal for “what can be” throughout my coverage of technology. My contention has always been that everything is about the people behind the thing. Right now is a good time to demonstrate in a more pure form why this is my personal dogma.

Probability and Possibility
For many months and via hundreds of articles I have attempted to describe or express some of the most sophisticated technology and concepts imaginable. Since last year so many innovations and fantastically brilliant people have crossed my path it is staggering. Writing for Profy, Mashable and ultimately ReadWriteWeb has facilitated being able to help bring some of these wonderful companies and tools to people on a fairly broad stage.

However, this expression has been with some limitation, not because of the editors of these fine blogs - but because of what is expected of them. In a way - this is why I started “Unplugged“. Thinking and the power to reason with “ALL” of our tools is what we should be doing here - but we don‘t. Possibility is much more rewarding than probability in the end - it was never probable that man should land on the moon - but we did it.

What is Demonstrative?
I asked you: “What kind of person takes the time to send something inspiring to a friend or colleague?”, but I should have included a score of other considerations or symbolic gestures in this. What kind of CEO or President of a company take hours of their time to try and express difficult concepts - not to Michael Arrington or even Newsweek, but to someone who wants to truly explain it or perhaps just learn. What kind of people does it take to create something beyond the scope of our imagination? The answer is that it takes extraordinary people who are really the personification of what we would all like to be.

Who befriends you when there is no great advantage to be gained (a true friend perhaps)? Why do rocket scientists ask the intuitive opinion of a simple writer? What possible advantage can be obtained outside the mathematical and mechanical mechanism for creating a semantic search? This is all demonstrative of something beyond mathematics - illustrative of human beings not chained to conventional thought and deeds or common values. Some people are truly excellent and so deserving of our admiration but more importantly our faith - these are the kind of people we all need to be associated with.

The 4 C’s
Is a diamond the sum of its cut, carats, color and clarity? I think not, the true value lies in the beauty a human being derives from the light faceted via the loving and skilled hand of the cutter. It is the same for all things except for those things driven by popular culture or money and power. Take Google’s search engine for example - this great innovation began as a brilliantly shining gem of a search methodology that is now outdated and simply a part of a popularity contest. Hakia and Powerset (within its Powerlabs cocoon) are already as good or better in so many ways. Many will argue this point - but I am right in all honestly. The reason more people do not believe this is because the want to use the familiar and refuse to support any other methodology - lazy complacency perhaps?

Analysis 2
In my way I have attempted to explain the potential of semantic search, AI, and in particular hakia’s efforts in these countless times - but only to a moderate degree of success. I know this is true for Riza Berkan, Melek and Barney Pell too. This is perhaps their most difficult task in the end - helping people see something amazing in its infancy. There is a method of analysis and action beyond comparing search results like 10 year olds shooting marbles, but hardly anyone uses it. Valuing people and their capability - supporting excellent people even when things get tough - and ultimately “hoping” and believing in something far better can be a type of effective analytical exercise.

The problem with Google and Yahoo is that they have become monolithic money machines. There is no humanity in them - no real drive to create - only one to make money via copying or buying technology. I hope you can see how limiting this aspect is on any effort to do the possible. Art is stifled by corporate noise, sure Google will employ semantic search when pressured to do so. In a very real way we can all promote this by supporting the vision of hakia - forcing Google to be better just as Facebook interposed on MySpace. When you watch this video - imagine the mind and intent of the person sending it. What kind of search engine or widget can you imagine this person creating? In the circumstances apparent in this piece of art - any Google would sit at home and draw a disability check - this is the truth of truly great versus contrived or at best fading greatness. I will go with possibility - always.