Who Needs Google When You Have ChatGPT

On answers in a nanosecond, and the thing that stays slow.

September 29, 2026
by Richard Yung Chung

So… one of the most famous stories in the Bible is the story about King Solomon’s wisdom, involving a dispute between two women who both claimed to be the mother of a baby.

There were these two women sharing a home, and each had a baby boy. Sadly, one of the babies passed away, and that’s when the problems started; both women claimed the surviving baby was theirs. The dispute could not be settled, so they brought their case to King Solomon.

So, this is what he proposed. “How about we split the baby in half, so each of you gets a piece?”

The first woman actually agreed with that, saying if she couldn’t have the baby, then neither of them should.

However, the second woman was horrified with this proposal. She’d rather let the other woman have the baby than let him be harmed. She pleaded with Solomon, “Please, just give her the baby. Don’t harm him.”

Right then and there, Solomon declared the second woman as the real mother. Because a real mother would rather lose her child to another woman than see him hurt.

So, the case was solved. Such a wise solution.

Well, although it was wise and got the job done, when you think about it, don’t you think it was bit extreme and brutal? “Divide the baby into two?”

What? Why so, extreme and violent?

I know, maybe that was the main point.

But, still…

If I were him, I would have suggested a more humane postmodern solution.

Why don’t you two do “rock, scissor and paper.” Best out of 3 wins; clean and simple! And no blood shed!

It might not have solved who the real mother was. But 50/50 is better than nothing.

I would employ the same solution to any argument. Hey, no need to argue/fight – RSP – Ok. Case solved.

(Maybe they didn’t know RSP. Maybe we could have avoided all the wars, disputes, conflicts, and problems.)

That ruling is the reason Solomon is the one everybody still quotes about wisdom, three thousand years later. One judgment, and the man’s name became a synonym for knowing what to do.

Which makes me think about how differently we get our answers now.

In the past, I used to go to library when I did my research. Which I did for about 3 years straight for my doctorate thesis, by researching the books in the libraries. Along the way, I also used the internet to look up quick information through google, Wikipedia, and host of other research resources.

Well now, things have shifted dramatically.

Who needs library and google when you have CHAT GPT. It provides with answers in a nano second.

And it is not stopping at answers.

They say, it could restore communication between the brain and spinal cord to help people with paralysis to stand and walk naturally, can restore vision, and can do other amazing stuff. It’s incredible.

Do you remember watching the movie “Matrix?” Individuals’ brains are all plugged into computers and can download all kinds of stuff – like learning how to fly helicopter, speak in foreign language, and even learning how to fight like an expert in a minute by downloading the knowledge to your brain.

I thought that was only possible in movies. And now, I tell you, this Neuralink stuff can help us to be like Neo, in Matrix movie, a superhero.

Just imagine, you have a small microchip implanted to your skull and it’s linked to internet, and you can access information and knowledge in a blink of an eye – and if it can process the knowledge in a blink of an eye – like what CHAT GPT and other AI models are doing right now — the knowledge will directly processed into your brain in nano seconds — what the heck?

We will be like super intelligent… possessing so much knowledge… and power… wow?

I tell you folks; the science fictions are becoming more real and closer than we think.

Knowledge is power…- but we need to harness the knowledge to help us, not destroy us. And it requires wisdom.

Which raises the question I have been circling my whole working life, since I have spent it claiming to deal in the stuff: where does wisdom actually come from?

As far as I can tell, from three places, and not one of them is impressive.

It comes from having lived through things, successes and failures both, and failures rather more. You find out what you are made of in situations you did not choose and would not have chosen.

It comes from thinking about what happened afterwards. Looking at a thing again, and at what your decision actually cost somebody else. Action, then reflection, then going back out and acting differently because of the reflection. That is the entire method, and there is no shortcut in it.

And it comes from being open-minded enough to take in a view that is not your own, even when it is inconvenient. Why dialogue matters more than debate. Debate is for winning. Dialogue is listening in order to understand somebody.

Notice that not one of those can be done in a nanosecond.

The machine will hand me an answer before I have finished typing the question, and the answer will very likely be better than the one I would have dug out of the library.

But it cannot hand me the three years among the books. It cannot hand me the mistakes I had to make twice before I understood them. It cannot hand me the conversations where I finally stopped talking and listened to somebody I disagreed with.

Knowledge is arriving faster every year.

Wisdom is still slow.

And I have not yet found anywhere to download it.

Richard