Artificial Ignorance

Here's a good example of ignorance paving the way to greater knowledge. Only this time it's not human ignorance, but the artificial ignorance of a computer program designed to demonstrate artificial intelligence. I am, of course, referring to the spellchecker embedded in Microsoft's Word and Outlook editors. It turns out that Word doesn't know the word charism, so it suggested several words which I knew: chrism, charisma and charismas. It also suggested a word which I had not heard: czarism. Obviously anyone would immediately and naturally discern the meaning of that word if they knew what a czar is. This immediately made me think of Obama's many czars, and so I mused wittily unto myself that the President's charism is czarism.