When I was still working at the hospital as a project manager in diabetes, we had an application called BANT that would be able to wirelessly connect a blood glucose monitor to the phone. We leveraged Bluetooth technology in order to have this short wave communication so that patients would be able to upload their BG levels directly into the app. My big project while I was there was to launch the BANT application onto the Android platform, after being on iOS for nearly 8 years. We got it done, but the Bluetooth feature was a huge headache.
I remember one of my developers telling me how awful Bluetooth technology was because it had not been improved upon in about 30 years. This also came up again when the story about how the submarine seeking the Titanic was using Bluetooth video game controllers to control the ship. And not even ones that would be considered GOOD - like Xbox controllers. And guess what? The crappier Bluetooth controllers failed.
This is going to serve as a deep-dive into the history of Bluetooth technology, as well as the runes that make up the symbol of what Bluetooth is, and further how words are also just combinations of symbols that have meaning; and finally tying it all together in a conclusion of what can be learned from this story.
The Birth of Bluetooth Technology
The idea for Bluetooth originated in 1989 with two men employed by the Swedish telecommunications and networking company LM Ericsson, Dr. Nils Rydbeck, Chief Technology Officer of Ericsson Mobile, and inventor Johan Ullman. LM Ericsson had been founded as a telegraph repair shop in Stockholm in 1876 by Lars Magnus Ericsson, who quickly transitioned to phone manufacturing. The first Bluetooth wireless headset was introduced at the COMDEX computer trade show in 1999, where it won the Best of Show technology award.
Where did Bluetooth Get its Name From?
Interestingly enough, according to accounts, the name came from sharing stories of history during a business trip to Toronto (of all places).
After having our proposal firmly rejected, we went on a pub crawl through wintrily, blustery Toronto. Being a big history fan, I would trade stories of history with Sven.
Bluetooth was named after Harald Bluetooth; whom got his name either from his love of blueberries - so much so that he stained his teeth blue - or a rotten blue tooth. Regardless of this, he was known for two things: 1) Uniting Scandinavia including Denmark as well as 2) Christianizing the Danes. The latter reason deserves a deep-dive all on it's own because there is a story about a miracle regarding a stone.
There's also recent stories about how bad-ass Harald's mother was as a Viking; but that isn't surprising to me as someone who adores the goddess Freya.
The Viking Runes & Words are Power
Freya's husband Odin, the Nordic All-Father actually hung on the World Tree for 9 nines to gain insight and knowledge of the Runes. This is actually also where we get the themes of the Hanged Man Card in Tarot.
Odin hung himself from a branch of Yggdrasil, pierced himself with his spear, and peered downward into the shadowy waters below. He forbade any of the other gods to grant him the slightest aid, not even a sip of water. And he stared downward, and stared downward, and called to the runes.
The source for the tale of how Odin obtained knowledge of the runes is from Hávamál, an Old Norse poem that comprises part of the Poetic Edda.
Now the reason why I bring this up, is because the Bluetooth symbol leverages runes. The H and the B respectively; make up the Bluetooth logo that is so easily recognizable today.
But Harold Bluetooth Christianized the Danes. There is no room for rune magic and tales from Old Norse poems with the new religion. It is an odd choice to attempt to leverage rune symbolism from a figure who decided to turn his back on those historic ways of his people.
Conclusions Regarding Bluetooth
Bluetooth has indeed been around for about 30 years now, and as someone who has worked in the space - can say that there has been limited improvements to the technology. I think that from a base level, they could have chosen a different rune to represent what they were attempting to with Bluetooth; which was connection without wires.
The creators mentioned that they chose Harald Bluetooth because of his ability to connect all of the Danes, however I think they may have gotten better juju had they used a rune like Raidho. The raido rune is one about going places. This signifies a journey, whether you’re just starting or finishing. So it is more about the action that we would like Bluetooth to do for us, which would be taking our message from one point to another quickly...
No dropped connection, or other strange wonky things included.
Bluetooth has gained tremendous popularity when it comes to things like wireless speakers. However, I must say, if I am listening to a song with good bass - you can bet I am still listening to that song with headphones that have a wire.
But maybe that's just me. Thoughts?
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