Grok is a word which, in my mind, begs further definition. The first time I can recall being exposed to this word was when it spilled from the vocal chords of the loquacious Dr. Trey Connor and, for some reason I can't quite identify, stood out like a diamond in a coal mine from the abundance of other unfamiliar verbiage gushing forth. "Grok?", I recall thinking, "Did he say grok?". My next thought was, "Note to self, look up grok.", after which I promptly forgot all about the word.

Fast foward to about a week later when, as is my habit, I was perusing the Merriam Webster word of the day site when what to my wonder should appear other than the word grok which caused me to flashback to the loquacious Dr. Trey Connor and his unplugged fire hydrant of verbiage. I recall thinking, "So, these words of Trey's are actual words and not just a series of neologisms, at least grok is". I was fascinated to learn that the word grok may be the only word in the English language derived from Martian. Specifically, the word derives from Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. In the novel, The book's main character, Valentine Michael Smith, is a Martian-raised human who comes to earth as an adult, bringing with him words from his native tongue and a unique perspective on the strange, strange ways of earthlings. "Grok" was quickly adopted by the youth culture of America and has since peppered the vernacular of those who grok it, from the hippies of the '60s to the computerniks of the '90s. According to Merriam, grok is a verb which means to understand profoundly and intuitively. A pretty cool concept with all it's profundity and intuitiveness. I simply had to know more if I was to grok grok.

When I need to know more, I Google, therefore I am, to sample Descartes, or if you prefer the Latin, Googlio, ergo sum, or French, Je Google, donc je suis. When I Google grok I receive many hits. Number one on the hit list was the mother ship of all wikis, Wikipedia. From this internet oracle I gleaned much about grok. In it's original Martian form, grok literally meant "to drink." The main character in the book never verbalizes a true translation for grok, however, another character in the book gives the following definition, "Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because we are from Earth) as color means to a blind man." From this definition it seems to me that grokking is akin to a mystical or transcedent experience. I can read all I want, gather as much info as I can, talk intelligently about a transcendent experience and still miss the point completely. The only way I will truly understand is to experience for myself and then I understand that words and traditional western pedagogies of knowledge transfer will never allow me to grok and roll, and it's been a long time since I grok and rolled, a long, lonely, lonely time.

From these Martian literary origins, grok caught on with the counter culture that was so vibrant in the 1960s. Tom Wolfe uses the word in the The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test as a character on an LSD trip sees his own flesh as if for the first time and groks over that which to me does not seem to be a particularly apt usage of grok insofar as he seems to be using it as a synonym for trip and not in the sense of profoundly and intuitively understanding. However, it seems a bit presumptious of me, even to me, to offer literary criticism of Mr. Wolfe. According to the mother Wiki, grok was sampled by various authors and publications of the 60s from Hippie Guru Ram Dass to The New Yorker and Playboy.

Grok jumps from subculture to subculture, or perhaps more acurately, is adopted by subcultures. The term seems to enjoy a peripheral existence in the vocabulary of outsider groups who consider themselves to be hipper, or smarter, or more "in tune" with reality. They are different and, from their perspective, better than the masses and their language serves to emphasize that difference.

Grok next shows up in the vocabulary of sci-fi fans, specifically trekkies. These fans of the still popular television series Star Trek, from which numerous spinoffs and almost a dozen feature films have been made, are a natural to adopt grok. The reason being twofold. Firstly, the sci-fi origins of the word make for an obvious assimilation by trekkies even though I would posit that Stranger in a Strange Land is more of a commentary on society and culture delivered via a science fiction motif than a pure sci-fi novel. Secondly, trekkies are a notoriously geeky lot and as such are prone to immersion in their fantasy world where they are infintely less geeky than they appear in the larger societal context. The usage of a peripheral word such as grok enables them to delineate themselves from the larger societal context thereby offering protection from a world which has not always treated them kindly. Bumper stickers proclaiming "I grok Spock" were seen as early as 1968. The fact that the statement I grok Spock rhymes was undoubtably a factor in it's usage. The average Joe appreciates a good rhyme, but subcultures of all ilks absolutely thrive on the rhyme as if the fact that a statement rhymes gives said statement more validity. I mean who can argue with something that rhymes? But I'm guessing that I'm digressing from the message that I'm stressing in this session.

Fast forward another decade or so and grok catches on with the burgeoning subculture of computer geeks who prefer to be called hackers and later computerniks as if appropriating the nik from a hip subculture such as the beatniks and replacing the geek with nik would make them less geeky. Again the computer geek subculture is a natural to adopt grok. It seems logical that it was simply a carry over from the trekkies who are well represented in the computer world. Examples of grok usage in the computer world date from the early 80s in the Jargon File, a self described dictionary of hacker slang, all the way to present times where linux users, according to the Linux Bible, use the term in reference to deeply understanding and coming to see the programming world from a Unix, not a eunuch's, perspective.

Most of the Google grok hits are from computer programming related sites and include the following

The Grok Homepage. and xmbase grok. However there was an interesting Grok Shop in Australia that sells sustainable products to help disadvantaged communites that I would like to visit someday.

In conclusion, I have thoroughly enjoyed researching grok. I would hesitate to say I grok grok but I will grok on.