And what is a cipher? I ask the washtub oracle. I don't know, why're you asking me? You think I'm an oracle? I'm just a couple holes where water pipes were removed and a random brownish stain that looks like a dripping mouth! What are you crazy? Look it up! Sorry! No that's ok, I just want to inform you that any oracle worth their salt is a space of reflection, and the oracle is just thinking about things that occur to one. In other words, the oracle is you. I thought of it as an inscrutable person who doesn't give you any information, yet makes certain vague and cryptic utterances and points to stuff in random directions in order to baffle folks who want real answers, but I learn that it comes from the Sanskrit for zero, which was a gift to humanity, allowing us to think of nothing.