Communication is derived from the Latin word Communicare (to
share)
Exchange of information between two entities is what we
understand communication as. Everything that has existed, exists or will exist
communicates. Our existence relies on communication.
Where does communication start? It starts with in ourselves.
Each of the cells in our body communicates at a very large and un-quantifiable
level. Communication has played the most
vital role in cornicing us to what we are today.
Noam Chomsky, a prominent proponent of
discontinuity theory, argues that a single chance mutation occurred in one
individual in the order of 100,000 years ago, instantaneously installing the
language faculty (a component of the mind-brain) in "perfect" or
"near-perfect" form. Thus helping us to evolve at a higher rate.
Around 3000 BCE we were using cuneiforms (Capsule) as form of written
communication which was a pictorial representation.
Let’s look at a brief history of our current
telecommunication.
Man’s first attempts at distance communication were
extremely limited when compared to modern days distance communication. They
were using fire, smoke and early form of drums to communicate with their
neighboring clans. They were decoded
according to the patterns of sound to understand danger. Around 6th
Century during heights of Persian power, Cyrus the great couldn’t communicate
with in his own empire as it was too vast. He was the first man to be credited
for setting up post office in order to communicate with his empire.
Around 5th century BCE Persians and Syrians were
using pigeons for communication. They realized pigeons have this ability to
find their way back to their nests. So they use to take them to far lands and
send messages back to home land. Then came the Optical telegraph in the year
1790. By March 1876 Alexander Graham Bell had invented the telephone. Invention
of telephone changed the way we communicate forever and it was just the
beginning that led mankind to take the big leap.
We never looked back since then, Modern day’s communication
is at a whole new unprecedented level which has bought us to the foothill of
the giant communicating mountain. In September of 1899, Guglielmo Marconi
ushered in the era of practical mobile radio communication with his historical
radio telegraph transmissions from a ship in New York Harbor to the Twin Lights
in Highlands New Jersey. His first transmission covered the arrival of Admiral
Dewey from Manila, and soon thereafter, coverage of the Americas Cup races was
provided as well. This was accomplished with high energy, wideband pulses of
radio noise, created using a spark generator coupled to an antenna. The signal
was received with a similar antenna attached to a fascinating device known as a
“coherer,” a tube in which metallic particles were caused to cohere to one
another by the presence of the radio signal. The reduced resistance of the
coherer in this state allowed the radio signal to be detected, after which a
mechanical “tapper” returned the particles to their original state. Each
telegraphic symbol was represented by a rapid series of these spark-generated
signals, which was detected as an audible tone. It’s this iconic event that
paved way to our current cellular or mobile technology that has given us the
world in our palms.
We have moved from pigeons to POP 3. It took just about 500
years to change from nothing to everything. So what is it that we can expect in
the next 500 years? I don’t think we as a race are ready to even imagine that
yet. We probably will have chips engraved in our brain so we could communicate
with anyone around the world without any device. Can you imagine the
possibilities? I leave that to your imagination.
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