Figure 1a.Primary Orality – Printing; b. A (somewhat incomplete) Timeline of Social Media:
1
Kim H. Veltman
Keynote: “Notes for A New History of Media, Scales and Disciplines”, Strategies for a
Creative Future with Computer Science, Quality Design and Communicability, San Marino,
September 15-16, 2014. http://www.ainci.com/HCITOCH2014/workshop_HCITOCH_2014.html
...................................................................................................................................................................
Abstract
The history of media was long treated as a gradual shift from oral media, to written and then
printed media, which was seen as part of a history of progress, culture and civilization. The
20th century brought new attention to a shift from orality and literacy, and to limitations
imposed by print media. The latter 20th century saw trends towards a history of computing and
the Internet that included new media. It also saw a redefinition of media as mass media and
rewrote its history in three phases: pre-media, leading to mass-media and infinite media. This
latest phase, variously called infinite media, social media, personal media or Me Media has
come to dominate attention as if the thousands of previous years were insignificant. It has
focussed attention on a coming Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Everything (IoE).
This essay reviews some current timelines for the history of communications, mass media and
new media. It expands the definition of media to include the entire gamut used in
communication from painting and manual media (glyphs and petroglyphs) to the latest
versions of electronic media and nano-media. It suggests that a future history of media should
include not only different media types and technologies but also the scales of reality which
they entail. Links between media, scales and shifts in disciplines are explored. It is shown that
Shannon’s Theory of Communication reduced communication to transmission of information.
Needed is a broader view that will lead to an Internet of Letters, Words, Concepts and
Knowledges. Implications for interfaces are considered.
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Manual Media
3. Written Media
4. Print Media
5. Scopic Media
6. Electric Media
7. Analog Electronic Media
8. Digital Electronic Media
9. Multimedia
10. Social Media
11. Scales
12. Growth
13. Implications for Interfaces
14. Conclusions
..............................................................................................................................
There are 330 million times more bacteria on earth than bits that the world broadcasts per year. Hilbert, 2014.1
2
Figure 2a-b. Two histories of media. 2
3
1. Introduction
The history of media was long treated as a gradual shift from oral media, to written and then
printed media, which was seen as part of a history of progress, culture and civilization. A
survey of keywords (Appendix 1) and connected publications in libraries helps to visualize a
basic chronology of studies: letters (1515), language (1549), writing (1561) communication
(1599), alphabet 1615), cuneiform (1858) and petroglyphs (1968). Mechanical media have
seen publications since the 16th century: e.g. printing (1517), publishing (1597), media (1640),
telegraph (1795), telephone (1878), and radio (1906). This evolution can also be seen terms of
new media and mass media (1646), cinema (1895), electronics (1947), social media (1961),
computers and video (1967), personal media (1994), converged media and nano-media
(2004).
The 20th century brought new attention to a shift from orality and literacy: e.g. Havelock,
Innis, Ong. Studies inspired by Ong explored a long timeline from 140,000 before the present
to now (figure 1a).3 In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan noted that media do more than simply
transport content. They affect the content or as he aphoristically stated: the medium is the
message. His exploration of limitations imposed by print media contributed to his fame. It
also tended to focus attention to media in the post-Gutenberg era (1454) or since 1500 (the
end of incunables, figure 3a).
As networked computers began to spread after 1968, the latter 20th century saw trends
towards a history of computing and the Internet that included new media. By 1994, some saw
McLuhan’s descriptions of a global village as prophetically envisioning the World Wide Web
(WWW).4 In the United States, the focus shifted to the internet as a pipeline, epitomized by
Al Gore’s information highway, emphasizing the container rather than the content. The
European G7 Summit (1994) sought to shift this focus to contents and their effects by
insisting on an Information and Knowledge Society. Eric McLuhan continued to explore how
his father’s insights applied to the web.5
The American mainstream saw a redefinition of media as mass media and rewrote its history
in three phases: pre-media, leading to mass-media and infinite media (figure 2a). Pre-media
included an infinitesimal era of word of mouth (c.200,000 years ago); the emergence of
writing (c.5,000 B.C.); the invention of movable type (1440 sic!)6; the first newspaper (1605)
and the Penny Press (1840s). The next 150 years had mass media including the first radio
broadcast (1906) and first TV statio (1928). The WWW (1991/1992 sic!)7 introduced a third
phase of infinite media.
This latest phase, variously called social media, personal media or Me Media has come to
dominate attention as if the thousands of previous years were insignificant. Generous
timelines may still begin with the postal service in 550 B.C. (figure 1b), while others are
reduced to the last 200 years (table 2a) or even the past 20 years (figure 3b). While very
attractive from a current events point of view, these contemporary tables could lead to the
impression that nothing serious happened in communication until the end of the 20th century.
This essay begins with a review of some current timelines for the history of communications,
4
Figure 3 a-b. Media History Made Simple; Publishing 1980-2009
5
media and new media. It expands the definition of media to include the entire gamut used in
communication from painting and manual media (glyphs and petroglyphs) to the latest
versions of electronic media and nano-media (table 1). It suggests that a future history of
media should include not only different media types and technologies but also the scales of
reality which they entail. Links between media, scales and shifts in disciplines are explored.
The need for an Internet of Letters, Words, Concepts and Knowledges is outlined.
Implications for interfaces are considered.
2. Manual Media
While oral media theoretically goes back to Adam and Eve, no actual history of oral media is
possible prior to means of recording the human voice (1930). The advent of painting and
glyphs (geoglyphs, petroglyphs, hieroglyphs) introduced the possibility of a history of extant
cases. Those in the Blombos Cave,8 dated as at least 75,000 years B.C. are among the oldest
painted human artefacts found.9 Recent work by Genevieve von Petzinger10 claims that there
were a surprisingly small number (28) of non-figurative signs that were used in cave art in
Africa and Europe. Needed is work to compare examples in Asia, the Americas and Australia.
3. Written Media
One of the earliest objects associated with the earliest writing is a woolly mammoth tooth
with markings from a cave in Tata, Hungary, previously dated c. 43,000 B.C., which is also a
date connected with the earliest sign of human culture.11 Recent research dates this to 100,000
B.C. Meanwhile, the formal origins of writing are typically associated with Sumer (Iran) c.
3,200 -3,000 B.C.12 and Jemdet Nasr (Iraq) 3,200-2,900 B.C.13
The advent of writing brought a split between oral languages and written languages with their
own alphabets.14 Of the 6,910 extant languages only c. 2,200 have alphabets. It also
introduced a range of writing, script and alphabet functions (e.g. sacred, clerical, business). A
future history of writing needs to be linked with a history of alphabets, scripts, and hands. So
there will effectively be multiple histories of writing, whereby sacred writing is linked with
sacred scripts and alphabets; commercial writing is linked with commercial alphabets, scripts,
and so on. A full history of writing would trace growth in various categories of writing.
100,000 B.C.
75,000 B.C.
5,500 B.C
593 A.D.
1610
1800
1897
1948
1984
1990-1999
2000 -
Glyph Media
Paint Media
Written Media
Print Media
Scopic Media
Electric Media
Analog Electronic Media
Digital Electronic Media
Multimedia
Networked ICT
Networked UCT
Tata Cave, Hungary
Blombos Cave, South Africa
Susa, Jamdet Nasr, Persia
Xian, Gyeonji, Dunhuang, China
Florence, Italy; Delft, Netherlands
Pavia, Italy
Cambridge, UK
Murray Hill, USA
Table 1. Chronology of media and key early locations.
6
Figure 4a-b. History of Printing Timelines
7
4. Print Media
While the West continues to link printing (figure 4a-b) with Gutenberg (1452), printing on
paper was introduced in China by 80 A.D., printing as a profession is said to have started in
593 A.D.; woodblock printing c.650-670 AD.; printed books in the 9th c. (805 in Korea and
868 in China); moveable type by 1040 A.D. and moveable metal type by 1234.15 McLuhan
was unaware of this Asian dimension when wrote the Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) he claimed
that:
The invention of movable type was the decisive moment in the change from a culture
in which all the senses partook of a common interplay to a tyranny of the visual. He
also argued that the development of the printing press led to the creation of
nationalism, dualism, domination of rationalism, automatisation of scientific research,
uniformation and standardisation of culture and alienation of individuals.16
In retrospect, a little over a half century later (2014), movable type may have had the effects
described in the West, but this then begs the question: why did it not have the same effects in
the East? We need a new history which explains how a given technology can have very
different effects in different societies.
Meanwhile, the important work of Giesecke (1991) has shown that the importance of printing
lay in a shift from secretive to public knowledge through a new commitment to sharing
knowledge for the common good. Hence, communication became linked with the rise of
science and a cumulative model of knowledge.
5. Scopic Media
Media are usually described in terms of those which can reproduce existing information
mechanically in multiple copies, oral media being an obvious exception. The 17th century
introduced two new instruments which played no direct role in mechanical dissemination, but
changed entirely the scale of that which could be seen and known, namely the telescope and
microscope. Prior to this, the realm of study had spanned the scale of 101 to 10-1. Galileo’s
telescope (1610) and Van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope (1673) changed the realm of study
from 102 to 10-2. As lenses improved these scales increased in both the + and – scales.
6. Electric Media
Alessandro Volta’s invention of the battery (1800) introduced a new era of media leading to
inventions such as the telegraph (1804), the microphone (1827), the electric telegraph (1837)
and the telephone (1854, 1876). Officially these were breakthroughs in human communication
at a distance. While their effect was rapid, their growth in terms of numbers of persons was
still relatively slow. “Claude Chappe developed the system for the French optical telegraph in
the 1790's, about 50 years before Morse's electro-magnetic telegraph.”17 The first
International Telegraph Alphabet was developed in 1880. By 1999, Morse Code stopped
being taught to Radio operators. In the case of telephones, it took about 100 years to reach 1
billion users of the telephone.
8
Figure 5. Margaret Riel: Capturing Information in the 19th and 20th centuries.
9
Parallel with these developments in communication technologies were a series of inventions
in information technology pertained to capturing information: lithograph (1796), photograph
(1827), typewriter (1860), mimeograph (1875), phonograph (1877), radiograph (1886) and
cinematograph (1891, figure 5a).
7. Analog Electronic Media
J. J. Thomson’s discovery of the electron in 1897 heralded a new era of analog electronic
media. In terms of scale, this meant work on machines and instruments descended to the level
of 10-3. In the 20th century, this discovery brought new communications technologies: radio
(1905), Arpanet (1969), telecommunication by e-mail (1970s), tele-presence and telecommunities (1980), NSFNet Internet (1980s), and cell phones (1983). It also brought many
developments in information technologies: First colour movie (1924), television (1927),
telebotics (1950), videotape recorder (1956), personal computer (1976), WWW (1992),
Telerobotics over the net (1994). Margaret Riel has noted these parallels between information
and communication technologies and characterized the 19th century in terms of capturing
technologies (cf. -graph as in photograph, phonograph) and the 20th century in terms of
distance technologies (tele- as in tele-phone, tele-robotics, tele-communications, figure 5a -b).
Scholars have taken different approaches in trying to understand these changes. Innis focussed
on the history of communications technologies. He explored a contrast between time-biased
media (clay or stone tablets, hand-copied manuscripts on parchment or vellum, oral sources)18
and space-biased media (printing, radio, television, mass circulation newspapers). He claimed
that time-biased media typically entailed oral, tribal cultures, whereas space-based media
tended to entail empires and imperialism. Innis urged a need to balance the two kinds of
medias. As Innis19 noted, in conjunction with physical networks of railways these new
communications systems also led to a new standardization of time. His younger contemporary
at Toronto, McLuhan also focussed on communications. He explored metaphors such as
visual-tactile, hot-cold to contrast the differences between printed book communications in
the 15th and 16th centuries and television in the 20th century.
Whereas McLuhan saw new media as extensions of man, Friedrich Kittler (Berlin), saw new
media as independent technical developments. He approached these changes in terms of three
different discourse networks (Aufschreibesysteme, or more literally, writing-down, inscription
or notation systems). He characterized the age of the book (from Gutenberg in the 15th to the
19th century as an Aufschreibesystem 1800.20 He associated this with an alphabetic monopoly,
authorship, copyright and mechanization, standardization, and normalization.
The early 20th century brought an Aufschreibesystem 1900, which included partial bundling
of media (Medienverbunde), notably, phonograph and grammaphone, kinetoscope and film,
as well as the typewriter (Schreibmaschine) and later television, radio and tape.21 A
consequence of these innovations was a toppling of the alphabetic monopoly, and the storage
monopoly of writing. According to Kittler the new ability to store text, image and sound,
undermined the Gutenberg Galaxy. His student, Norbert Bolz, attempted to map this end of
the Gutenberg Galaxy and the rise of a Computer Galaxy.22
10
Figure 6. Charts of the Electromagnetic Spectrum.23
11
A third, Aufschreibesystem 2000, includes the digital age of the computers where a complete
convergence of media (totale Medienverbund) enables a compete manipulation in terms of
modulation, transformation, synchronization, delay, storage, shift keying, scrambling,
scanning und mapping.24 Subsequent thinkers have shifted the framework. Manuel Castells,
saw a shift from a McLuhan Galaxy towards an Internet Galaxy.25 Others have described the
radio era as a Marconi Galaxy or Tesla Galaxy26 as a stage towards a Turing Galaxy.27
Kittler’s insistence on storage media such as image and sound as well as text began partly as a
reaction against Foucault’s focus on writing and books with respect to discourse networks.
Kittler’s eloquent arguments about the end of alphabetic monopoly were important in
increasing the scope of studies concerning storage media. For those in computer science and
information studies, they tended to make storage media a fundamental category for analysis.
At the same time the new, more inclusive approach to media and storage tended to obscure
other unique aspects of alphabetic, written, text, and printed media. Texts are about carefully
organized and ordered knowledge as well as storage. Their message requires understanding.
By contrast, a recorded image (photo, silent film) or a sound recording, for all its beauty and
fascination, only becomes a powerful tool for knowledge when it is complemented with
written data (metadata in the jargon of today). A photograph of a valley could be anywhere on
earth, a photograph of a person only becomes valuable when there is a written description of
who the individual is, when it was taken, where, how and perhaps even why. So the history of
these new media in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries is not a simple story of replacing text with
images and sound. Rather it is a story of how images and sound became integrated into
alphabetic, written systems of ordering knowledge.
Increasingly the new technologies entailed working in as well as simply observing and
recording at the scale of 10-2. Study of the electromagnetic spectrum in the 19th and early 20th
century greatly expanded the scope of scales studied, in wavelengths, wavenumbers, electron
volts and frequency, ranging from 1021 - 10-15 (figure 6). The bundling of text, image and
sound media (Medienverbunde), became much more important because they were applied to
this whole range of new scales.
8. Digital Electronic Media
The discovery of the transistor (1947) and the introduction of Shannon and Weaver’s
Mathematical Theory of Communication made it possible for analog electronic media to
become digital (electronic) media. As a result, knowledge entered the micro and neuro realms
with the study of bacteria and microbes. In the next generations, greater magnification made
viruses (10-7 to 10-8) and proteins (10-8) domains of study.
Shannon began by redefining communication:
The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or
approximately a message selected at another point. Frequently the messages have meaning; that is they
refer to or are correlated according to some system with certain physical or conceptual entities. These
semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem. 28
12
Figure 7a. Timeline, from Pong to Playstation 3, b. Home Video Game Systems
13
To achieve his goal, the model29 reduced all communication to 5 elements or functions:
source, sender, channel, receiver, and drain streams (data sinks) of information.30 The good
news was a transmission model of communication, which used transport and conduit
metaphors. In terms of machine communication it seemed as if the problem of information
could be reduced to scan, send, store, retrieve. The model was an inspiration for Kittler, which
helps us to understand his quip about “driving the human out of the humanities:”31
The concept of discourse networks is essentially a free application of Claude E. Shannon’s (Weaver and
Shannon, 1949) information theory. Hence Shannon’s theory, founded on information source,
information channel and information receiver, that is, on informational inputs, transmission and outputs,
is the engineering or technical model behind my literary experiment. Discourse Networks, 1800/1900 is,
however, also deeply influenced by Michel Foucault. But at the time I was writing my book, and I do
not think that this is a mistake, it occurred to me that what is wrong with Foucault’s The Order of
Things (1970) is that it merely describes the production of discourses. There are, for example, no
descriptions in Foucault’s book of the source of these discourses, of the channels or the receivers of
discourse in the form of, let’s say, readers or consumers. So my idea was very simple. I just thought
about the source of two discourse networks and not about any particular discourse networks in
history.32
Kittler’s approach has obvious merit but points ultimately to a history of information
transmission (communication in Shannon’s restricted sense) rather than a history of human
communication, which requires more. A beautiful manuscript page in Sanskrit can be scanned
perfectly, sent perfectly, received perfectly and stored perfectly but if a human receiver does
not know Sanskrit there will be no communication of the contents of the manuscript page.
Similarly a passage from the Old Testament perfectly recited, recorded, transmitted will
communicate none of its contents to a person ignorant of Hebrew. A film of a mediaeval Latin
manuscript may communicate nothing even to a Latin scholar if they have not been trained in
palaeology.
This is not to diminish the magnitude of Shannon’s contribution. Without his solution to an
engineering challenge, there could be no Information Highway.33 It would be more accurate to
call his work a theory of information transmission. In terms of Riel’s distinctions, (figure 5ab), one could argue that in the past two centuries the United States has contributed mainly to
information technology and very little to communication technology (in its traditional sense).
The Internet is described as a communication technology but the information it transmits
tends to assume unilingualism and is communicated only if we happen to read the
language(s). To an average unilingual American, pages of search engines such as Baidu in
Chinese or Yandex in Russian communicate nothing, until a translation software introduces
an English version.
9. Multimedia
The term multimedia was coined by Bob Goldstein (1966), in the context of discotheques and
the entertainment business,34 with initial meanings related to hypermedia (Douglas Engelbart,
1962), intermedia (Dick Higgins, 1964) and hypertext (Ted Nelson, 1965). The advent of
Macintosh computer (1984) with MacWrite and MacPaint heralded links between multimedia
and computers, which evolved a decade later (1994) into a Macintosh computer (1994) with a
Graphical User Interface (GUI), which helped establish home video game systems.35
14
Figure 8a. Rise of Social Media, b. Social Media Landscape
15
Indeed, it was in the field of video games that multimedia first became important (figure 5ab), beginning with Tennis for Two (1958) and home video consoles (1968), Pong (1972),
Atari, Mattel, Nintendo and Sega. The resulting games industry has become a field of
increasing profit36 and study. The 1980s are considered 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation video
consoles; the 1990s are considered 4th, 5th and 6th generations. Since then, there have been a
7th and 8th generation.37
While they obviously entail new media, video games clearly do not fit into traditional
categories of either information or communication technologies. They do not further
cumulative knowledge in the manner of time-biased media. Indeed, they are often “based on
plots of violence, aggression, and gender bias.”38 As a result, video games are often described
as an epidemic and could be seen as examples of destructive education.39
10. Social Media
In the past decade, social media, also called Me Media, has evolved as one of the important
new categories. It has become one of the umbrella terms for video games in the form of social
games, MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online Game)40 and virtual worlds. These three items
again have nothing to do with communication in its traditional sense.
One of the innovations of social media (figure 6a-b) is said to be user-generated content (e.g.
Wikipedia). Another is the ability to publish. For instance, Wikia claims to operate “the
world’s largest network of collaboratively published content on the web.” It entails seven
hubs: games, movies, TV, comics, music, books, lifestyle.41 Digg is a news aggregator which
claims to offer “what the Internet is talking about right now.”42 Other innovations are the
ability to share (e.g. Flickr, YouTube, Crowdshare) and to discuss (e.g. Skype). While of
obvious personal interest most these innovations are mainly about opinions, likes, dislikes,
rather than about traditional communication, certified information or cumulative knowledge.
According to the rhetoric, the shift from Mass Media to Personal Media entails a move from
publicity and propaganda to conversation and collaboration (figure 3a). In practice, a number
of the domains of social media (figure 6 a-b) are simply a more strategic form of so-called
personalized advertising: e.g. digital marketing, and brand social networking. The rhetoric
claims content is king, but in practice the concern is about new ploys for companies.
In theory, through blogging, microblogging, and social networks (real time communications),
the user is now associated with personal, personalized media and personalization. In practice,
politicians and news services use blogs for outreach, there are now user profiles, clandestine
tracking methods; persons have an online identity, which is increasingly becoming a federated
identity and becoming a digital record of a person’s life (e.g. Lifestream, Livecast).
Personal was traditionally connected with privacy, what one did in one’s own home, what one
shared and communicated with family and friends in private. Ironically, personal media and
social media are attempting to destroy the very idea of privacy. In the name of
communication, they are sending us increasingly more information targeted at selling us what
we didn’t know we wanted. In terms of the traditional trivium (grammar, dialectic and
16
Figure 9. a. Powers of Ten, b. Comparison of nanomaterials sizes:
17
rhetoric), grammar has been dropped, dialectic has been translated into the logic of computer
algorithms and rhetoric has been reduced to new slants on persuasion and selling.
This is said to be an Information Age. Optimists tell us that we have entered a new
Communications age.43 Sceptics ask whether we are losing touch in this age of digital
communications.44 Indeed, in a world where communications is defined as transmission of
information, one could suggest that the new information age poses threats to meaning and
knowledge, which are essential for true communication. In the United States, major
universities typically have a department, faculty or school of information studies (iSchool),
Information Sciences or Information Management. In Dublin, there is a School of Information
and Library Studies. Elsewhere the iSchools have typically absorbed earlier Faculties of
Library Studies or Library Science. Organising Knowledge is a now a subset of ordering
information, at least in the minds of university deans.
11. Scales
An unexpected corollary of the move to digital electronic media has been a new focus on
scales: first a shift from the micro to the nano; second, an increasingly systematic awareness
of scales and third, a gradual re-definition of traditional disciplines in terms of scales. .
11a. From Micro -to Nano-Media
As mentioned above, the development of the transistor and of information theory were almost
simultaneous at the end of the 1940s. This introduced the micro-level (10-6) and brought new
levels of operation at the micro level: micro-chips, micro-processors, micro-computers etc.
Sixty years later the advent of nano-levels (10-9) brought the vision of nanotechnology into
the world of practical operation. In the United States, it also heralded a new convergence of
four hitherto independent domains: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information
Technology, and Cognitive Science (NBIC).45 Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and
Transport Systems (CBET)46 and Electro-Magneto-Opto-Chem-Mechanical Systems47 are
other examples of such convergence.
In Canada, following examples of work in Paris, London and Rome, there has been a related
convergence under the umbrella of Bio-Systemics Synthesis.48 Meanwhile, in Europe, Alfred
Nordmann has explored a larger vision of Converging Technologies (CTEKS)49 as: NanoBio-Info-Cogno-Socio-Anthro-Philo-Geo-Eco-Urbo-Orbo-Macro-Micro-Nano.
101 to 10 -2
10-3
10-3 to 10 -6
10 -9
10 -10
10-10 to 10-12
10-15
10-17
Mechanics
Electro-Mechanics (Electro-Magneto-Mechanics)
Micro-Mechanics (Electronic Mechanics, Digital Mech.)
Nano-Mechanics
Atomic Mechanics
Quantum Mechanics (Molecular Mechanics)
Nuclear Mechanics
Particle Mechanics
Table 2. Links between scales and branches of mechanics
18
Figure 10a. Storage in optimally compressed MB, b. The Digital Universe
19
Store
Information through Time
Broadcast
Information through Space
1 way
to receive information
432
715
1,200
1,900
Telecom(munication)
2 way
Capacity to store information
1986
2.6
281 petabytes
1993
15.8
471 “
”
2000
54.5
2007
295
2013
1,200
2020 4,351 to 40,000
Table 3. World's technological capacity in (optimally compressed) exabytes50
11b. Scales
A Dutch educator, Kees Boeke, published a book on scales: Cosmic View: The Universe in
40 Jumps (1957).51 This inspired three films: Cosmic Zoom (1968) produced by the National
Film Board of Canada; Powers of Ten (1968, re-released 1977)52 by Charles and Ray Eames
and the IMAX film Cosmic Voyage (1996) produced for the Smithsonian Institution's
National Air and Space Museum.53 The films were intuitive but they introduced a new
awareness of interconnectedness.
These scales could become a criterion in storage of and search for information. For instance, a
person searching for DNA would immediately be taken to the nano-level (10-9). The system
would indicate the temporal limits within which information and knowledge at that level
exists. It would also list other things and organisms existing at the nano-level (e.g. figure 9b).
There could be introductory timelines in the form of overviews that show how these classes of
objects change over time: i.e. effectively maps of changing boundaries of the visible.
11c. Scales and Disciplines
Each new scale inspired new branches of knowledge. For instance, mechanics was
traditionally concerned with 101 – 10-2. Subsequent scales became new divisions of mechanics
(table 2). This applies to most disciplines. So histories of a field would become histories of
how fields spread to more scales. Accordingly, searching for mechanics could be refined into
searching for nano-mechanics, quantum mechanics or particle mechanics. This basic idea is
already implicit in contemporary library classification systems. The difference would be that
one could search visually, temporally, geographically, in a sub-discipline at a given scale: e.g.
nano-mechanics in Canada in the year 2007 A.D. Examples of such scaleometers were offered
in a previous keynote.54
12. Growth
There has been an enormous increase in both the capacity to store information and to receive
information.55 Even the terms used to categorize change are expanding. In the 1990s, it was
customary to speak of bytes, megabytes and gigabytes. Hilbert approaches this growth in
terms of three functions of information: Store through time; Communicate through space and
Compute, i.e. transform through space/time. Communicate is subdivided into broadcasting, 1
20
Figure 11 a –b. Internet of Things, Internet of Everything
21
way transmission and telecom(munication), 2 way transmission. He notes that in 2007
broadcast was still 30 times more than telecom and that the 2 way transmission of telecom
represented only about 3.4 % of all data transfer.
In 2006, the largest figure was a Yottabyte (1024). In the past eight years, three further scales
have been added: Xenottabyte (1027), Shilentnobyte (1030) and Domegemegrottebyte (1033).
It has been estimated that 10 Terabytes could cover the printed collection of the US Library of
Congress; 2 Petabytes would potentially include all US academic research libraries; 1 exabyte
would include 36,000 years’ worth of HD-quality video56 while 5 exabytes would entail “all
words ever spoken by human beings.”57 The capacity to store information has grown (table 3)
from 2.6 exabytes in 1986 to 1,200 in 2013 and is predicted to expand to 4,351 or as much as
40,000 exabytes by 2020 (figure 9b). Hilbert’s view of the so-called information overload is
optimistic. He notes that while the economy grew by c. 6%, telecom transmission grew by
24% and computing grew by over 60%.58
Viewed from a human point of view there is reason for concern. If all human words only
amount to 5 exabytes, then the human aspect of the equation will be only 1/8000 of the big
picture by 2020 (figure 9b). The amount of curated data59 in our memory institutions
(libraries, museums, galleries) is much less. It is like a needle in a haystack of big data. In the
case of this human knowledge and information, we need a richer theory of communication:
one that goes beyond simple transmission and has built into it understanding, comprehension,
meaning; not just the syntax (logic or dialectic) and effects of communication (rhetoric) but
also the substance and meaning (grammar in terms of the trivium).
12.1. Internet of Things (IoT)
This human dimension is being neglected. A vision of the Internet of Things (figure 10a)
includes 9 service sectors: IT & Networks, Security/PublicSafety, Retail, Transportation,
Industrial, Health Care & Life Sciences, Consumer and Home, Energy and Buildings. Many
of the sub-topics are about non-stable conditions: e.g. Hospitals, Emergency Reponse,
Alarms. Research is mentioned only with respect to drug discovery. Education is absent.
Indeed, absent from these lists is any reference to knowledge, religion, philosophy, books, art,
music, culture, and cultural heritage.
12.2. Internet of Everything (IoE)
The Internet of Things, we are told, is a step towards an even more comprehensive Internet of
Everything (IoE). This is described in conceptual terms (figure 10b). At the centre is process.
It is surrounded by a triangle of People, Things and Data, reminiscent of mediaeval diagrams
of the Trinity.60 They entail three domains: Home, Mobile and Business and three kinds of
interaction: Person to Person (P2P), Person to Machine (P2M) and Machine to Machine
(M2M):
Rather than just reporting raw data, connected things will soon send higher-level information back to
machines, computers, and people for further evaluation and decision making. This transformation from
data to information in IoE is important because it will allow us to make faster, more intelligent
decisions, as well as control our environment more effectively. 61
22
The accompanying diagram speaks of the what, where and how of the Internet of everything,
not the who or the why (figure 10b). The good news is that Persons are a third of the schema.
The less good news is that there are only persons and no individuals. There is work, but no
leisure, business but no products of the spirit in the form of books, music, art, culture. If man
is about body, mind and spirit, why do we have only an internet of every thing, and not every
person, every mind, every spirit, every expression of mind and spirit? Why do we have only
an internet of change: motion, transmission, operation, production, maintainance, of vita
activa and nothing about vita contemplativa?
Innis62 worried about a balance between time-biased and space-biased media. Carey63
contrasted a ritual view with a transmission view of communication, one maintaining society
in time, the latter extending messages in space. The Internet of Things and the Internet of
Everything are ultimately about space-biased media, a transmission view of information and
communication, extending messages in space. They are about efficiency, decision making,
action and control: an extension of the hegemony, empire, and imperialism metaphors. They
omit history and enduring knowledge. From a human viewpoint, they are about half of the
story.
12.3. Internet of Letters, Words, Concepts and Knowledges
The human side is but 5 exabytes in a large bucket of zettabytes expanding into yottabytes
and beyond. Of those few exabytes, much belongs to social media, transmission of transient
yos, likes, opinions, views. The “hard core” of enduring knowledge of memory institutions is
a minority. Just as it takes analysis to change data into information, it takes further analysis to
change information into knowledge: enduring thoughts and insights which remain valuable
long after the next thing has been replaced by the next next thing.
Searching through 40,000 exabytes for some detail in a subset of 5 exabytes is inefficient and
increasingly impossible. Google alone now “processes over 40,000 search queries every
second on average…, which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion
searches per year worldwide.”64 In 2014, the Internet will reach 3 billion users65 and there will
be 6 billion new internet-enabled devices.66 The Internet is predicted to reach at least 5 billion
by 2020.67 To avoid redundancy, we need a re-classification of knowledge for an internet of
letters, words, concepts and knowledges.
At a level of greatest granularity, namely, letters, there are ISO lists of many letters, but no
dictionaries of their meaning or histories of their usage. An index of every occurrence of an
individual letter such as A would have limited use, but a list of all occurences where meanings
and associations of A are given would be very useful. This applies not only to letters but
equally to glyphs (petroglyphs, hieroglyphs), kuni, runes, tamgas, seals, and symbols. We
have dictionaries of words, but most are unilingual. Multilingual dictionaries typically extend
to a few languages. Wiktionary is one perhaps the most wide ranging effort to date, but only a
small number of its words and languages are cross-referenced.68
Today, our memory institutions typically organize information and knowledge using words
(keywords) and concepts (classes, terms). There are subdivisions into media such as
23
manuscripts, books, articles, newspapers. There are national union catalogues, there is one
attempt at world catalogue (World Cat), but these efforts are far from comprehensive. Even a
comprehensive list of all books, manuscripts, drawings, paintings which can be searched
alphabetically, chronologically or by location for a famous individual such as Leonardo is
lacking. We have citation indexes but only for the last decades and only in some fields.
At the level of knowledge we have a dictionary of knowledge, 69 a knowledge encyclopedia70
and knowledge book. Knowledge leads to 89,673 hits in the GVK (Gemeinsamer
VerbundKatalog), knowledge book leads to 4,848 in GVK71 and 535,000,000 hits in
Google.72 Indeed there are a number of knowledges: e.g. ritual knowledge, religious
knowledge, theoretical knowledge, practical knowledge (know how, how to do it). But there
is no systematic access to all knowledge, pace the British Library’s claim to be gateway to the
world’s knowledge.
The idea of a collection of the world’s knowledge was developed in the 19th century with a
vision of global brain (Gehirn der Welt). In 1931, Emanuel Goldberg proposed a statistical
machine, which would function as a knowledge (finding) machine, with plans to atomize
literature in the form of micro-thoughts:
"facts" or "microthoughts" could then be arranged, rearranged and linked in multiple ways using the
expanded decimal classification for the especially important and difficult task of linking each chunk
with other chunks on the same topic and also those on related topics.73
With recent advances in computing this vision could be expanded. Each fact or microthought,
ranging from a single letter or glyph to a word, keyword, concept, topic, or brief phrase,
would have its own dictionary, encyclopedia entry, and in some cases articles and books
which could be searched in terms of who, what where, when, how and why. In addition, each
of these items would be linked to the claims concerning it. For instance, Great Flood would
link not only to the story of Noah in the Old Testament, but also to the flood mentioned in
Gilgamesh, the Rig Veda and elsewhere. Each such claim would be linked with a source
whether it was a written text or a physical object: e.g. the alleged ruins of the ark on Mount
Ararat. In many cases, there might be no way of proving in absolute terms the
veracity/veridity of the statement,74 but the sources could be provided nonetheless.
13.3.1. Presorting
There is a current fashion or at least rhetoric that all searches should be “on the fly”, even if
search engines increasingly track which topics are being searched. It would be much more
efficient to do a basic presorting such that every word, glyph, item had all the information
arranged in terms of kinds of sources, media, chronologically, by location etc. In many cases,
these facts, or microthoughts would be unequivocal: e.g. that an individual was born on a
given day would be verified by their birth certificate. In older cases such as Zoroaster, where
the precise date or even the year might be in question, alternative evidence would be gathered.
This presorting would mean that any search of a fact or microthought could go directly to a
given word or concept, rather than searching through 40,000 + exabyes of information. In
cases where the term sought has a complex history, the system could offer parameters to limit
24
the search. Today (26, 06, 2014), a user who types mechanics, receives 53,400,000 results in
Google. In future, they could decide whether they wish mechanics in terms of persons
(organizations, who), subjects (what), history, timelines (when), techniques, methods (how) or
principles (theory, why). Hereby, the enormous number of potential answers would become
focussed on specific answers which are useful.
13. Implications for Interfaces
When the Internet began there was considerable interest in Human Computer Interfaces
(HCI). This became Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and in the context of this conference
Human-Computer Interaction, Tourism and Cultural Heritage (HCITOCH 2014). In the
Internet of Everything vision, HCI becomes P2M. Logically one would expect that there
might also be a M2P. P2P is in the section of the mobile domain, obviously requires
communication devices but the interface dimensions of these interactions between people, and
we hope individual persons, are not mentioned. M2M communication is obviously important.
It requires no human dimension as long as the machines are working perfectly. But what if
they break down? Then surely there must be a human interface dimension to see what the
non-functioning machines cannot “see”?
In any case there is a danger that the trends towards an Internet of Things and Internet of
Everything, lead to interfaces where ``everything`` that is important qua humans, that which is
beyond the material, namely the mental and spiritual, will be neglected or even omitted
entirely.
A scanned page of text may look exactly like a text, it may be transmitted, stored and
retrieved as if it were a text and but it cannot be edited. Shannon’s theory of communication
may indeed have taken the human out of humanities, but this seeming progress meant that it
took the humanity out of texts. It produced new laws that transmitted the letters without the
spirit, syntax without the meaning. Shannon’s theory of information and the WWW’s practice
of a semantic web both follow the same shortcomings and flawed logic. Or, more precisely
they follow a logic perfect for transmission, but useless for meaning, understanding,
comprehension, knowledge, insight and wisdom.
Scanning a page of hieroglyphs in high resolution may result in a beautiful image that can be
transmitted and then stored efficiently, but if there is no comprehension of hieroglyphs in the
original, the beautiful image thereof, the stored image and future retrieved images will all
remain completely unintelligible. It promises an information highway but not an information
society or a knowledge society. A history of media that speaks only of the triumph of
machines, would ultimately point to an Internet of mechanical objects, dead things, rather
than of language, art, music, culture, life. These limitations inspired Norbert Wiener to invent
cybernetics. They were a topic in Fyermedal’s The Tomorrow makers (1986).75 Potential
computer implications have been explored in a series of films from War Games (1993) to the
Echelon Conspiracy (2009).
For the year 2025, there are predictions of “thought recognition as everyday input means” 76
and “learning superseded by transparent interface to smart computers”77 It is true that George
25
Orwell’s Time Machine (1895) describes a future civilization where people have lost their
interest in learning and discovery, but such possible utopias need not limit a possibly more
interesting future, where we can learn and understand much more about ourselves and the
world.
Conclusions
The history of media is a well-travelled subject. Momentous advances in media of the past
century have led to dramatic reassessments. Whereas the 19th century remained fascinated by
the history of manual and written media, the early 20th century focussed increasing attention
on a shift from oral to written media and to limitations in print media. The late 20th century
reduced the value of print (elite media) and focussed on mass media and multimedia. Since
2000 there has been increasing attention to digital media also called infinite media, personal
media, me media and social media.
Some theorists (Innis, McLuhan, Carey), attempted to explain these changes as a shift from
time-based media to space-shaped media, the one oral, tribal, and nomadic; the other written,
linear, sedentary, linked with empire and imperialism. In parallel with these shifts, were
changes in scopic media (e.g. telescopes and microscopes) which introduced new scales, new
powers of 10 in both the positive and negative ranges to arrive at 1026- 10-35 as boundaries of
universe and measurement.
Electric and analog electronic media were important early milestones. But it was the next
stage, the introduction of the micro-level (10-6) that issued in the micro-revolution, with a new
theory of communication (1948) and practical innovations such as the transistor (1948), the
notion of an integrated circuit (1952) and a microchip (1958). This shift from analog to digital
electronic media, and to the micro level, went hand in hand with a new theory of
communication, which reduced communication to information transmission. The good news
was enormous strides in tele-communication and the internet, which has led many to speak of
a new age: Turing Age, Internet Age, Digital Age. The positive consequences of these
advances are in terms of an ever-more interconnected world, with visions of an Internet of
Things and an Internet of Everything. It has also generated unprecedented amounts of data
and information, which are being described with new buzzwords such as big data.
At the same time, this redefinition of communication as transmission: i.e. unidirectional
(broadcasting) or bidirectional telecom(munication), focusses on things, motion, change and
process and threatens to side-line traditional senses of communication in terms of sharing
knowledge, ideas, understanding, insights, meaning, wisdom. Indeed, the new solution reveals
that current ideas of an Internet of Everything (IoE) are not enough.
A recent article posed the question: Has the Electronic Image Supplanted the Written Word?78
In light of this article, the answer is no. Electronic images can recognize, scan, capture,
transmit, store and retrieve images, pictures, plans, drawings. But unless we understand their
content and their meaning, we can only hope to the share their outer form. Words, spoken and
written are unique to humans. Written words in a language that we speak and read, can
communicate meaning. Hence, a full theory of communication requires an Internet or WWW
of Letters, Words, Concepts and Knowledges and conversely.
26
Appendix 1. 79
Manual Media
History of
Subject
Number of Publications
First Publication
9228
1515
20,911
1549
Writing
8640
1561
Communications
4602
1599
Alphabet
440
1615
Cuneiform
225
1858
Petroglyphs
35
1968
Printing
6857
1517
Publishing
9530
1597
Media
7199
1640
Telegraph
3032
1795
Telephone
6376
1878
Radio
55,601
1906
2135
1646
Mass Media
2285
1646
Cinema
3374
1895
Television
27,186
1911
Electronics
307
1947
1605
1961
Computers
727
1967
Video
625
1967
Personal Media 215
1994
Letters
Language
Mechanical Media
History of
New Media
Social Media
Converged Media
Nano-Media
4
2004
1
2004
27
Appendix 2a. Metric Scales and Applications; b. Powers of 10 Basic and Bytes
= 10–9
= 10–10
= 10–12
10-14
1 Femtometre
= 10–15
10 -17 Particles
10-18
1 Kilometre
= 10 3
1 Hectometre
= 10 2
1 Metre
= 10 1
1 Centimetre
= 10–2
1 Millimetre
= 10–3
1 Micrometre
= 10–6
10-7 to 10-8
10-8
1 Nanometre
= 10–9
1 Ångström
= 10–10
1 Picometre
= 10–12
10-14
1 Femtometre
= 10–15
10 -17
10-18
1 Zeptometre
= 10–21
1 Yoctometre
= 10–24
1 Nanometre
1 Ångström
1 Picometre
Hydrogen, Nano, Viral
Atomic, Large Molecular
Genomic, Small Molecular
Nucleus
Nuclear, Proton, Quantum
Quarks
Manual, Mechanical
Manual, Mechanical
Mechanical, Microscopic Electronic (Analog)
Micro-, Neuro, Bacteria, Microbes
Viruses
Proteins
Hydrogen, Nano, Viral
Atomic, Large Molecular
Genomic, Small Molecular
Nucleus
Nuclear, Proton, Quantum
Particles
Quarks
01 = Byte
10 x 01 = Dekabyte
10 x 02 = Hectobye
10 x 03 = Kilobyte
10 x 06 = Megabyte
10 x 09 = Gigabyte
10 x 12 = Terabyte
10 x 15 = Petabyte
10 x 18 = Exabyte
10 x 21 = Zettabyte
10 x 24 = Yottabyte
10 x 27 = Xenottabyte
10 x 30 = Shilentnobyte
10 x 33= Domegemegrottebyte
28
List of Figures
1a. Primary Orality – Printing: http://terpsinoe.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/timeline-snap.jpg
1b. A (somewhat incomplete) Timeline of Social Media:
http://www.hautlieucreative.co.uk/Media/wemedia/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/social-media-timeline1.jpg
Cf. Rudnick; Communications Timeline: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/6xFUo2Wh3qU/T3WwldBA9QI/AAAAAAAAAM8/t_HOcQfk558/s1600/Rudnick_A16.jpg
2a. Mass-Media – 150 Year Bubble: http://www.inma.org/blogs/disruptive-innovation/history-of-media-page001-1.jpg
2b. Media History:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qPmmIklhNV8/S9sB7LqTqyI/AAAAAAAAAEU/2Ozqk1hPUEI/s1600/Timeline.png
3a. Media History made Simple: http://prstudies.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834205d1853ef01156e8315ab970c-pi
3b. Publishing 1990-2009: http://barryhurd.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/smtimeline.jpg
4a-b. History of Printing Timelines:
http://www.infographicszone.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/printing-history-timeline-1.jpg ;
http://xsophiestimetravelblogx.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/screen-shot-2010-10-09-at-5-42-25-pm.png
5a. Margaret Riel: 19th Century. Capturing Information:
http://mindmaps.typepad.com/.a/6a01127966ddfa28a4014e5f8ca61a970c-320wi
5b. Margaret Riel: 20th Century. Extending across Distances:
http://mindmaps.typepad.com/.a/6a01127966ddfa28a4014e5f8caccc970c-320wi
6a. Electromagnetic spectrum: http://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/data/images/2/7/7/electromagneticspectrum.jpg
6b. Chart of Electromagnetic Spectrum:
https://ascendingstarseed.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/electromagnetic_spectrum_full_chart.jpg
7a. Timeline: From Pong to PlayStation 3: http://theinstitute.ieee.org/img/12tiwhistoryLightbox1322842139839.jpg
7b.Home Video Game Systems:
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/191/3/b/history_of_multimedia_timeline_by_autumleves-d3lljl3.jpg
8a. Rise of Social Media: http://brandswithfansblog.fandommarketing.com/files/2013/01/The-Rise-of-SocialMedia-Infographic1.jpg
8b. Social Media Landscape: http://www.gcodelabs.com/css/fb-social-media.jpg
9a Powers of Ten: http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/inline/8AFC73BC-E7F2-99DF31FAE14B26815014_11.jpg
9b. Comparison of Nanomaterials Sizes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology#mediaviewer/File:Comparision_of_nanomaterials_sizes.jpg
10a. Growth. a. Storage in optimally compressed MB:
http://martinhilbert.net/10HilbertLopezGrowthStorage.PNG
10b. Digital Universe: http://www.emc.com/leadership/digital-universe/2012iview/executive-summary-auniverse-of.htm
11a Internet of Things: http://blog.atlasrfidstore.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/07/beecham_research_internet_of_things.jpg
11b. Internet of Everything: http://blogs.cisco.com/wp-content/uploads/Internet-of-Everything.png
29
Notes
1
Martin Hilbert: http://www.martinhilbert.net/WorldInfoCapacity.html
1b. History of Media :
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qPmmIklhNV8/S9sB7LqTqyI/AAAAAAAAAEU/2Ozqk1hPUEI/s1600/Timeline.png
2
3
See also Ong Timeline: Body Technologies: http://bodytechnologies.blogspot.nl/2011/01/3500-bc.html
Cf. Lewis Lapham introduction to the 1994, MIT Edition of Understanding Media:
http://bin.sc/Readings/McLuhan/McLuhan_Marshall_Understanding_Media_The_Extensions_of_Man.pdf
5
Eric McLuhan: http://ericmcluhan.com/
6
The usual date is 1454/1455. For a standard study see Michael Giesecke, Der Buchdruck in der frühen Neuzeit.
Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1986.
7
Sir Tim Berners-Lee wrote the proposal in 1989 and it began in 1990. Work on the Mosaic web browser,
mentioned in the table, began in late 1992 but it was not released until 23 January 1993:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser)
8
Blombos Cave: http://www.wits.ac.za/academic/research/ihe/archaeology/blombos/7106/blomboscave.html
The engraved pieces of ochre are regarded as the oldest known artwork.
The use of abstract symbolism on the engraved pieces of ochre and the presence of a complex tool kit
suggests Middle Stone Age people were behaving in a cognitively modern way and had the advantages
of syntactical language at least 80,000 years ago.
9
A site on early man spans the period 200,000 to 35,001 B.C.: http://www.telusplanet.net/dgarneau/euro2.htm
10
Genevieve von Petzinger: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/mar/11/cave-painting-symbols-languageevolution
11
More recent studies have suggested that this Tata tooth, now in the Smithsonian could be appromiately
100,000 years old: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v295/n5850/abs/295590a0.html
Early Culture: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18224421.100-is-this-the-earliest-sign-of-humanculture.html :
The earliest uncontested evidence is from sites in Europe that are about 35,000 years old, and includes
ornaments and cave paintings. But the beads were found in Africa and seem to be between 45,000 and
110,000 years old. Plants found at the site suggest the older end of that range.
12
Sumer Writing:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_important_advancement_did_the_sumerians_introduce_by_3200_BC_that_wo
uld_later_allow_historians_to_study_their_culture#slide=2&article=What_important_advancement_did_the_su
merians_introduce_by_3200_BC_that_would_later_allow_historians_to_study_their_culture
13
Jemdet Nasr: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jemdet_Nasr
Jemdet Nasr is an archaeological site in Iraq's Babil Governorate, situated to the north-east of Babylon
and Kish and east of Kutha. It may hold the earliest written account of any language
14
Of the 6,609 extant languages approximately 2,200 are written.
15
History of Printing in East Asia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_printing_in_East_Asia
16
Gutenberg Galaxy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gutenberg_Galaxy
17
Telegraph Key: http://www.zianet.com/sparks/timeline.html
18
Innis: Time-Biased Media:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Innis%27s_communications_theories#Time_and_space :
Time-biased media include clay or stone tablets, hand-copied manuscripts on parchment or vellum and
oral sources such as Homer's epic poems. These are intended to carry stories and messages that last for
many generations, but tend to reach limited audiences.
19
Harold Innis, A History of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, London: P. S. King & Son; Toronto: McClelland
and Stewart, 1923: http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/innis-historyofthecpr/innis-historyofthecpr-00-h.html
20
Kittler, Aufschreibesystem 1800: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufschreibesystem
Cf. http://monoskop.org/images/b/b6/Kittler_Friedrich_Aufschreibesysteme_1800_1900.pdf
21
Kittler: Aufschreibesystem 1900
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufschreibesystem&prev=/se
arch%3Fq%3Daufschreibesystem%2B1800%2Bwikipedia%26hl%3Den%26gl%3Dus%26authuser%3D0%26bi
w%3D1440%26bih%3D752
22
Norbert Bolz: http://www.uibk.ac.at/voeb/texte/bolz.html
23
Electromagnetic spectrum: http://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/data/images/2/7/7/electromagneticspectrum.jpg
Chart of Elecromagnetic Spectrum:
https://ascendingstarseed.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/electromagnetic_spectrum_full_chart.jpg
4
30
24
Aufschreibesystem 2000: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufschreibesystem
Ibid: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufschreibesystem
26
Tesla Galaxy: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing-Galaxis
27
Ibid: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aufschreibesystem
28
C.E. Shannon, A Mathematical Theory of Communication: http://cm.belllabs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/shannon1948.pdf :
The significant aspect is that the actual message is one selected from a set of possible messages. The
system must be designed to operate for each possible selection, not just the one which will actually be
chosen since this is unknown at the time of design.
29
Shannon and Weaver, A Mathematical Theory of Communication:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mathematical_Theory_of_Communication
30
Shannon, 5 Functions and 5 Elements of Communication:
http://books.google.nl/books?id=t6UmcXUMil0C&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=shannon%27s+five+functions&s
ource=bl&ots=-RDfMSzpc0&sig=-G2G1TL2UKgC9yQ3KVZt14cJSx4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BSKkU_zSNceO92JgcAG&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=shannon's%20five%20functions&f=false
31
Friedrich Kittler: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Kittler
32
An Interview with Friedrich Kittler:
http://monoskop.org/images/7/73/Armitage_John_2006_From_Discourse_Networks_to_Cultural_Mathematics_
An_Interview_with_Friedrich_A_Kittler.pdf :
The concept of discourse networks is essentially a free application of Claude E. Shannon’s (Weaver and
Shannon, 1949) information theory. Hence Shannon’s theory, founded on information source,
information channel and information receiver, that is, on informational inputs, transmission and outputs,
is the engineering or technical model behind my literary experiment. Discourse Networks, 1800/1900 is,
however, also deeply influenced by
Michel Foucault. But at the time I was writing my book, and I do not think that this is a mistake, it
occurred to me that what is wrong with Foucault’s The Order of Things (1970) is that it merely
describes the production of discourses. There are, for example, no descriptions in Foucault’s book of
the source of these discourses, of the channels or the receivers of discourse in the form of, let’s say,
readers or consumers. So my idea was very simple. I just thought about the source of two discourse
networks and not about any particular discourse networks in history.
33
Transportation Metaphor: http://faculty.georgetown.edu/bassr/lynn/transprt.htm
34
Multimedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia
The term multimedia was coined by singer and artist Bob Goldstein (later 'Bobb Goldsteinn') to promote
the July 1966 opening of his "LightWorks at L'Oursin" show at Southampton, Long Island. Goldstein
was perhaps aware of a British artist named Dick Higgins, who had two years previously discussed a
new approach to art-making he called "intermedia."[1]
35
Evolution of Home Video Game systems:
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/191/3/b/history_of_multimedia_timeline_by_autumleves-d3lljl3.jpg
36
Ibid: The Game Epidemic: http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=90198
“In June 2011, the global video game market was valued at US$65 billion.”
37
Video Game Industry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_industry
38
The Game Epidemic: http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=90198
39
Destructive Education: http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/przion2.htm#PROTOCOL No. 2
40
MMO: http://www.uberchar.com/
25
41
Wikia: http://www.wikia.com/About
Digg: http://digg.com/
43
New Communications Age: http://connectedplanetonline.com/mag/telecom_new_communications_age/
44
Ed Fuller, Are we losing touch in this age of digital communications? :
Social networking reportedly now eats up more than three hours of the average American’s day. Google
GOOG +1.54% logs more than one billion searches each day. On YouTube, 60 hours of content gets
uploaded every minute, and over at Facebook, more than 800 million updates are recorded daily. We are
becoming so wired technologically 24/7 that before we know it we’ve lost track of time and, sadly for
many of us, we learn we’ve lost touch with some of our most important relationships both personally
and professionally.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/edfuller/2014/03/20/are-we-losing-touch-in-this-age-of-digital-communications/
45
NBIC: http://hplusmagazine.com/2010/02/12/nano-bio-info-cogno-paradigm-future/
Another interpretation by Nova Spivack speaks of Web 2.0, which has been extended by others to Web 3.0, 4.0,
5.0.
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46
CBET: http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=cbet
UC Davis: http://www.nanosprint.com/events/index.php?id=355
Formerly at: http://www.research.ucdavis.edu/ncd.cfm?ncdid=644
48
Biosynthesis: http://biosynteza.cz/old/text.php?text=common_ground.html
49
CTEKS: http://ec.europa.eu/research/social-sciences/pdf/ntw-nordmann-presentation_en.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/research/social-sciences/pdf/ntw-report-alfred-nordmann_en.pdf
50
World’s Technological Capacity: http://highscalability.com/blog/2012/9/11/how-big-is-a-petabyte-exabytezettabyte-or-a-yottabyte.html
For a more conservative estimate of growing storage capacity: Cf.
http://www.jasonsavitt.info/articles/computing/worlds-technological-capacity
51
Kees Boeke, Cosmic View: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_View
52
Powers of 10 http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662461/how-to-apply-eamess-legendary-powers-of-10-to-reallife-problems
Powers of 10 on Scratch: Powers of 10 http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/491065/
53
Op. cit.: Kees Boeke, Cosmic View: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_View
54
Cf. “Historical Interfaces for Cultures”: Fourth International Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction,
Tourism and Cultural Heritage (HCITOCH 2013): Strategies for a Creative Future with Computer Science,
Quality Design and Communicability, Rome, September 26 – 27, 2013.
55
World's technological capacity to handle information: http://www.martinhilbert.net/WorldInfoCapacity.html
Cf. specifically: Martin Hilbert, Priscila López, The World’s Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate,
and Compute Information, Science Express, February 2011:
http://www.ris.org/uploadi/editor/13049382751297697294Science-2011-Hilbert-science.1200970.pdf
56
1 exabyte: http://www.iod.com/MainWebSite/Resources/Document/Q3-The-future-of-the-Internet-you-aintseen-nothin-yet.pdf
57
5 exabytes: http://highscalability.com/blog/2012/9/11/how-big-is-a-petabyte-exabyte-zettabyte-or-ayottabyte.html
58
Hilbert: http://www.martinhilbert.net/WorldInfoCapacityPPT.html :
the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown 6 % during the same period. This means that
information (storage and telecommunication) grows 4 to 5 times faster than the economy, and
computation more than 10 times faster. While the growth of information (storage and communication)
has led to the often lamented “information overload”, the fact that computation grows twice as fast as
information (storage and communication) allows us to create computational solutions to confront this
overload (e.g. email spam filters to control telecommunication, or search algorithm to sort through
storage). In this way, we use (computational) technologies to solve the problems produced by
(informational) technologies…
Hilbert: http://www.martinhilbert.net/WorldInfoCapacity.html; Communicate, Store, Transform:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIKPjOuwqHo
59
Curated Data: http://semanticabyss.blogspot.nl/2009/03/what-is-curated-data.html
60
Trinity Diagram:
http://www.google.com/search?q=trinity+diagram&nord=1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=9jOsU_9uoYn
MA8rsgNAH&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1440&bih=752
61
Internet of Everything: http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/innov/IoE.pdf
62
Harold Innis’s Communication Theories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Innis's_communications_theories
63
Carey, James W. Communication As Culture: Essays on Media and Society. New York: Routledge, 1989.
64
Google Search Statistics: http://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/
65
World to have 3 billion Internet users by year end: UN: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-0506/news/49661552_1_internet-subscriptions-itu
66
More Connected Than Ever: 6 Billion New Internet-Enabled Devices to be Produced This Year - See more at:
http://press.ihs.com/press-release/design-supply-chain/more-connected-ever-6-billion-new-internet-enableddevices-be-prod#sthash.8nFE9PDL.dpuf
67
10 Foolproof Predictions about the Internet for 2020:
http://www.networkworld.com/article/2238913/wireless/10-fool-proof-predictions-for-the-internet-in-2020.html
Cf. The Next 6 Billion: http://www.webdirections.org/blog/the-next-6-billion/
68
Wiktionary: List of Languages: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:List_of_languages
69
Dictionary of Knowledge: https://www.dictionaryproject.org/news/general-news/dictionary-knowledge
70
Knowledge Encyclopedia: http://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Encyclopedia-DK-Publishing/dp/1465414177
47
32
71
Gemeinsamer Verbundkatalog:
http://gso.gbv.de/DB=2.1/SET=1/TTL=1/CMD?MATCFILTER=N&MATCSET=N&NOSCAN=N&ACT0=&I
KT0=&TRM0=&ACT3=*&IKT3=8183&ACT=SRCHA&IKT=1016&SRT=YOP&TRM=knowledge+book&T
RM3=
72
Knowledge Book in Google on 26 06 2014:
http://www.google.com/webhp?nord=1#nord=1&q=knowledge+book
73
Buckland, 2006, p. 64: http://books.google.nl/books?id=MV-nL7IxmIcC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=Microthoughts+emanuel+goldberg&source=bl&ots=Y5SAFQ-O1R&sig=XMyY1P5BsHEioQdhGQwwKQSUF4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=qzUsUo7YDuWv0QXq8IHQBA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Microthoughts%20emanuel%20goldberg&f=false
74
For an earlier discussion of the problem and general approach see: 2005 Access, Claims and Quality on the
Internet – Future challenges. Progress in Informatics, Tokyo, no. 2, November 2005, pp. 17-40.
http://sumscorp.com/new_media/computers/internet/news_161.html
75
Grant Fjermedal, The Tomorrow Makers, Redmond, Tempus Books, 1986.
76
The Future: http://brendan.sdf-eu.org/downloads/the_future.pdf
77
Some claim that this will be later in the years 2026-2045: http://www.elon.edu/eweb/predictions/150/2026.xhtml
78
Electronic Image: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/books/review/what-would-marshall-mcluhan-havemade-of-the-internet-age.html?_r=0
79
The numbers in appendix 1 are based on searches using the German Gemeinsamer BibliotheksVerbund
(GBV): http://gso.gbv.de/DB=2.1/?LNG=DU . In each case, a term such as History of Media was entered and
the number of hits was recorded. Since the hits are arranged chronologically the last page was recorded to
determine the oldest publication on the subject. The one exception is Nano-media where there were no hist for
history of nano-media, but 1 for the subject on its own.
33