Communication Throughout the Ages
Since human kind evolved from a
primal species (some believe
hundreds of thousands, some believe
millions) of years ago, we have been
coming up with creative new ways to
communicate over long distance
throughout the ages.
Stone Age
• The dawn of man kind. Ideas such as clothing,
tools, and housing were still in their infancy,
but so was another thing import to human
kind, visual communication.
Cave paintings
• Cave paintings are where we learn much
about primitive people, tools they used,
animals they hunted or worshipped, theyre
way of life portrayed on stone. This is not a
direct form of communication, but it is a
primitive way of expressing a message, sort of
like an article in a magazine
Smoke signals
• This is perhaps the most prominent method of
communication in this age. Primitive tribes
would send a warning, or a missive for aid
using this method to help defend against
raiding tribes, which is something else
distinctly human, the earliest skeletons were
found with spear heads in their rib cages.
Petroglyphs
• An indept carving into a rock surface,
depicting an object, concept, activity or
location. It takes around 20000 years from
humans to convert from cave painting to
carving an image in rock, to be immortalized.
Ideograms
• These are very similar to cave paintings and
petroglyphs, only these are the most
advanced form of communication up until the
invention of written language. Before,
pictograms and petroglyphs could depict an
object or activity or place, but not an action or
specific idea. Now, more complex drawings
shows verbs and abstract ideas
uncomprehensable before this point
Bronze – Early Iron Age
• We’ve made a massive improvement in tool
making. Now instead of brittle chips of stone,
blacksmiths could make weapons, tools and
armour from dirt (aka copper and tin) which
brings the dawn of a new age. Humanity is on
its feet now, but is still learning the ropes to
become more advanced.
Written Language
• A hallmark of civilization, we can now write a
perfectly coherent conversation onto a
physical object, to be processed by third party.
This is were we see full texts being written on
stone and wood tablets and dried animal
skins, surviving samples of these are where we
get much of our knowledge of ancient
civilizations.
Mail
• The first courier routes appear around the 5th
century BC. These could be on sent out in
wagons or boats depending on the location.
This allowed letters as well as small packages
to get from A to B quickly without having to
make the journey yourself and pass on the
message by your own resources
Pigeon Posts
• You could now sent a message over a
moderate distance with the speed of wings in
flight. Messenger pigeons were used up until
radio technology was created and improved
upon around the time of the first world war.
Middle Ages
• Up until around this time, communication is
unchanged for over a thousand years. Written
language, mail, and messenger pigeon posts
seem to have been doing it right. But one
invention will lay the stepping stone for copyprinting and media, and the widespread
circulation of written documents. Knowledge
and education aren’t going to be restricted to
the priveleged few for much longer.
The Movable Type
• Invented in the early Tenth Century. Now
copies of a specific document could be made
more quickly and exactly than ever before.
The downside is that they’re very expensive,
and big and heavy, and rearranging the
hundreds upon hundreds of tiny ceramic
plates was extremely tedious.
The Gutenberg Printing Press
• Introduced in 1440 in Europe, this was
capable of producing almost a hundred times
the amount of pages per day than the
movable type, a vast improvement? Certainly!
This made education more widely accessable.
Renaissance period
• Up until now, the printing press from the mid
15th century has been the latest in
communication technology, and has been
serving Europeans to the fullest of its
capabilities, assisting to spread knowledge
throughout the common population.
Semaphore (Maritime flags)
• With Naval industries booming during the 17th
century, ports were never buisier. You can just
Imagine the traffic of ships in a major port, it
would be like daytime traffic only with massive
gallion’s carrying trade goods and passengers. So
someone had to come up with a way to manage
all this traffic to avoid complete pandemonium,
so Robert Hooke invented the Sephamore,
probably called this because the patent for
“funny hand waving with flags” was already
taken.
Early – Late 19th Century
• Up until era, progression in communication
methods has been slow. But during this time
period we see a vast new improvement in
communication following the birth of
electricity .
Morse Code
• In 1836 an American inventor by the name of
Samuel Morse created an electrical telegraph
system that could transmit coded messages
over a long range. This required a trained
operator to understand the message, but
could send messages farther and faster than
ever before.
Typewriter
• Invented in 1867, this allowed individuals
everywhere to mechanically publish their own
writing, the Typewriters first entry was “The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain.
The Telephone
• Introduced by Alexander Grahm Bell in 1876,
people could now have an oral conversation
over a great distance in real time. Today,
nearly 4.2 billion people own a telephone.
IBM Punchard System
Invented in 1890, the Punchard system was used
by the army in World War II. The “sorting”
system punched out over 600 cards a minute.
Early 20th – 21st century
• During the next hundred years, from the T.V.
To WikiPedia, we see an explosion in the
invention of communication technology like
never witnessed before.
Commercial Radio
• In 1920, the invention of commercial radio
meant that families at home could tune into a
local radio station, for valuable information
updates, or for entertainment.
Television
• Invented in 1925, the television could do
everything commercial radio could but
better... And with pictures!
• “Video killed the radio star.” – The Buggles
Email
• Introduced in 1965, Messages and Documents
can be sent with lightning speed across
continents.
Internet
• Initially created in 1969 as a US Military
project. The internet allows for information
and ideas to be posted from anywhere in the
world with internet connection, to be viewed
by anyone anywhere.
Search Engines
• Since 1990, You can look for a vast variety of
different subjects in a search query rather
than typing in specific URL’s for every page
you visit.
Wikki’s
• Created by Ward Cunningham in ’94, wikki
means “fast” in Hawaiian, which is how long it
took to make the encyclopedia obsilete.
Social Networking
• Emerging onto the scene in 2002 with
Friendster, You can now keep in touch with
your friends, and share videos and pictures
and information with them. But with the
availiability of this easily accessable personal
information, Your also now more vulnerable to
cyber stalkers than ever before.
Online Content Collaboration
• With everything from email to social
networking thrown into a melting pot, we now
have literally almost everything we can
imagine at our fingertips. Never again would
information and ideas and entertainment be
held from the common man, and never again
would the youth be as productive as they
once were, way back when.