Communication can merely be described as sharing of information in a way that can be understood and interpreted between two or more organisms. We can’t really subject communication to only humans because even animals too communicate with each other. So Just by this description you can now tell that there are thousands of ways of communicating with each other. Communication has recently become so flawless that the modern day man from about 30 years ago would not actually believe it. Not only is talking to someone at the other end of the world as easy as clicking the call option on your cell phone but it is done so with a pocket sized device
Where it began.
Even before verbal communication became a staple in mankind about 120,000 years ago. Man likely used a combination of vocalisations, hand gestures and body language. So after suffering with making up verbal communication, some guy thought about pigeon carriers being a smart idea. What could go wrong you’d ask? Well apart from being eaten by predators on its way to deliver messages, being shot down in the world wars where they were more commonly used and also just going to chill in some spot and forgetting. And yes, during world wars pigeon carriers were used and it’s crazy just to think about it. Secret information about a whole army being delivered by an undersized modern day dinosaur (for those who aren’t following we are talking about the pigeons). It’s no surprise since the first ever phone was invented on March 7, 1876 back there was no proper automobile.
First phone
Now the first phone wasn’t the prettiest piece of tech from its decade. This barely looked like a phone and barely did half of what the modern day phones can do but who am I kidding humans were almost apes at the time. This phone could only allow conversations between people who were in separate places. Initially it was only able to handle coverage for a few miles but then it advanced with time
This was far better off than the telegraph which only allowed for code to be sent between people. It covered long distances after many reiterations to perfect it. The most common and advanced telegraph was the morse telegraph at around the same time the first phone was made. This made it easy for the phone to pick up one or two things from the telegraph.
So if you look at it from that point, it’s hard to say humans haven’t achieved impressive feats (this is why they tell you to pay attention in history class). Fast forward to thousands of years today, communication has become one of the most important aspects in basic human survival. In case there is to be a world wide power outage and people aren’t able to communicate, everything would be put at a halt.
Personally I feel like when we talk about the seamlessness of communication, we talk about the ease of doing so at any point in time and at any location. That’s where I bring in the mobile era of phones. This is not necessarily when communication was simplified for people but I feel it was the next step in the bigger picture. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000x was introduced in 1983. The first mobile phone that was accessible by people. Apart from it looking like a brick that has been cut into, it boasts a very aesthetic design which i feel was all the rage. Though pretty to look at I doubt its call quality was any good judging from its 30 minute battery and I doubt it used anything close to 2G technology.
That’s when we moved into the era of mobile communication technologies, this trend came too with the development of wireless technologies.
Wireless technologies
The popularization of wireless technologies in the 90s was a life changing step towards making communication seamless. This came with the introduction of 2G cell phones and popularization of the mobile smartphone. Weirdly wireless technology had been available for nearly a century when it was developed in the late largely due to the work of Guglielmo Marconi in the 1890s. Wireless telegraphy using spark-gap transmitters was introduced and this worked by transmitting morse code through radio waves that is then translated into words.
In 1994, blue tooth was then invented in Sweden primarily for providing a wireless connection between devices and headsets. This is why it was designed to only work in a short range unlike most wireless technologies. Fast forward to the current day where it is used for much more including internet tethering, location management, and even sending files. After Bluetooth, more wireless technologies like WiFi, 3G and LTE were introduced to improve communication between devices and people.
Complex Circuitry and motherboards.
This is so rarely spoken about and yet without the development of internal components of devices, communication would not go so far. Complex circuitry has enabled more data to be stored and processed due to high processing power present in modern day devices. Network components have also been buffed up to increase quality of calls, transmission of data and reception.
It’s difficult believing how far we have come and just a mystery for what the future has in store for us. Maybe we’ll even be able to have computers integrated within usv(something I would never do). We may even be able to have virtual screens right in front of us.
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