COMMUNICATION -YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW

What is Communication?

The Dictionary would describe 'Communication' as the transmission of information: the imparting or exchanging of views, ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., by the spoken word, the written expression or by body language. This God's gift to Man, this ability to communicate, accounts for the principal reason for Man's progress through the millennia. In all of Nature's creation, Man is the only being endowed with this faculty of Communication to this extent. Dolphins, whales, bees, apes and some animals do have primitive levels of communication among themselves, but they do not possess ways to leave behind their knowledge as a legacy to succeeding generations.

Every generation has been able to build on the sturdy foundation of the knowledge assimilated through previous generations. Prehistoric Man discovered fire. Later descendants discovered the art of extracting metals, using fire for smelting, etc. Subsequent generations saw Man make use of these metals to forge utensils, weapons and instruments. Imagine the plight of our scientists if each one of them had to unearth for themselves, each of the discoveries, and that, too, within their own lifetimes! History is replete with examples. Einstein could propound his Theory of Relativity by working on Newton's Gravitation Theory and rocket scientists utilise and put together the composite knowledge of numerous forebears along with their own findings to scale greater heights.

Communication - Yesterday:

How Communication has assisted in Man's progress is relatively simple: Actions and body language must have been the first form of communication. Early Man would have found ways of transferring ideas and concepts that formed in his mind on to others by gestures, - his body language showing his fear, anger, happiness, etc. Later on, he would have used verbal utterances with guttural sounds serving as a precursor to oral communication. For the spoken word, Man devised Language. Initially, his vocabulary would have comprised of the very basic words for water, danger, food, etc. As time went by, he would have enlarged it to include words of a more descriptive nature. The next step would have been making indentations or markings with indelible substances on varied surfaces - in plain English, the written word. From making notches in soft clay and baking these to form clay tablets to preserve the markings, and later on with the usage of papyrus reeds or broad leaves until Man discovered the art of making paper, the written word evolved. Thus, Thought became immortal and outlived the thinker. Yet, until Gutenberg invented the moveable metal type for printing in the fifteenth century and until William Caxton developed the printing press shortly thereafter, it used to be a cumbersome process to take copies of manuscripts. It was either being done by hand or by using hand-carved wooden blocks - one block per page! Naturally, this limited the number of copies available as these had to be painstakingly done manually and with access to the original. It follows that, therefore, opportunities to read these was also limited.

As soon as Language and the written word evolved sufficiently, manuscripts came to be preserved in libraries and these were just about the only repositories of information available to Man. The very limited nature of the copies available coupled with the primitive transportation facilities in those days proved to be stumbling blocks for scholars in their quest to improve their knowledge. Civilisations with access to such knowledge would thrive, while neighbouring ones would languish. More often than not, this would cause friction between them and spark off wars. Accounts and tales recounted by travelers were the main source of information even about neighbouring countries and the veracity of such knowledge was, sometimes, suspect. Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great took pride in having the first great public library giving more than 700,000 books written on papyrus. This irreplaceable and priceless collection was thoughtlessly razed to the ground in a fit of barbaric frenzy, when Arabs conquered Egypt during the 7th Century A.D.

Communication - Today:

Today, we take the printed word for granted, what with the millions of copies of books and manuscripts available everywhere as also the ubiquitous nature of the Internet where anything and everything is only a mouse-click away!

Coming back to the all-pervasive printed word, we cannot imagine life these days without it. Starting from the morning's newspaper right through every second of our existence in this world as we know it, there are very few moments when we are away from it. Correspondence, transactions, money, you-name-it. And with all the technological advancements, the world has become a small place. Any new material released in any part of the world becomes accessible all over the globe within a short period. Contrast this with Gutenberg's time when one had to be in his town or at least in a neighbouring place, to have access to his books.

In the contemporary era, all great libraries stock copies of great books from all over the world. Apart from these printed versions, the Internet provides almost instant access to these books, through cyberspace, from anywhere in the world. The early Sixties saw innovative forms of storing knowledge, such as microfilms that could comfortably hold the same amount of material that a few hundred books could, within a spool of film that could be held in one hand. The invention of the computer with its floppies, hard disks and Compact Discs has made storage of data deceivingly simple. The contents of a middle-sized library can now be carried about in a briefcase!

The evolution of the Communication media - the telephone, the radio, television and of course, the Internet, has made the world a small place and the world of communication is no longer hindered by obstacles like distance, accessibility, and transportation and transmission of knowledge.

Communication - Tomorrow:

Great strides have already been taking place vis-à-vis machines interacting with each other. This is nothing but Communication between machines. Sophisticated car engines 'sense' difficult terrain and signal to the carburettor to increase the petrol content of the spray into the cylinder for greater power; anti-skid braking devices judge the amount of resistance to be applied on each of the car wheels for optimum control; … the examples are legion. Experiments are on in The United States of America where 'wired-for-tomorrow' houses have 'intelligent' refrigerators that keep track of the house-owner's preferences and stock of foodstuff. The refrigerator will automatically 'order' from the local shop whatever items need to be replenished! Pre-programmed instructions in these 'smart' houses will include: as the alarm goes off, the water-heater switches itself on to reach a pre-defined temperature before shutting off automatically; the coffee-machine comes on to make the brew, the toaster is ready to serve the bread, toasted to perfection according to the pre-programmed instructions; the lights switch themselves off as soon as the work in the respective rooms are over and the garage door is open for you!

There is also a lot of talk and action about nano-computer enabled devices that can be injected into the bloodstream. These can be steered to the desired spot by external remote-control mechanisms and programmed to infuse precise doses of medicine or even perform surgical procedures! Once the job is done, these devices exit the body through the excretory system! These devices will be such a boon especially in cases where surgery is to be performed in inaccessible parts of the body, like the brain. There will no need for a surgeon to drill through the skull of the patient, a very risky proposition not only to the life of the patient but also to the extent of brain damage that such an operation may entail. The camera in the device helps the surgeon assess the extent of the damage and the doctor maneuvers a laser in the device to complete his operation. Post-operative care will be minimal as there has been no invasive surgery.

In the exciting world of the Internet, the future holds the promise of the realisation of ultimate multi-media concept. Presently, with the computer, we use the monitor to see, the speakers to hear, the CPU to process the information and the telephone line to connect us to the Internet. All this will not be required anymore if the scientists have their way. The race is on for a nano-microchip device that is to be implanted in the brain, which sends appropriate signals to the eye to 'see', the ear to 'hear' and the brain to 'process'! The Internet will be accessed by the chip - making for a truly 'wireless' connection! Though these dreams may seem like science-fiction right now, the day is not far off when all this will become Reality.

The different stages in Man's evolution, from the prehistoric ages can be clearly defined: The discovery of Fire; the discovery of the Wheel; the Iron Age, the Industrial Revolution and now, the Information Age.

Skeptics and cynics feel that while the world is now suffering from a surfeit of knowledge and information, Man has not developed enough maturity to sift and process this information productively. Their contention is that Man now has in his irresponsible hands, too valuable a plaything.

Never before in the history of Mankind, does Man have, within easy access, the cumulative knowledge of his ancestors spanning the centuries. Truly this is the Age of The Information Revolution and Man is poised for a quantum leap. Whether he succeeds or not, is in his own hands.