A Connected World

           Take a moment to think of the four most important inventions in human history.  Whatever you may consider, be it gunpowder, the automobile engine or roads, they are all products of one these four inventions. 

            The first invention is a point of contention because it cannot by definition be recorded.  It’s what makes us different than the animals.  Many animals can communicate, mostly danger, food, and dominance.  Higher level animals can communicate and display emotions of sadness, morning, affection and anger.  Only humans have complex speech.  Only we can discuss events that happened in the past, only we have specific names for people and places.  Only we communicate more than thoughts, we communicate ideas.   Some apes have been taught sign language so it’s possible they could harness the power of complex speech but so far a large scale experiment has not been done.  I know many animals can craft housing like beavers but never did two beavers discuss what another beaver who lived fifty years ago came up with and improve upon it.  Complex speech transforms a pack of beings into a tribe, a village, or even a kingdom. 

            Yelü Chucai, a confusion scholar said, “While empires can be conquered by horseback they cannot be ruled by horseback.”  This phrase refers to military rule but I would extend it to ruling an empire by sending and receiving messages via horseback.  Trying to explain to a chieftain why you needed writing might prove difficult.  The written word, which cannot be altered is so powerful.  It makes laws, history, banking and book making available.  Despite all the tangential inventions that predicate or follow from writing it’s the books that are important.  Jesus’s message of peace and a personal relationship with the All Mighty could be spread around the world only through the Bible.  Thoughts and ideas could be spread.  Creating a book was still a costly and arduous task.  However, without it the works of Plato, Aristotle, and Archimedes to name a few would not have survived.  Boiling it down, writing allowed the creation of empires and the persistence of knowledge. 

            There are several world changing inventions that were created in China but didn’t reach their ultimate potential until the Europeans got hold of them.  As an aside gunpowder was created first in China but not until it was combined with metallurgy to form muskets and cannons did it change the political and military landscape.  The same is with the printing press, first invented in China to create either religious or other spiritual teachings.  After some research China actually created a printing press with moveable type, first with wooden blocks and then with ceramic ones.  By the 12^th century some machines were made with metallic movable type parts.  The problem was that it was still a labor intensive process.  It was in Europe that the mechanized printing press was created.  It still had to be driven / cranked but it was semi-automated.  It wasn’t just used for religious, news and government purposes it was used for science, architecture, and math.  At the time of the end of the middle ages some science was in conflict with the Catholic Church which was stifling invention.  Once you could mass produce books, the person could be killed but not the idea.  The European style printing press transformed the middle ages into the renaissance.  Nothing would ever be the same.  It’s all about transmission and persistence of ideas and information.

            Before concluding the fourth major civilization changing invention we need to talk about the disconnected world.  In the ancient world (before 0 BC) the world was isolated to the following regions, South Africa, North Africa & the middle east, Europe, Asia, North America and South America.  There were probably many other smaller regions but the general idea is there was no communication, little or no travel and no information spreading.  In concurrence with the renaissance brought upon by the mechanical printing press the world became connected.   Would Columbus have sailed to America in 1492 if the printing press had not been commissioned by the Catholic Church in 1440?  Perhaps, but the pace of invention would not have continued.  The world slowly and surely became less disconnected as the centuries past.  By the 20^th century, getting anywhere in the world could be achieved within a day or two.  Communication became instantiations.  All of these flow from the ideas found, recorded, and disseminated by books.  Even when I went to college in the late 1990’s (dated) I learned primarily by books. 

            The final life changing invention was the internet.  The internet like all other inventions were precipitated by many other inventions like the computer, monitors, Ethernet, and routers.  The internet reduces the time to communicate and save ideas to zero.  It connects the whole world but in a specific way.  It is the final product of the word (spoken, written, produced, transmitted).  There is no quicker way to send ideas, pictures, and now video.  The internet is still only 20 years old.  It’s just started and it’s already transformed banking, books, news, politics, science, commerce and every other aspect of our life.  Yes, it was aided by smartphones and tablets but it is the all connected interface that will change the world irrevocably.  The internet will create a global social conscious form. 

            There is not much more progress in the physical location of people and goods.  Logistics will continue to optimize the transport of goods and people but until we get the Star Trek Transporter we will not be able to get people or goods around the planet faster.  There is only one track for progress, the dissemination of ideas via the internet.  Or is there?

            Before continuing onto the final connected world I would like to point out another competing track, 3D printing.  It’s still a novelist game but made for the masses what’s the difference between a transported good and a created good?  Unless of course if it takes just as long to print as it does to ship.  The only thing that could progress a connected world which is viable is a connected mind.  I’m not talking about being psychic but let’s explore scientific advancement.  The brain cannot transmit electrical energy over distances but the electrical energy can be transmitted approximately 1cm past the skull.  A passive reader or MRI machine can pick up brain waves.  We have used these noninvasive techniques to control a robotic arm.  This research is still in it’s infancy.  It’s still like the internet in the late 70’s.  Imagine a technology that along with mental training that could transmit ideas and commands.  Psychic like control could be emanated by individuals.  I always thought of sending truly private conversations to people I chose.  This would need an ear piece that could receive directed messages.  So far this would be nothing more than an extension of social like media.  The next leap is only in the imagination.  If you could connect our brains together in maybe a trance like state where the logical side of the brain was still awake it could be combined to form the best super computer ever.  The biggest challenge is how to transmit ideas to a brain?  Aside from the five senses how can we implant ideas?  A scary prospect. 

            This dual track combined with the internet and big data would bring us a truly connected world.