Key Developments of the Information Age

The first communication between humans took place in face-to-face interaction, but they soon began to create ways of sending messages long distances and recording information for use over time by others. Many of the methods were not very convenient, but man’s creative spirit kept on creating. Now man has invented the technology for communicating face-to-face over long distances and for storing and transmitting massive amounts of information through the use of electricity and light waves. This article is a short history of key events in man’s continuous search for better ways of storing information and communicating ideas.

In 3500 B.C. Sumerians developed a system of writing. In 3200 B.C. Egyptians first used ink. Paper was invented in China in about A.D.105 by Cai Lun (Ts’ai Lun). The Chinese probably invented the process of block printing using wooden blocks. Later in about 1045 Bi Sheng (Pi Sheng) made the first moveable type. In the meantime, in Europe most books were still being written by hand and later using block prints. Gutenburg’s invention in 1440 of the printing press allowed the general population to have access to books.

In 1729 electric pulses were first sent over a wire; 100 years later in 1831 the telegraph was invented, allowing information to be transmitted by code of long and short electrical signals. In 1866 these signals were first carried by cables under t Atlantic Ocean. In 1892 Bell’s invention of the telephone led to the development of a system that enabled people to have instantaneous voice communication with each other.

Television was invented in the 1920s, making it possible for people to see what is happening around the world. Usually what we see is selected and edited first; however, more recently, and more frequently, there is direct, live broadcasting of actual events. Thus, we have been able to watch important ceremonies, military operations, and other historical events as they occur.

Many ideas and inventions led to the development of the computer; one was Babbage’s analytic engine in 1834. The first fully electronic digital computer was built by two engineers, Eckert and Mauchly in 1946, and occupied a whole room. Miniaturization of electronic equipment has led to high-speed computers with very large memories as well as pocket-size computers. Affordable prices have also led to widespread use of computers even outside of businesses in some countries.

The development of Internet, an international electronic communications network of thousands of networks linking computers, began with one network, ARPANET, a U.S. government experiment in 1969. Now Internet is only one of many systems. Expansion has been extremely rapid in recent years. In 1983 the first inter-city fiber-optic phone system was installed, adding to the capacity of networks. They have become so complex that users need electronic tools to search the services and databases. In 1993 the annual growth rate for the traffic using one of these tools, gopher, was 997%, and for another tool, World-Wide Web, 341,634%!

Internet and other network systems allow “people in geographically distant lands to communicate across time zones without seeing each other information is available 24 hours a day from thousands of places. There is no “middleman.” It can be real-time or delayed-time interaction. People are not restricted to direct communication with just a few people at a time.

Electronic communication is a mixture of oral and written communication. One person can communicate with hundreds of people at the same time that someone else is also doing the same thing. For example, on USENET (only one of the many systems), on a typical day in February, 1993, 80,000 users posted information from 25,000 sites. These systems also allow a person to find information that has been stored in many different places. From a computer in one’s home or office, a person can search a database (a library catalog, telephone directory, encyclopedia) in a distant or even foreign location.

Individuals can also become news reporters of local news events. For example, during the coup attempt that spelled the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union a small e-mail company, Relcom, was the only communication link available.

It is predicted that these electronic networks will become the key international infrastructure of the 21st Century. In the United States this infrastructure is now being called the Information Superhighway (IS). The IS exists in what some people call Cyberspace. So much has happened since the invention of paper about 5,500 years ago!