Communication. When it comes to humans we have an almost innate ability to read facial expressions, and almost intuitive ability to understand gestures from an early age and from a distance. This predates modern humans and probably goes back hundreds of thousands of years. At some point spoken language developed to communicate more than just a few interpretable grunts or sounds.
Speech served as direct communications between families and tribes. Small groups. Islands of humanity. And wanderers served to communicate their observations as they traveled between groups. Languages shared. Languages evolved. Story tellers evolved.
Artists who drew and painted images on rocks appeared at least 30,000 years ago. The original graffiti. Carvers creating gods, loved or revered ones and animals out of wood, stone and likely other material that has not survived were equally adept at conveying messages, concepts, abstract thoughts.
Painters and carvers had power. They could create something that others could only marvel at and envy. Much later rulers would pay to have artisans create tributes to their magnificence to assist their rule and remove the heads (or hands or eyes) of the artists whom displeased them. The ruled after all must see their rulers in all of their glory.
Story tellers evolved into theatrical troops. Plays both dramas and comedies developed. Roving troupes of entertainers and larger settlements having permanent theaters. This allowed messages to be conveyed to an audience. If the audience was pleased the performers ate. If the local rulers were not the show could be cut (literally) short. All of this information would be passed down word of mouth. Not a very secure medium over many, many generations.
At some point independently, geniuses wondered at developing written symbols to record language. Two methods using pictures or phonetic constructs independently approached and probably several independent duplications. What was imagined that led to this development of written language? A method of communicating that was more precise over time and distance? A method of storing and preserving records of inventory and history? Apparently while independently arising written language has only been around a few thousand years. But it clearly had value.
Perhaps accounting was responsible for written language. Numbers written down. Talley sheets. You need a written language to put labels next to numbers. Gold. Silver. Frankincense.... Well, it is just a guess. But you suddenly realize crude messages can develop from here. And orders can be conveyed. Transfer 100 silver pieces to King Lybold. Buy 100 bushels of rye from King Lybold. Invade the Kingdom of King Lybold. Yes, very convenient indeed.
Initially, written language was the prerogative of elites. It conferred power because it was a rare and valuable skill. It had better permanence than passed down word of mouth knowledge. It was a record. It allowed clearer agreements between parties. It allowed edicts and law to be posted...even if its subjects could not read them. It allowed the king to communicate with the masses indirectly. No longer need the king shout his commands from a tower to the rabble below. Now he could send out his scribes to the far corners of his kingdom (under armed guard of course) to shout out his demands for him. But writing and reading were the prerogative of priests and kings. Those who ruled.
It has only been in the past few hundred years that reading and writing written languages was allowed or taught to the common folk or middle classes. Correspondingly as more people
could read there was greater need for more print information. The printing press came along---invented by private enterprise to fulfill a perceived need of greater and less expensive in time and cost of the printed word. Books, pamphlets and leaflets. This led to public and private libraries---the latter with affordable membership fees, making access to books even more affordable.
And newspapers. Newspapers would allow the king to reach his servants through releases of articles written by those paid by and loyal to the king. Of course the king needed a way to examine a newspaper's content prior to print to ensure it presented no threat. An editing censor.
All this print commerce increased opportunities in both pen, ink and paper manufacture.
But all of this made the rulers fearful. The rabble who could now read without being read to by the priests could more readily be exposed to ideas the ruling class did not want them contemplating. The riff raff could foment dissent by posting and spreading their own ideas via print that was passed from one to another instead of being detected using spies to infiltrate and overhear conversations. Its authors anonymous.
A concomitant development was cheaper and more alternatives for canvas and pigmented paints allowing paintings for the middle classes. But with paint, chalk and charcoal graffiti moved beyond etching or carving figures into walls to "The King is A Fink!" In numerous languages. Throughout the cities. The King grew fearful.
Kings had their military runners to courier messages over distance for many millennia between their associated priests and scribes. Carrier pigeons existed 3,000 years ago. 50 mph. Typically with a 500 mile range. Clever humans.
Other methods of rapid signaling were developed with limited messages and limitations: semaphore. Smoke signals, flags or fires in towers, reflected light, etc. between relay stations.
Much more recently someone started private courier services delivering messages and what would be mail between towns. This was likely on foot and then equines increased the distance, frequency and speed of couriering messages as well as the number of messages. This also associated itself as a byproduct of passenger or property transport in carriages. Eventually in the United States the Pony Express could travel across the nation with messages going back and forth between way stations. This could take many days. Even this would be supplemented and supplanted by transcontinental railroads. It was a costly and slow moving communication, but faster than by passing stranger on foot.
Cameras were developed and suddenly images could be captured and people could see events, the world and its "leaders" not through paintings, or travel but from images that they would see for themselves if only they were physically there. Still film images--pictures, photographs--generally were never regulated. Oh, there was censorship, and the beatings of the guy with the camera by the king's men---indeed such deletion of photos and beatings continue to this day. But for some reason most government has never seen fit to regulate photography on the absolute scale that they regulate most communications.
Eventually inventor Samuel Morse figured out a way to send messages over long distances at near the speed of light: The electric telegraph. By the 1860's the world was linked by underwater telegraph cables.
Near the beginning of the last century a wireless telegraph was created that allowed ships at sea to relay messages.
The telephone was commercialized by Alexander Graham Bell in the mid-1870's. Once again the privilege of the wealthy and governments, it would eventually trickle down and win the
competition for ease of verbal communications between ordinary people and reach most of the planet though at some expense (charge per minute over distance).
But it is with the spoken voice over distance that we have today. Switchboard operators were replaced with automatic switchers. Telephones would exist one per village. Then a few at major businesses. Then telephones became more and more available to a home. Then multiple phone extensions throughout the house. Until they are taken for granted. And then supplanted by something else.
It is important to note that effectively these forms of communication have been government granted monopolies. Regulated and protected by the high priest of the king. Everywhere. They still are.
Even when new technology comes along and supplants an older form of communication, the king makes sure to keep his hand on the throat of the communication. Both with carrot (an early investor) and stick (edicts backed by force of arms).
Occasionally a judge comes along and sort of busts up a monopoly. Changes protectionist rules a bit and frees up some consumer choice. When this happens frequently newer and cheaper models of communication devices briefly explode into the marketplace and quickly penetrate the society before government successfully reestablishes its control. But the people suddenly like their pink Princess phone. Or their mobile phone brick. And there is no going back. But more sales means more money for the beast. And the beast once again firmly in control is content to let the rabble have its shiny bauble whose sale it gets a cut from.
But I've digressed and gotten ahead of the story. Motion or moving pictures came into being around the beginning of the 20th Century. Interestingly they became popular with the masses when movie houses (theaters) started to install air conditioning. Motion pictures became the new theatrics. It allowed people to see areas and sights of the world without having to travel there. It allowed comedies and drama to be performed. Silent at first, it quickly had audio linked with the moving images. Its content needed to be regulated by the king at the same time it served to glorify the king.
At the same time another breakthrough in communications for the masses occurred. The mimeograph came into being. For those too young to know, the mimeograph was effectively the photocopier of its day. It allowed businesses and eventually small groups/ clubs/ organizations and schools to mass produce print copies of a document fairly inexpensively. Unlike a photocopier, you could not scan a document and then print it. It had to be typed or manually impressed onto a stencil drum which then transferred ink on a roller drum to paper. But it led to many decades of pamphleteering on the cheap.
Radio probably became the next major communication to come along. "The roaring twenties." Conveying news and entertainment. And allowing the king to communicate to the masses.
Crude at first. But with experimentation, radio broadcasts could occur over great distances in all directions. Receivers started appearing in homes. Their master's voice could suddenly appear in every household throughout the realm. "Masters" with great voices suddenly had a selective advantage. Kings with lesser voices needed to recruit talking heads to deliver their commands and propaganda. They also needed to ensure their censors controlled content over the airwaves. But they were well practiced at doing this for other communications.
Radio evolved. Not only did receivers get smaller and more affordable, but transmitters did too. Eventually mobile radios (CB's for example) and personal radios (walkies-talkies) come into use. Eventually the middle class could afford their own around the world broadcast stations (short wave).
With radio came the need to record audio. Radio was inconveniently live. Errors happened. Things could get out that were not meant to get out. Audio recordings allowed the ability to program what would go over the air and when it would go over the air. But audio recordings would also allow incontrovertible documentation of what was said. Dangerous for liars or government. But then I repeat myself.
Do you see a trend here? For the past 150 years the types of communications available have been dramatically increasing. And the costs of the communications have been dramatically falling which increases the penetration of the various communications into the hands of everyone. Further communication has been reaching an ever widening audience and more rapidly. For the most part government has controlled the communication though various methods and using various excuses as to why it was necessary to control.
Television or TV was the great idea of taking radio and wouldn't it be great to see what was going on during the broadcast? First it was in black & white. Then in color. It evolved from pretty much radio with pictures to programming. Serious programing. Suddenly the king needed to be good looking as well as convincingly spoken or else to
hire a good looking talking head to speak for the king.
Even better for government, it turned out that TV literally mesmerized the viewer. What was seen was believed. Never before or that I can see since has a medium evolved so perfectly to plant ideas into our heads or waste so much of our time in non-contemplative sedation. Televised fictions are broadcast extolling the virtues of the state nightly. Questionable behavior and virtues are doled out to households across the planet on a massive consumptive scale. Only recently have there been serious signs that television is dying off with progressively older audiences and a lessening percentage of the population viewing.
Television can now be seen as an over the air broadcast, a cable or fiber optic broadcast or satellite broadcast (and an Internet broadcast). 600 channels and nothing on. The king has heavily regulated and monopolized TV. Truthfully, television never was much of a medium for citizens to communicate through. Only occasional activist stunts get mentioned on news broadcasts and then only 15 to 20 seconds worth. The communication seems to be one way---into our brains with no feedback.
The photocopier came along and became increasingly affordable in the 1970's. Here any document could be reproduced in mass and fairly inexpensively. Here was the beginnings of a private printing press available to anyone. Unfortunately by this time the government education system had successfully started to dumb down the herd. Reading and writing skills were declining. But that didn't completely stop some people from trying to communicate with their fellow citizens. The King has mandated color copiers and printers place special code (in yellow) into documents that allows the make/model and serial number of the printer to be determined from a printed page. No anonymity allowed to save us from counterfeiting.
Today photocopiers have evolved into "all-in-ones." High speed and quality color printers that also scan documents or images, fax machine built in and spit out copies of all. They can be connected to a computer, computer network, WiFi (wireless broadcast) network or act as a stand alone device.
Mobile and cell phones came into use in the early 80's. First starting out installed in cars and briefcases as analog models. Later shrinking to the size of a brick. Costs continued to plummet. And eventually into fairly tiny, light weight, long battery life digital pocket phones. Their transmission distance is fairly limited requiring receiving/transmitting towers nearby. And the cost of a call ranges from free (common) to fairly inexpensive---though roaming charges of criminal proportions have been known to be attached occasionally. Today's cell phones may even be cameras, video cameras, audio recorders, video viewers and fairly sophisticated miniature computers in addition to many other non-communicative functions.
But cell phones have delivered voice communications to the majority of the globe. Indeed in places where hanging telephone wires was too cost prohibitive but line of sight towers can be arranged with solar electric power cell phone networks have exploded over rural and third world nations. People are connected to other people like never before.
Indeed in 1998 an audacious company, Iridium, was launched to place 77 satellites up in orbit to give fairly global coverage of the planet for a satellite phone. They went bankrupt almost immediately predominantly because of the far more rapid than expected spread of cell phone towers throughout the planet made the far more expensive satellite phone effectively over priced and out competed. It still exists. But its $3,000 brick phones are for only those who are in remote areas without cell coverage who absolutely must retain communications.
These cell towers have evolved into transmitting data as well as voice, from text messages to interactive games and video as well as uploading and downloading files. The speed and bandwidth of these data pathways continues to improve. And they may use a variety of connection devices besides cell phones these days.
While personal computers had been around for consumers since the mid-seventies, it wasn't until 1981 that the IBM PC rolled out the door which would go on to become the 'every man's personal computer' (PC). Combined with a printer and a word processor software, it turned the PC into an advanced typewriter.
Combined with a data modem which allowed the PC to communicate with other computers over telephone lines the beginnings of a network of computers called a bulletin board system (BBS) was formed. BBS' were operated by PC users usually out of closets in their home. Park a PC in a closet, kept on 24/7 and plugged into a modem. Some were single line meaning you could only plug in one visitor at a time, others used multi-telephone line BBS systems. Allowing people to call into the BBS, login and exchange messages, download/ upload files and read postings (content) of the BBS operator. Even live chat. Some BBS' specialized: Games, hobbies, etc. From this sprang AOL, Compuserve and other commercial BBS' with enhanced capacities. Forums with special activities evolved. Companies with unused optical fiber capacities lying unused in the evenings began selling access to their transcontinental telephone network at night allowing BBS visitors to call over a hundred US and Canadian cities from the US and spend free time (as a local call) on the BBS.
Computer modems also allowed the simulation of a fax machine which could scan and transmit any document over a phone line. People could log into a set up PC and even press a number on a menu to have specific content on demand "faxed" to their PC or PC's printer. Scanners became available that would transfer any document or image into a computer file.
The personal computer has evolved into a device that can do a great deal of communicating from its original writing and printing days. As was noted printers have developed into having high speed and high quality output. Effectively allowing a user to become a publisher for low cost.
Audio and even video recording [using a webcam (a low cost camera that plugs into the PC)] is possible from a PC. Audio, photo, video editing are routinely done on an almost professional level using PCs. So sophisticated that the term "photoshopped" was coined meaning the media content being altered in a manner only available to professional studios years ago without the viewer being aware of the alteration can have a tremendous ability for a creator to get their idea created and put out to the world. Live or streamed recorded broadcasts of audio and or video are possible from a PC to a myriad of devices. Communication between PCs and other interactive devices are extremely fast, can exchange a great deal of information in a brief amount of time, can arrange for this information to be obscured through encryption, can be obscured as to source using anonymous servers, can circumvent or allow monitoring of the king. The king don't like that at all.
A $5,000 entry level PC (in 1981 dollars) has fallen in price so that currently for $300 a relatively powerful extremely portable netbook or desktop model can be purchased.
Indeed, there are charitable organizations supplying the third world with capable PCs for under $50. PCs that link to one another forming a network and will link into any network they find available. Connectivity. Connectivity with the world. People don't like it much when they find their government bombing people they are communicating with on the other side of the world. And translation applications (apps) and web apps, allow real time communication between people who neither speak nor read one another's languages. A universal translator freely available and it works pretty good and improves in accuracy all the time.
The king has tried to regulate PCs. To mark them. Whether incorporating broadcast serial numbers from CPUs (computer processing unit), to proposing GPS (global positioning satellite) chips be incorporated into PCs to other proposals for having a unique ID on a PC. Taxing, licensing schemes. They have not been too successful so far. A real problem has been the ability of programmers to create simple apps that either block the transmission of such IDs or can change them to something else.
This leads me to discuss the most powerful communication in the world: The Internet. Created by the US government during the Cold War as a fail safe communications system that would continue to function even as portions of it were wiped out from a nuclear war. While fortunately never tested, the robustness and devious switching ability through any communication node The Internet finds connected to its network has made it very hard for governments to block. Worse, because of its rapid adoption by the global population and commerce it is difficult for a government to cut off its populace without cutting off a major amount of income to the government. Darned near the planet is connected.
The nature of the Internet has rallied some serious "who needs government-just leave me alone" types. The government's failure to realize the importance of The Internet as a vast convenient communications network and the Internet's massive success has greatly hamstrung bureaucrats to whom control of the masses is second nature. Things move too fast for their regulations. A massive number of users like their internet the way it is. There are users whom are programmers who can often defeat government control much less any government observation of what is occurring on the Internet at any time. The gang with a flag likes the revenue they steal from Internet interaction too much to screw with it. That doesn't mean they aren't trying to saddle this beast. It just means so far they have been unsuccessful.
Worse for government, The Internet has killed off its best and most reliable medium for control, television.
The Internet brings people from around the globe together. It offers a place where anyone can -- fairly anonymously is desired -- comment, post news or anything they wish. You can usually find anything on the Internet. Video, audio, images, art, documents ... once loaded are hard to remove. Social media has evolved---The veracity of info is subject to challenge by anyone and the success of something present on the Internet is dependent upon its popularity. A very free market of ideas. Users essentially rank content.
The Internet access can be through cables, wires, microwave towers, cell phone towers, WiFi like broadcasts, satellite dishes and undoubtedly ways I never imagined. Video telecommunication can be made to anyone in the world through the app, Skype if they have a PC (video camera optional if you just want an audio connection). For free. Bloggers post their thoughts and observations. Video projects get posted. Audio recordings. Photographs. The equipment to make these documents is fairly inexpensive and of high quality. The apps to enhance and edit them free. It is hard to hate someone on the other side of the globe when you talk to them, read their words, hear their stories. And then pay attention to what your government says and does in your name. The speed at which any event can be posted is instantaneous on free services such as YouTube, twitter, or via texting. Complete censorship of the recording can be impossible. Punishment if identified the only option for a displeased king.
The freedom on the Internet does pose one extreme danger to communication and that is the ready ability to copy someone's ideas and either present them as your own (stealing them) or allowing their non-licensed use. Either way denies the creator a royalty to their creation and will ultimately eliminate the incentive to create. Being a starving artist is no fun.
The last really powerful tools to communicate are some of the oldest: spray paint, signs on freeways that reach hundreds of thousands of stalled rush hour motorists, micro-broadcasting radios, balloons, anything that can be imagined can often be made for you and shipped in days from around the globe to anywhere on the globe. It is just a matter of searching the Internet and the free market provides.
Activists have never had it so good. Governments have never been so close to having their actions exposed in real time and in raw form, unmassaged by their media puppets. Hitting truth to power has never been less expensive or easier.
So what is the future? I wish I was smart enough to see because I suspect I would become rich. I can say some obvious things for sure based upon the history above. Communication and its devices will continue to exist as the miniaturization of everything, using lower power, higher transmission and reception power and clarity, it will be cheaper, more portable, more concealable, have long battery life or even long term power built in, it will be a disposable commodity, all functions on such a gadget will increase in quality, and devices will increase in multitasking ability until it is hard to distinguish cell phone from laptop from camera from audio recorder from projector from data input from ....
Clearly the government will spy on us. But I think there will be far more people spying on their government with drones with amazing remote sensor ability and recording capability. With hacks into government networks. I think people will protect the Internet over their government's objections. They have too much invested in it. Government will get the message. How it will respond is another matter.
The only future I see that is speculative would be devices for communication and access being implanted in people. I mean what else is left other than direct physical interfacing to devices? Harder to detect. Harder to take away. Potentially powered by the body. Able to be controlled by our thoughts. But an access point to our mind is an access point to our mind. And having a device inside us that is subject to both tracking and instant ID is not necessarily a good thing in a totalitarian world. But I'm sure there's an app for that.
Powell Gammill is the Senior Editor of Freedom’s Phoenix.Com, Micro/Molecular Biologist, and a libertarian activist. 
