ORIGIN OF COMMUNICATION
Communication is a process that
started perhaps even before we knew how to write or spell the word
"communication". Communication is perhaps dated back to the advent of
life itself. What evolved from simple body language or ancient pictorial messages
carved on rocks metamorphosed into rather evolved channels of communication
like the telephone, television and of course the World Wide Web that brought
the world as close as it could get!
Although various complex theories and principles exist, communication can be simply defined as a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior. (Obviously the term is not limited to human beings because animals have their own modes of communication too!)
Here is an attempt to trace back the origins of communication...
Body Language: A friendly handshake, a gracious smile or even a warm hug. Body language is communication through simple body gestures. The time of emergence of body language cannot be precisely or accurately calculated or calculated. However the use of body language as means of communication has always been compared to communication modes used by animals.
Speech: The available fossil evidence hints that modern adaptations for speech appeared somewhere between 1.5 million and 500,000 years ago. The dynamics of evolution of speech acquisition is complex since it is influenced by factors like culturally transmitted sounds and genetic evolution.
Writing: The history of writing dates back to the various writing systems that evolved in the Early Bronze Age (late 4th millennium BC) out of Neolithic proto-writing. The evolution of writing is said to have evolved from proto-writing which means pictorial messages /symbols/scribbles that cannot be called "actual -writing". For convenience we will classify the evolution of writing into the following sub-categories:
Although various complex theories and principles exist, communication can be simply defined as a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior. (Obviously the term is not limited to human beings because animals have their own modes of communication too!)
Here is an attempt to trace back the origins of communication...
Body Language: A friendly handshake, a gracious smile or even a warm hug. Body language is communication through simple body gestures. The time of emergence of body language cannot be precisely or accurately calculated or calculated. However the use of body language as means of communication has always been compared to communication modes used by animals.
Speech: The available fossil evidence hints that modern adaptations for speech appeared somewhere between 1.5 million and 500,000 years ago. The dynamics of evolution of speech acquisition is complex since it is influenced by factors like culturally transmitted sounds and genetic evolution.
Writing: The history of writing dates back to the various writing systems that evolved in the Early Bronze Age (late 4th millennium BC) out of Neolithic proto-writing. The evolution of writing is said to have evolved from proto-writing which means pictorial messages /symbols/scribbles that cannot be called "actual -writing". For convenience we will classify the evolution of writing into the following sub-categories:
· Symbols
· Cave Paintings
· Petroglyphs/ Rock Carvings
· Pictograms
· Ideograms
· Writing
Symbols: Symbols developed as a communication tool that not only
ensures better understanding but also increased longevity of the message.
Cave Paintings: The Upper Paleolithic cave paintings, which are a type of rock art, are the oldest known symbols. Homo sapiens' first crack at communicating information was painting. The oldest known cave painting is that of the Chauvet Cave dating back to 30,000 BC.
Petroglyphs: Petroglyphs are nothing but rock carvings. These Petroglyphs date back to 10,000 BC, when the Homo-sapiens have been known to have acquired the art of carving by making incisions or carvings on the rock surface. There have been instances of woodcarvings and even tattoos.
Pictograms: Pictographs were the next step in the evolution of writing. One prominent feature that separates petroglyphs from the pictograms is that petroglyphs simply depict a single event, but pictograms narrate a story about the event and hence can be used to convey chronology of several events. Pictograms have been sighted in the history of various ancient cultures since around 9000 BC. The pictograms gave way to the evolution of Cuneiform script, which is considered as the earliest known form of written expression.
Ideogram: An ideogram is an advanced version of the pictogram. It is a visual or graphic symbol that represents an idea. Several communities across the world came up with varied ideograms to represent numerous ideas, however, as ideas like expression of emotions are universal in nature, so are many ideograms. Ideograms are the source of inception for most of the logographic writing systems like the Chinese script.
The invention of the first writing systems is supposed to be synonymous with the beginning of the Bronze Age in the late Neolithic of the late 4th millennium BC. The first writing system was supposedly invented in the Sumerian regime during the 20th or 21st century BC, by the late 3rd millennium developing into the archaic cuneiform script.
The development of Egyptian hieroglyphs is also analogous to that of the Mesopotamian scripts. The Egyptian proto-hieroglyphic symbol system developed into archaic hieroglyphs by 3200 BC and more widespread literacy by the mid third millennium, which was the time of the Pyramid Texts. The Indus script developed over the third millennium, either as a form of proto-writing, or an archaic mode of writing. The Chinese script is said to have originated independently around the 16th century BC.
The Alphabets: The Egyptians were the first to come up with an alphabetical system around 2700 BC which consisted of 22 heiroglyphs. Each heiroglyph began with a single consonant of their language, plus a vowel (or no vowel) to be supplied by the speaker. Initially, these glyphs were used as a guide for pronunciation of the logograms, to mark grammatical intonation and to record foreign names. This script passed on to many other civilizations and inspired different alphabetical systems like the Phoenician alphabets, Arabic scripts, Hebrew, Latin alphabets, Italic alphabets, Glagolithic alphabets or the Cyrillic alphabets.
Tele-communication: The Semaphore or the optical telegraph system was an apparatus for conveying information by means of visual signals. The system used towers with pivoting blades or paddles, in a matrix. Information was encoded by the position of the mechanical elements and the message can be interpreted by the position of the blade. Although the mention of the idea of a semaphore has been recorded in the name of an English scientist Robert Hooke, the idea was put to practice in France during the 1700s, when an engineer called Claude Chappe covered France with a network of 556 stations over a distance of 4,800 kilometers.
Other Benchmarks in the History of Communication:
Invention of the Radio: Although the construction of the radio is based o Michael Faraday's laws of electromagnetic induction, which Faraday proposed in 1831, it was William Henry Ward, who implemented the principles and successfully got himself a patent for radio development in 1872.
Invention of the Telephone: Although there were several disputes surrounding the claim to the invention of the telephone. Although the Italian scientist Antonio Meucci , was acknowledged by US Congress on 11th June 2002 for his contributions to the invention of the telephone, it is Alexander Graham Bell who patented the telephone as apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically.
Invention of the Television: The answer is highly debated, although it is known that a Scottish inventor, John Logie Baird, was the first one to publicly demonstrate television on 26 January 1926, in his laboratory at Soho district of London. However it was an American engineer Philo Farnsworth who researched the television picture transmission and developed the dissector tube, which is the basic element of all current electronic televisions. In 1927, Philo Farnsworth became the first inventor to transmit a television image.
Invention of the first Computer: The first computer was called ENIAC, which is an abbreviation for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer and was completely developed in 1945 at the Iowa State University.
Invention of the Internet: The design of the Internet was formulated in 1973 and published in 1974. It took as many as ten years to bring the idea into reality and the Internet was set up in 1983. Not many people know that the concept of Internet was developed by an American computer scientist Vinton Cerf, as part of a project sponsored by the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Cave Paintings: The Upper Paleolithic cave paintings, which are a type of rock art, are the oldest known symbols. Homo sapiens' first crack at communicating information was painting. The oldest known cave painting is that of the Chauvet Cave dating back to 30,000 BC.
Petroglyphs: Petroglyphs are nothing but rock carvings. These Petroglyphs date back to 10,000 BC, when the Homo-sapiens have been known to have acquired the art of carving by making incisions or carvings on the rock surface. There have been instances of woodcarvings and even tattoos.
Pictograms: Pictographs were the next step in the evolution of writing. One prominent feature that separates petroglyphs from the pictograms is that petroglyphs simply depict a single event, but pictograms narrate a story about the event and hence can be used to convey chronology of several events. Pictograms have been sighted in the history of various ancient cultures since around 9000 BC. The pictograms gave way to the evolution of Cuneiform script, which is considered as the earliest known form of written expression.
Ideogram: An ideogram is an advanced version of the pictogram. It is a visual or graphic symbol that represents an idea. Several communities across the world came up with varied ideograms to represent numerous ideas, however, as ideas like expression of emotions are universal in nature, so are many ideograms. Ideograms are the source of inception for most of the logographic writing systems like the Chinese script.
The invention of the first writing systems is supposed to be synonymous with the beginning of the Bronze Age in the late Neolithic of the late 4th millennium BC. The first writing system was supposedly invented in the Sumerian regime during the 20th or 21st century BC, by the late 3rd millennium developing into the archaic cuneiform script.
The development of Egyptian hieroglyphs is also analogous to that of the Mesopotamian scripts. The Egyptian proto-hieroglyphic symbol system developed into archaic hieroglyphs by 3200 BC and more widespread literacy by the mid third millennium, which was the time of the Pyramid Texts. The Indus script developed over the third millennium, either as a form of proto-writing, or an archaic mode of writing. The Chinese script is said to have originated independently around the 16th century BC.
The Alphabets: The Egyptians were the first to come up with an alphabetical system around 2700 BC which consisted of 22 heiroglyphs. Each heiroglyph began with a single consonant of their language, plus a vowel (or no vowel) to be supplied by the speaker. Initially, these glyphs were used as a guide for pronunciation of the logograms, to mark grammatical intonation and to record foreign names. This script passed on to many other civilizations and inspired different alphabetical systems like the Phoenician alphabets, Arabic scripts, Hebrew, Latin alphabets, Italic alphabets, Glagolithic alphabets or the Cyrillic alphabets.
Tele-communication: The Semaphore or the optical telegraph system was an apparatus for conveying information by means of visual signals. The system used towers with pivoting blades or paddles, in a matrix. Information was encoded by the position of the mechanical elements and the message can be interpreted by the position of the blade. Although the mention of the idea of a semaphore has been recorded in the name of an English scientist Robert Hooke, the idea was put to practice in France during the 1700s, when an engineer called Claude Chappe covered France with a network of 556 stations over a distance of 4,800 kilometers.
Other Benchmarks in the History of Communication:
Invention of the Radio: Although the construction of the radio is based o Michael Faraday's laws of electromagnetic induction, which Faraday proposed in 1831, it was William Henry Ward, who implemented the principles and successfully got himself a patent for radio development in 1872.
Invention of the Telephone: Although there were several disputes surrounding the claim to the invention of the telephone. Although the Italian scientist Antonio Meucci , was acknowledged by US Congress on 11th June 2002 for his contributions to the invention of the telephone, it is Alexander Graham Bell who patented the telephone as apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically.
Invention of the Television: The answer is highly debated, although it is known that a Scottish inventor, John Logie Baird, was the first one to publicly demonstrate television on 26 January 1926, in his laboratory at Soho district of London. However it was an American engineer Philo Farnsworth who researched the television picture transmission and developed the dissector tube, which is the basic element of all current electronic televisions. In 1927, Philo Farnsworth became the first inventor to transmit a television image.
Invention of the first Computer: The first computer was called ENIAC, which is an abbreviation for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer and was completely developed in 1945 at the Iowa State University.
Invention of the Internet: The design of the Internet was formulated in 1973 and published in 1974. It took as many as ten years to bring the idea into reality and the Internet was set up in 1983. Not many people know that the concept of Internet was developed by an American computer scientist Vinton Cerf, as part of a project sponsored by the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
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