Quantum Living - Part Five - Communications Revolution

MAXWELL, MARCONI AND BELL – THE COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION

Maxwell’s field theories were a wonderful tool which dealt mainly (at first) with electro-magnetism and radio waves. This became extended once it was realized that light was also a higher frequency form of Electro-Magnetic radiation, as were X-rays, Gamma rays from decaying uranium and radium, and cosmic rays detected from outer space.

Some of these rays could be generated at will, and manipulated, once the rules were known. People already knew some things about light, having investigated mirrors, lenses, and prisms. Maxwell’s mathematics explained much of what people already knew.

The new frontier was radio. Marconi and others found ways to generate radio waves, and to vary or modulate them so as to code them with information. These could then be decoded up to hundreds of miles away.

A global network of communications was born, which would eventually shrink the globe.

The work of Bell in inventing a workable telephone, brought forth an army of new engineers who were raised on the theory of Maxwell, and who rapidly developed networks using first wires, then Marconi’s radio, then even radio over wires, to span each continent, and finally, the world. Telephony gave way to Video as more and more information was packed onto higher and higher frequencies of Electro-Magnetic signals.

The result was to do for humanity’s eyes, ears, and voice what Newton’s revolution had done for the brute strength and speed of human limbs. Voice and image could travel farther and faster than trains, cars, or even the new kid on the block, the airplane. In fact, you could now do business more rapidly, without traveling.

Marshall McLuhan's theories began to matter more and more as faster and cheaper communications began to shrink the globe. Mcluhan had predicted a 'global village' where people's attention would expand and our sense of belonging and caring would expand with it, to include continents half a world away. The public reaction to the Vietnam war was the fulfillment of this theory, as video feeds showed the action almost in real time. Today our satellites do feed us the news from all ove the world in real time, giving us a sense of immediacy and providing a reaction that is similar to watching the action across the street.

The supporting technologies grew ever more able to handle waves of higher and higher frequency (shorter and shorter wavelength). From centimeter waves (radio) to millimeter waves (microwaves) and finally nanometer waves (light), our networks went from wire to waveguide + air, and now to optical glass fibres. Information transfer is now so incredible; the Encyclopedia Brittanica can be sent to an individual's home computer, across a continent, in ten minutes or so. A typical commercial network between corporations could do it in seconds.

One recent development in this evolution is called the remote pen. Buy a book in Western Canada, and the author will sign it, remotely, from Toronto. What a strange combination of the extension of the human hand – enabled by the communications network!

We had a communications revolution, which opened up the world - partially; but it was nothing compared to the information revolution still to come. That would take the opening up of more new ways of thinking.