Most of life's significant events occur in physical encounters between human beings through the medium of speech. In civilized societies, the communication technologies set the stage for other kinds of experience. Ideographic writing created and preserved a certain kind of experience. So did alphabetic writing, printing, radio and television broadcasting, and communication via the Internet.

Communication technology allows a communicator who may be physically separated from the audience to communicate with a potentially unlimited number of persons. Plato, dead for twenty-three hundred years, is still able to share his thoughts with humanity through written language. His words, translated from the Greek, can be read on a printed page. Millions of people around the earth can participate in that communicative experience.

We discuss this aspect of world history in two ways:

First, we explain the relationship between communication technologies and civilizations.

Second, we can review some dates in the history of communication technology.

Click on these links for information about:

 the relationship between communication technologies and civilizations (844 words) www.civtech.html - 10 foreign languages

 impact of cultural technologies upon public experience (13,783 words) www.ctimpact.html - 5 foreign languages

 some dates in the history of communication technology (1,706 words) www.culttech.html - 5 foreign languages

A moment of change in our civilization (1,478 words) www.criticalchange.html - 5 foreign languages

 A Short History of Cultural Technologies (13,829 words) www.cthistory.html - 5 foreign languages

You may also be interested in two reports on communication technology:

(1) "How Communication Technology drives Civilization's Changing Ideals" Click here for report. (2106 words) www.ctideals.html - 5 foreign languages

(2) "On the Cutting Edge of Knowledge: A Short History of the Most Advanced Techniques of Establishing Knowledge in Each Civilization" Click here for report. (4468 words )www.cuttingedge.html - 5 foreign languages

Click here for: A Typeface for the 20th Century (774 words) www.helvetica.html - 5 foreign languages

Click here for: Growth of Traffic on the Internet (258 words) www.internettraffic.html - 5 foreign languages

Click here for: The First Computer Virus (907 words) www.virus.html - 5 foreign languages

Click here for: How the camera phone was created (245 words) www.cameraphone.html - 5 foreign languages

Click here for: The Origin of YouTube (701 words) www.YouTube.html - 5 foreign languages

Click here for: Viral Communication (1406 words) www.viral.html - 10 foreign languages

For insights into a world of multiple electronic devices that are operated simultaneously, check this account of the "43-Hour Day". (729 words) www.multitasking.html - 5 foreign languages

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