Essay about Convergence in Technology

“Networks are all around us. They are in our walls, in the air. At schools, hotels, hospitals, even coffee shops. Always there, always on…This power exists today. In our routers. In our switches... . (Cisco, n.d.)

It is important to know the history of the internet. The internet is a worldwide network of computer systems that are connected to each other by cables (Howe, 2012). The internet first started out as a military experiment. In 1957, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was created by the United States department of Defense (Computer History Museum, 2004). The project was started after the Russians launched a satellite into space for communication reasons. The satellite was called SPUTNIK (Computer History Museum, 2004). It was rumored that President Eisenhower got worried and decided to get the United States to launch its own satellite. They recruited Dr. Joseph C. Licklider of MIT, was made head of the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO)(Computer History Museum, 2004). Their purpose of the project was to focus on improving the military use of computer information.

In the start of WWII that nations came up with many ways to communicate to each other without being intercepted by the enemy.Some ideas/inventions used during World War II included foot, mounted, motorcycle, automobile, airplane, homing pigeons, and the messenger dog. Along with physically going to deliver a message they also had made visual messages. Which included flags, panels for airplanes, lights, and pyrotechnics. But when they didn't want to use those ways to signal messages they would send the message electronically. Which included telephone, telegraph service, and the printing telegraph.

The Internet is, quite literally, a network of networks. It is comprised of ten thousands of interconnected networks spanning the globe. The computers that form the Internet range from huge mainframes in research establishments to modest PCs in people's homes and offices. Despite the recent hype, the Internet is not a new phenomenon. Its roots lie in a collection of computers that were linked together in the 1970s to form the US Department of Defense's communications systems. Fearing the consequences of nuclear attack, there was no central computer holding vast amounts of data, rather the information was dispersed across thousands of machines. A set of rules, of protocols, known as TCP/IP was

Today people communicate through text and email and think nothing about it because they can get a reply right away. Back in the 1800’s people had to wait for up to, months to get a reply from someone. “The mail was delivered by either stagecoach or by boat and it would take up to 21 days to get a letter to someone” (Pony Express). In the 1860’s a group of men invented a faster mail delivery service called the Pony Express. The Pony express transformed the ingenuity of America by the delivery of a faster mail service and the legend of the men crossing through dangerous territory.

From the “Writing” sections of this module: The first writing, Cuneiform, developed in Mesopotamian cities around 3000BC. What “big problem” was writing created to solve?

Today, communication is taken for granted as almost everything is at the touch of our finger tips. We are no longer limited to how we can send messages like in people the 1800s. Today we have, more or less, perfected the technology and capability to communicate with others. Sending a message to one recipient or a mass of people is now simple, digital, and instantaneous. It is amazing to think about how we had to rely on

With technology, we’ve become more efficient in our efforts of understanding communication. We’ve created machines that can take us a step closer to not only communicating better; but assisting us in understanding the fundamentals. James explains in “Communication as Culture” how a telegraph altered the relation between communication and transportation and also changed how communication was understood. “The telegraph, then, not only altered the relation between communication and transportation; it also changes the fundamental ways in which communication was thought about. It opened up new ways of thinking about communication….for the alteration of ideas. (204)”

Before the invention of the telegraph in 1844 by Samuel Morse and his colleagues, news and messages traveled at a much more laborious and protracted rate. While businesses and individuals could communicate by interpersonal communication through

Communication is basically, a medium of exchange of thoughts and ideas. In the earlier days, when no particular language was developed, people still used to express their views. Thoughts can be expressed through symbols, signs and paintings. When we go to

As communication has evolved from Ancient times of cravings in rocks to pictograph, ideograms and alphabets to 1500 -1800 where printing was invented. Now for the 19th through the 21st Century communications is far more efficient from postage to radio broadcasting to internet which has become an important form of communication.

Internet: Global network of networks using universal standards to connect millions of different networks (Kenneth C Laudon and Jane P Laudon., 2010).

Since the beginning of time, people have always been looking for means of communication, but a way to communicate in a fast and easy way. In earlier times, Egyptians carved on rocks, leaving records for the next civilization. The Incans of South America knotted several colored pieces of string in a specific pattern and had a messenger run to the next village to deliver it. Many wrote messages on paper to be delivered by a messenger and some simply sent a messenger to deliver the message orally. Of course, there were many problems with these means of communication. If one just sent a messenger, it was easy for the messenger to lose communication in the traveling process, or one could misplace a written message. And of course these messages

Can you imagine a machine so big it dwarfs entire planets? Can you imagine a machine with a single goal, a single purpose? Can you see it, hovering in space, blotting out the stars, so big it bends thought? Can you imagine a machine so complex that no human has ever even tried to understand it, and yet the machine exists because humans built it in the first place?

Means of communication has evolved over the years. Communication which started with the smoke signals, sending messages tied to pigeons feet, telephones, telegraphs, postal mails, emails, cellphone, internet, blogs, social network, smartphones and the evolution is still on and there is more is in store as the possibilities seem endless. Only the future will tell the direction it is taking.