A short history of communication

Marconi Antenna Array, South Wellfleet Mass.

As we drive down the interstate at near 70 miles per hour, we talk with our friends or family on the phone, or listen to music being streamed from the cloud (all using a legally acceptable ear bud or Bluetooth connection to the car’s audio system, of course). And not once do we stop to ponder what an absolute miracle it is.

Human history can be charted by plotting our various schemes for communicating information. First, perforce, by face to face utterances. Then small technical advances began to accumulate. Cuneiform, shapes pressed into clay tablets, which could be carried to a remote location and read by the intended recipient. Then paper, longhand tomes written by monks, and the printing press, making books and newspapers available to the masses. But all with significant delay, because the messages must be physically transported.

 Always, a pressing demand pushed for reducing these delays, the goal to send information increasingly quickly over longer and longer distances.

Sometimes cleverness overcame the lack of technology. Ancient Chinese warriors, then Native Americans, learned to send coded messages using signal fires. And these could be relayed from ridge to ridge covering long distances. But the bitrate (information transferred per second) was disappointingly low.

The French invented an ingenious system using semaphore towers. According to Wikipedia, “Lines of relay towers with a semaphore rig at the top were built within line-of-sight of each other, at separations of 5 to 20 miles. Operators at each tower would watch the neighboring tower through a spyglass, and when the semaphore arms began to move spelling out a message. They would pass the message on to the next tower. This system was much faster than post riders for conveying a message over long distances, and also had cheaper long-term operating costs, once constructed.”

But all of the foregoing were physical, mechanical. It took the discovery of electricity to make the next big leap.

While there were earlier experiments in Europe and elsewhere, the telegraph system of Samuel Morse revolutionized information transfer in the United States. By October of 1861, the east and west coasts were connected by telegraph wires, enabling nearly instant communication and bringing about the abrupt end of the Pony Express. Moving electrons proved to be incredibly faster and cheaper than moving physical things.

But there was another huge leap to come. Telegraphy required poles and wires and rights-of way and operators trained in Morse code. The infrastructure was relatively expensive and slow, while still a great improvement over ponies carrying packets of letters. But what if messages could be sent through the air itself?

It all began in 1888, when Heinrich Hertz discovered that electromagnetic waves could be created and then detected over a distance. The magic was beginning.

Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor, was intrigued by Hertz’s “radio waves,” and experimented with how to optimize the distance over which they could be detected. By 1895 he had developed a system of transmitters and antennas and receivers which could operate over a distance of 3 miles. In that day, this was amazing stuff. Telegraphy through the air.

Marconi continued to improve his equipment and was eventually able to send signals over thousands of miles, a distance undreamed of at the time. His radio gear was installed aboard the ill-fated Titanic, and was used to signal the disaster which had occurred, summoning aid which arrived in time to save some few souls. The British postmaster-general observed at the time "Those who have been saved, have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi...and his marvellous (sic) invention." (Wikipedia)

One of the stations used to detect these ephemeral signals was built by Marconi in South Wellfleet on Cape Cod. Today part of the Cape Code National Seashore Park, visitors may pause to consider the enormous events that occurred 100 years ago, and which have advanced vastly since then. New England residents and tourists are well advised to stop and commune here.

And then to retire to the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts (or Starbucks if your budget allows), and connect your phone to their wireless network to upload photos of your visit to Facebook for your friends and family to appreciate. And then, finally, to really understand and appreciate the miracles which allow this to happen.

It is hard to conceptualize the next big breakthrough in communication. Something to allow interstellar messages faster than light? Who knows.

Perhaps as difficult for us as our great-great-grandparents trying to understand cellphones and Facebook. But it will happen.

Seventy thousand years of migration in under 800 words

The history of humanity is one of migration.

Using mitochondrial DNA analysis, anthropologists have identified several waves of Homo Sapiens migration out of Africa. The most significant occurred 70,000 years ago, a mere blink of geologic time.

Commonly accepted theories describe a migration into Asia and Australia, and later Europe, driven by African megadroughts which “drove the humans from the land and towards the sea shores, and forced them to cross over to other continents.” (Wikipedia)

Humans first populated Europe about 40,000 and North America 20,000 years ago, both largely from Asia.

North America was settled thanks to global climate change. The very same massive glaciers which sculpted our coastline, creating Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Long Island, and shaping Cape Cod, were also responsible for lowering the average sea level over 400 feet. This exposed a land bridge between Asia and Alaska at the Bering Strait. The resultant human expansion into North and South America was rapid. One may hypothesize that, without the glaciers, the first European explorers might have found an untouched continent, devoid of natives.

While humanity had spread over most of the world by 10,000 years ago, it was in the northern climes of Europe that human technological development accelerated. Surviving and thriving during winter was tough for early humans. It required foresight and planning. It demanded agricultural storage techniques. It resulted in the invention of tools and machines. Humans were mastering the management and exploitation of energy and information. In the end, it resulted in a highly developed, wealthy Europe. These former Africans, via Asia, became the kings of the world thanks to Old Man Winter.

As these Europeans settled North America, it became a powerhouse as well, even exceeding their parental roots.

And hence the north/south divide we are faced with today.

A divide in wealth. A divide in stability. A driving force in continuing northward migration pressures. Central Americans migrating to North America. Africans migrating to Europe. Escaping poverty. Desiring safety. Seeking opportunity. Who can blame them?

But the political upheaval is immense. Britain is struggling to disassociate itself from the European Union. Angela Merkel’s German coalition government is on the verge of collapse. Italy has elected a populist party. The very foundation of the European Union is in doubt.

Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, the Trump administration is under enormous pressure. A recalcitrant Congress is refusing to address the mess it has made of immigration laws and the executive branch is trying to deal with it.

Both sides of the Atlantic share a common problem of disadvantaged peoples wanting to share in their wealth while the native-born, middle-class populations push back. It’s a problem which must be solved lest governments crumble.

In a recent, thoughtful column titled “The Elites Feed Anti-Immigration Bias” in the Wall Street Journal, Distinguished Professor of Law Joan Williams of the University of California offers a way forward.

First she identifies a disaffected blue-collar class who have experienced abysmal real wage growth and are the first American generation to earn less than their parents. They are proud patriots, but they are very unhappy campers.

Now this is important: Whether true or not, their perception is that their malaise is due to two factors: global trade and immigration.

Next, Ms. Williams recognizes a class of global elitists who share two attributes: a “feeling rule” which mandates empathy for immigrants, and deep scorn for “dim-witted and fat” blue-collar Americans. As she observes, “All this has created a toxic environment in both the U.S. and Europe.”

Finally, her prescription in three steps.

The first is to “recognize that the nation-state is important to non-elites.” They are proud to be American (or German or Italian), but that does not make them racist. The elites must not belittle them for being proud of their country.

Next is to identify and “highlight the ways that President Trump’s immigration and trade policies are hurting red-state constituencies.” Farmers and small businesses unable to find adequate laborers. Construction firms hurt by steel tariffs. These seemingly pro-populist policies have a serious downside.

Finally, to “avoid the scapegoating of immigrants by assuring that hardworking Americans without a college degree can find good jobs.” Social support for job training and apprenticeships would be helpful. Changing the snobbery directed at non-college graduates is vital.

Ms. Williams closes with this thought. “There’s no inherent reason that native-born blue-collar workers should be anti-immigrant. They often hold similar attitudes toward hard work and family values.” Rather than scorn them, the elites should address their concerns.

Indeed. What we're doing is not working. Might as well try something new.