Of communication revolution...

“What hath God wrought?” Those were the words transmitted over the telegraph lines between Washington and Baltimore on the New Year day in 1845. Thirty one years after Samuel Finley Breeze Morse sent this historic message in what is later known as Morse code, Alexander Graham Bell was shouting into the horn of a transmitting instrument he had just invented: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you.” Watson Thomas, his pal, who was in another room with a receiving instrument, could hardly suppress his amazement as he rushed out and yelled “Mr. Bell, I heard every word you said, distinctly.”
Living as we are in an advanced digital age where the telephone connection can be used to deliver IPTV (internet protocol television), video-on-demand, gaming-on-demand and many other value-added services, the Morse code and Bell’s telephone may appear as archaic as the primitive fire and smoke signalling system used in ancient times. As we browse the Internet to download and upload voice, graphics, music and moving images and virtually live in a virtual reality, we tend to forget the profound changes that the history of human communication has undergone since the inventions by Morse and Bell.
We are lucky to live in this wonderful age, howsoever real or virtually real it is. I still remember my own sense of incredulity when I accompanied my cousin, who was working in Dubai then, to the local telegraph office in my native town. He wrote down the message (It was obviously a request for extension of leave) on a piece of paper. The operator typed the words on the teleprinter machine and after sometime received the reply message. I felt it as something from science fiction, something that existed only in the realm of my imagination. Teleprinter is a museum piece today, an object from the stone age of communication.
We fret and fume today whenever we experience occasional problem in getting and, sometimes staying, connected to that worldwide link called the Internet. It is so exciting to gain access to this control-free, centre-less, chaotic, open-to-all universe that exists as a network of networks of millions of computers linked by Information Highways. And it is so boring to be denied access to that Milky Way of Information.
It is a different story that our 24 x 7 connectivity has disturbed our work-life balance, our working hours, and our inner need for relaxation. We always have a feeling of being wired and may sometimes want to remain unplugged. Some people have also raised the concern that modern Net-based gadgets my stifle the spirit of innovation that has made Internet a reality.
Reflecting on the changes in communication field that I have witnessed over the past three decades or more, I feel that it is human imagination that kindles initiatives to cross new frontiers of possibilities. God, I believe, cannot claim to have any role in this human scheme of things. Let us rephrase Morse’s famous question thus: “What hath Wo/man wrought?”