The Electrical Telegraph

Many attempts at realizing an electric telegraph are discussed starting in the 18th century. The crucial discovery that gave renewed impetus to the search was that of Oersted’s concerning the effect of electric current upon a magnetic needle. The first line in England was installed between Paddington and West Drayton. The contributions of various inventors like Gauss, Weber, Shilling, Cooke, and Wheatstone are discussed; also the effect on diplomacy, war and ordinary life, including women’s employment, is examined. Some famous telegrams, e.g. Ems, Kruger, Zimmerman, are put into their historical context, so is the telegraphic contact between Kerensky (Head of the Provisional Russian government at the time) and Kornilov, Commander of the Armed Forces.

The Communications–Computing Symbiosis: The Beginning

Chapter 16 discusses the history of the computer. Important events include IBM bringing out the personal computer, and Xerox PARC inventing the graphical user interface. Paul Allen and Bill Gates left Harvard in 1975 to set up a computer laboratory. A year later Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak set up Apple, followed soon by Dan Bricklin inventing the electronic spreadsheet. At the start of the 1980s Gates leased the MS-DOS operating system to IBM. Prior to all this, in 1969 the Advanced Research Product Agency set up ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet. Other topics covered in this chapter include the birth of electronic mail, uses and abuses of the Internet, security and coding, and the Minitel in France. The last part of the chapter looks at the Soviet Union and the InterNyet.

Digitalization

Digital electronics (based on signals in the form of pulses) turned out to be superior to analogue electronics which produced the exact waveforms. The emergence of digital techniques reduced noise and at the same time was less demanding of bandwidth. Pulse code modulation was introduced and became the dominant form of modulation. The operation of digital exchanges is explained. Their growth is plotted as a function of time for the decade 1987–97. Digital signal processing is discussed. Shannon’s theory predicting that a certain amount of information can be transmitted entirely free of noise is discussed.

Artificial Intelligence

The claims of artificial intelligence are criticized. Most of the claims are regarded as hype or simple examples of automation. The progress of machines in playing games and beating world champions is described, but the artificial intelligence is still thought not to represent human intelligence. It is concluded that the programs are intelligent but not the machines. A 1921 play by Capek coining the word and introducing the modern interpretation of robots is analysed. Examples of robots and of virtual assistants in service at the moment are provided. The future of driverless cars is discussed, and it is concluded that fully autonomous cars are still many decades, rather than years, away.

The Future

Some past predictions of the future are discussed, how both in Britain and in France during the nineteenth century illustrated newspapers predicted that by the year 2000 communications between people would involve sending moving pictures from faraway places. A few major technical innovations are envisaged. Most things will just be improved, e.g. full movies will be downloadable in seconds. In the political sphere it is emphasized that apart from a small elite, interest in politics will decline. In most parts of the world people will be happy to accept the word of authorities on any subject. Education will sink to its lowest common denominator.

The Mature Internet

The uses and abuses of the Internet are discussed in some detail. Hilary Clinton is quoted saying that the US is committed to help promote Internet freedom. The top ten uses of the Internet (a subjective list) is enumerated. The list of abuses includes the Democratic Convention hacking in 2016, that of a French broadcasting corporation, and threatening emails in the UK to political opponents. Fraud and blackmail are widespread. Cybercrime is mentioned in a more general context and the statistic showing that in the year 2018 about 91,000 cybercrimes were committed in the UK is given. Techniques of encryption are described. Censorship of the Internet in Russia is reviewed.

Introduction

The role of communications in human affairs is discussed. An early way of communications is writing on the wall as mentioned in the biblical Book of Daniel, presented in Rembrandt’s interpretation. It is emphasized how expensive communications to places far away was even a century ago and how cheap it is now. Cost of a telephone call to America then and now are compared. It is claimed that the book is suitable for the interested layman; at the same time, there is a lot of information for those who are interested in the history of communications technology.

Devices Go Solid State

This is the story of the birth of the transistor and of the growing understanding of the theory and technology of solid state devices. The transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories by William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. They received the Nobel Prize in 1956.The next advance was putting more and more units on a substrate, initiating the age of integrated circuits. Moore’s Law in its original form states that the number of transistors on a substrate will double every year. As the price of computers using transistors plummeted, the number of computers sold rose fast.

Satellites Again

The total number of satellites ever launched is about 2000. The operation of satellite networks, Iridium in particular, is described. Iridium has 66 satellites in orbit, enabling it to send messages from any point on Earth to any other point. Satellites past their useful life are disposed of in graveyard orbits. Geostationary satellites do not move relative to the Earth but being far away have the disadvantage of delaying the signal they process. Low Earth orbits have no noticeable delay but each one is available for relaying information for no more than 15 minutes. There was a disaster when launching one of the satellites when all three astronauts died instantly. Another notable accident was a collision between two satellites. No human life was lost but it resulted in debris that has since posed further threats to orbiting satellites.

Great Advances

Wars, as usual, are responsible for many technical advances. Among the most significant was the invention of new devices capable of producing higher frequencies which were to be called microwaves. This made possible the emergence of radar both for military and civil communications and sometime later Long Distance Communications was realized by microwave links where information was sent from tower to tower. Microwave networks were built in all industrialized countries. It was followed by satellite communications, first passive (relying on signal reflection) and later active, that re-radiated signal. The first mobile phones also used microwave frequencies. Further advances like digitalization, optical fibres, and inter-computer communications are introduced.