By ANDY ANDREWS
Los Alamos World Futures Institute

• World Futures: What Do We Need?

Simply put, communication is the transfer of data and information from the sender to the receiver. The sender can be a human (or other living entity) or a machine (a non-living entity). Likewise, the receiver can be a human, other living entity, or a machine. But communication does not occur unless the data or information is both sent and received.

The transmission of the data or information can be visual, auditory, sensual, or electronic. For example, a human utters the word “hello.” This utterance causes the stimulation of the medium called air and travels in all directions as an energy signal, ever weakening in proportion to a growing sphere. The receiving human uses ear drums to sense and interpret the signal.  Simple and straightforward except for the linguistic coding encapsulated in something called language.

Additionally, there is an important limiting factor affecting the speed of communication, the ability to create the auditory signal and sense and decipher the signal.

In human to human communication, sensory (by touch) requires the sender and receiver to have physical contact.

Auditory requires transmission using sound energy and a medium for propagation, while visual communication allows transmission at the speed of light when the input and output mechanisms are ignored.  As an example, a note on paper must be created, moved to the proximity of the receiver, and visually inspected and interpreted by the receiver.  But the actual transmission of information from paper to receiver can happen at the speed of light.

Communication is controlled and constrained by mechanical coding/decoding, the actual speed of transmission, the amount of data/information, noise, and the interpretation of the data/information (another aspect of coding/decoding). As an example, consider Morse code and the electric telegraph (as opposed to light flashes or smoke signals).

In 1837, Samuel Morse applied for a patent for his single wire signaling device. To make it useable, his financial backer, Alfred Vail, created the Morse code (as it became known) and in 1838, a message was sent over a distance of 10 miles. It was a system of short and long electrical pulses that could be converted into an auditory signal and interpreted by the receiver.

Years later, on August 16, 1858, the first official telegram was sent across the Atlantic Ocean from Queen Victoria to President James Buchanan. The capability for transmission of data and information had sped up significantly. Flash forward to today and communication, save for coding and decoding, travels at the speed of light.

In 1898, President William McKinley had to get a message to General Garcia in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. The time from dispatch to confirmation of receipt was between 25 and 28 days. Communications was slow! Messages were well thought out (maybe).

In contrast, today President McKinley could send the message using his cell phone and expect General Garcia to receive the message in a matter of seconds, assuming Garcia’s cell phone is both charged and turned on and cell phone service is available. Also, often overlooked or assumed, what language is used for the coding/decoding – Spanish or English?

Communication speed and capacity has increased significantly. But how does the input/output function need to change to adequately and properly send, receive, and interpret the increased quantity and density of data/information flow?

While this short article has primarily used human to human examples, it can be applied to human-machine, machine-human, and machine-machine as well. In the future, how do we achieve noise reduction, avoid data/information obfuscation, increase processing capacity, maintain data/information integrity, and ensure quality selection?

The Los Alamos World Futures Institute web site is at LAWorldFutures.org. Feedback, volunteers, and donations (501.c.3) are welcome.

If your prefer to email us, please use andy.andrews@laworldfutres.org or bob.nolen@laworldfutures.org.

Previously published articles can be found at https://ladailypost.com or https:////www.laworldfutures.org.