|
"Journey with us now to the dawn of recorded
time as we explore the amazing story of human communication.
Like a grand and miraculous spaceship, our planet
has sailed through the universe of time. And for a brief moment,
we have been among its many passengers. From the very beginning,
we have always sought to reach out to one another...to bridge the
gaps between us...to communicate.
Across a lonely, hostile planet, our early ancestors
spread out in search of food and shelter.
With the development of language came a vital key
to our survival. For the first time, we could share and learn from
one another. We bonded together in small tribes and prospered, no
longer isolated, no longer alone.
Ages later, the Egyptians invented the first written
communication - a complex language of hieroglyphic pictures and
symbols. With the creation of papyrus scrolls, came the world's
first piece of paper. Now, without ever leaving their palaces, pharaohs
could deliver proclamations and decrees to subjects across the land.
Phoenician merchants established the earliest commercial
highways trading goods and information at distant ports of call.
To aid in record keeping, they created the first common alphabet
and shared this new tool across the Mediterranean.
In ancient Greece, the spoken word was elevated to
a fine art. Philosophers debated with one another in plazas and
storytellers found a new forum for personal expression. The theater
was born.
The mighty Roman empire bridged three continents with
a vast system of roads - the fastest information highways the world
had ever known. East, west, north, and south - all roads led to
Rome. But these same roads were turned against Rome by invaders
whose destruction left ages of knowledge and wisdom in the ashes
that would become the Dark Ages.
But all was not lost. For far across the land, from
Cairo to Cordoba, Jewish teachers and Islamic scholars continued
the quest for knowledge. In libraries of wisdom, they debated ideas
and shared new discoveries with all who would listen.
In Western abbeys, monks toil endlessly in lonely
isolation copying ancient books of wisdom and revelations for future
generations.
Finally, from the depths of the Dark Ages came the
Age of Enlightenment - the Renaissance. And with this era, came
a powerful new invention - the moveable type printing press.
Scientists, explorers, and scholars spread their discoveries
in books and essays. Poets, musicians, and artists fueled by the
passion of the age created timeless works of beauty and majesty.
On this wave of inspiration, we sailed into a bold,
new era of communication bringing an explosion of tools and technologies
which would bridge people around the world as never before. And
as our appetite for information and knowledge grew, the world began
to shrink.
Today, we possess the ability to connect with one
another instantly anywhere on the planet.
A new communications supernetwork is being built before
our eyes. Spaceship Earth glows with billions of interactions carrying
news and information at the very speed of light.
But will these seemingly infinite communications become
a flood of electronic babble? Or will we use this power to usher
in a new age of understanding and co-operation on this, our Spaceship
Earth.
Physical distance is no longer a barrier to communication.
Today, the entire world is our next door neighbor. Our news is their
news, their news ours. We share our hopes and concerns with the
whole planet. We truly live in a Global Neighborhood.
Wondrous new tools will help us learn more about ourselves,
each other, and the planet we share. Spaceship Earth will become
our virtual classroom.
As we greet the 21st century, yet another revolution
in communication is upon us - as profound as all the progress that
has come before. By using our new communication tools to build better
bridges between us, we will discover we all share the common bonds
of hope and sorrow, dreams and joys.
Since the dawn of recorded time, communication has
revolutionized our lives and changed our world. We now have the
ability and the responsibility to build new bridges of acceptance
and co-operation between us; to create a better world for ourselves
and our children as we continue our amazing journey aboard Spaceship
Earth."
<
Back to Spaceship Earth
|
