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Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 1998 Make that call after all NOW and again someone takes my breath away with a monumental statement lacking any understanding of a technology-dominated world. Most recently it was a pundit on the perils of the telephone, and how we could live without it. Alexander Graham Bell's 1876 patent was a spin-off from his work on telegraph systems and speech therapy with the deaf. It was his refinement and bringing together of the carbon microphone and fixed magnet earphone that realised the first telephone. And no one could have guessed the demands and advances this would trigger that now underpin human existence. A world without telephones would be devoid of microphones, earphones and loudspeakers. Why? Because, as soon as these modules are realised the telephone is both possible and inevitable. So, imagine a world without radio and TV, only silent movies, and no computers. Why no computers? Without the telephone Strowger would not have invented the automatic switch, and so Colossus (the Second World War code-breaking computer) and other early computers could not have been built. Without the demands of telephone and radio broadcasting networks, we would not have developed thermionic valves to their height of perfection. Most likely they would have been concentrated on telegraph radio stations and copper line regenerators. Nor would we have the transistor or integrated circuit. No coaxial cables, optical fibre, lasers, microwave radio, satellites or the space race. We would be living in an early Victorian world, with master and servant, telegraph systems and copper cables, messenger boys and telegrams, a world much slower than today, unable to sustain a population now fast heading towards six billion. The music and entertainment industry would be puny - no amplifiers, no radio, hi-fi, tapes or CDs, just plastic cylinders and discs scratching out their music with diamond-tipped pins feeding acoustic horns. No pop industry, with just the rich and privileged getting to see and hear opera and orchestras. No TV, VHS, camcorders, computer games or pocket calculators, PDAs, laptops or PCs. International travel would be for the very few on aircraft a far cry from today's jumbo jets, with trains, shipping and aircraft organised over telegraph wires and primitive wireless. Science and basic understanding would limited by crude technologies produced without electronics; no radio telescopes, no scanning electron microscopes, no medical scanners. A partial insight into this hypothetical condition can be glimpsed by visiting the Third World. With no telephones travel is difficult. You cannot book a ticket for train, boat or plane without travelling to the ticket office. When your plane takes off the destination has no idea of your status until you are within 100 miles or so. The supply and delivery of food, clothing, heat, light, power, water we take for granted is then critical as life becomes survival. Those who complain about technology enjoy the comfort and convenience it affords them, but do not understand: life without technology is tough. Alexander Graham Bell was helping the deaf, but his legacy to mankind is enormous, much bigger than most can imagine. Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is: |
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