A Brief History of Communication

Groans and moans, and then speech. Stone tablets, scrolls, printing presses, telegraph and telephones. Prophets, priests and Jesus Christ.

At first — in the primordial mists of time — there were grunts, moans and inarticulate shouting.

Historians and linguists have no idea what the shouting was all about. Since most family conversations are about sex, money, politics or religion, we’re betting that the first attempts to communicate were about sex.

Then speech was invented — a long, long time ago. The first intelligible spoken sentence probably was, “Suhsan, ping qishiba qishi erbajiusuh boom boom.”

Which, being translated is, “Honey, I have a headache.”

Then came rams’ horns through which speech could be shouted and amplified.

Then symbols were developed to represent speech and increasingly sophisticated media for its dissemination (stone, clay, papyrus, parchment and paper, which in turn were made into tablets, scrolls and incunabula).

Then came the printing press — which changed everything, igniting revolutions and a major renaissance.

Things stayed the ...