Communication: Where do we go from here?

IT is customary in reviewing the entire subject of communication to start with the Greeks. I should prefer, however, to go back to a somewhat earlier period when the first prosimian, or whatever our ancestor may have been, climbed down out of the trees, began to use tools, and most notably began to apply his curiosity with practical effect. For many reasons he became the progenitor of the dominant race, but one powerful reason was that he learned to communicate and to use symbols for the purpose. From that time an individual´s struggle with his environment was based, not on his own limited experience alone, but on the far sounder basis of the experience of his fellows and his forebears. All that is called civilization resulted from the fact that man learned to record, transmit, and consult the record of his perceptions and his reasoning about their interrelationships. At first he did this roughly and inadequately with a small vocabulary. Later he turned to more and more elaborate means of communication.