Re: Re: What forces have shaped humanity most?

Communication is the most powerful force shaping humanity. Even if dolphins were as smart as us, the difference in verbalization has been instrumental in human survival. We learn things and share things, build tools, pass on that knowlege. First there was language, so that knowledge could be passed down. Cunniform, so it could be stored,history and records kept. Then movable type making ideas more permanent in a relatively inexpensive way. Which made newspapers possible. Then telegraph, radio, television, till we arrived at computers and the internet. We are in an information age because the industrial age was ended when we built a tool for the some of the most important work we do - We built computers to help us think. Transportation played a role because it let cultures interact and share knowledge. But language, the written word, and finally the internet made global and instant communication possible.