The process of communication is one in which people convey their meaning to others in an attempt to reach a mutual understanding. Interspecies communication is possible to an extent, such as a lion tamer being able to control a lions actions to a degree. For purposes of this discussion however, the focus will remain on humans interacting with humans.

A set of skills in both parties are necessary in order for communication to function effectively. In the case of speech, those skills involve several main steps. Here follow discussions of those steps.

First comes speaking. When someone has something to say, they want to share it with others. To do so, they must find listeners. If one speaks and no one listens, communication has not occurred. This is a maddening point repeated by teachers who often feel that their students are ignoring them, which the students often are doing. Once listening is taking place, observing can follow, in which the teachers statements and body language, including gesticulations, can be witnessed by the students. These movements often add a little color to the words themselves, which can come out somewhat plainly at times.

To demonstrate that they have listened and observed, students can perform the next step in the process, which is to ask questions about aspects of what was said that are unclear to them. Asking detailed questions implies that the student has analyzed what was said and either found a deficiency in the explanation, or is just struggling to grasp the concept.

After making their inquiry, a student will be able to perform the final step in the communication process, that of evaluation. They can determine if the information as given, which may have included an answer to a question, makes sense to them and should thus be added to their memory.

When things in one persons brain arrive into another persons brain and stay there, even temporarily, the communication process has successfully occurred. It is through this process that humans are able to achieve their best, by attracting the attention of others attuned to their message.

Throughout human history, communication methods have evolved from the completely simple to the fairly complex. Heres a quick overview of where humans have come from to arrive at todays standard of instantaneous, near global communiqués.

In the beginning of mans communication efforts, Homo Sapiens communicated much as apes do today. This was via grunts, clicks, and other noises, as well as a sprinkling of gesticulations such as arm waving, pointing, hitting, snarling, fighting, biting, and by creating repetitive sounds, such as tapping a stick on a rock. These were no doubt effective, as they are today, in announcing ones intentions.

One day, an intrepid thinker managed to manipulate their vocal cords while exhaling, and no doubt was surprised to have created a different type of sound than usual. Over many years, demonstrating this ability to other humans who successfully imitated it, speech came into being. Eventually, an entire language was born and utilized, followed by an alphabet which labeled the sounds.

Once language was in place, the written word took off, followed in turn by the telephone. This extremely clever device allowed for conversations between people who werent in the same room, which really expanded humanitys horizons. Typewriters came along as well, and eventually were replaced by electronic keyboards which fed material onto a computer screen. Once the internet was widely adopted, these correspondences could be shared with anyone who possessed an account allowing internet access.

Becoming used to the immediacy and high arrival rates of emails, people gravitated towards texting on beepers, devices which allowed text communication only, and were able to be carried easily on ones person. Swiftly, people carried this writing style over to their cell phones, which had arrived for pedestrian, public use around the same time that the internet started to become widely adopted, in the early 1990s.

All of these advances have allowed people to stay in touch with one another as never before in history. While certain methods seem to have begun to head towards obsolescence, such as writing letters by hand, communication in human society has never been so prevalent.

In an age where it seems to be nearly standard practice to text ones friends to the exclusion of interaction with friends standing immediately in the vicinity, one might wonder if that ultimate communication device, body language, is still relevant. In a world populated with a larger number of people every day, it would seem that body language is one of the most important devices to communicate ones feelings.

In a crowded subway station, throngs of people wait for the next train. A wave of people from a recently arrived train flood the platform “ its the rush hour, and everyone wants to get home on the next train. Some people get jostled as they stand there, and the body language on display is like a running commentary, at least to those attuned to this discrete language. With arms crossed, ad one foot tapping madly, one person indicates their displeasure at being elbowed, but says not a word. Another person, nearly spun around by a large fellow who bumps into her shoulder, shrugs as if to say, ˜Its crowded, and theres not much room “ bumping into me is no problem; it wasnt a purposeful thing.

At a bar on the street level, similar coding occurs. A woman, spying a handsome man at the bar buying a round of drinks for his friends, catches his eye for a split second, drops her gaze, and shakes her long hair off to one side. She then runs her fingers through it, and looks back at the man to see if hes noticed her shiny haired display. If he has, and sends her a knowing look or a smile, he will likely get a smile in return. Without a word spoken, these two have communicated their mutual attraction across a distance.

Perhaps in an ever more crowded world, body language is a time saver akin to texting. It frees people to figure out some basics without any spoken words, which could lead to embarrassment. Its subtle, and its powerful, just like a brief text message can be.

Since the dawn of human history, members of society have created groups with a focused interest in topics ranging from the mundane to the grandiose. One of the more grandiose groups to form in the last hundred years is SETI, an organization dedicated to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Participants in this group aspire to intercept signals sent into the universe by intelligent life on other planets.

As humans invented radio and television as mass communication mediums capable of reaching nearly every individual on the globe, it stood to reason that similar methods were being employed on other planets to keep their inhabitants apprised of whatever is necessary. Be it entertainment, important news on impending natural phenomena, or signals sent out in an attempt to communicate with distant planets, SETI members hope to receive these transmissions and confirm their belief in life on other planets.

Towards this end, it was necessary to be able to receive such signals. Thus, the Arecibo Observatory was built in Puerto Rico in 1963. This radio telescope is the largest of its kind ever built on Earth. It measures just over 1,000 feet across if one follows the curve of the dish itself, otherwise, it is 848.7 feet from edge to edge. Due to its large size, it is capable of performing its three main functions better than any other device on the planet.

The three primary functions of the telescope are to collect radar astronomy, radio astronomy, and aeronomy disturbances received from objects in the solar system. In theory, disturbances large enough to be measured and recorded could be sent to us by other intelligent life. After the telescope receives data, it is collected for analysis.

The amount of data to be analyzed daily is hard to comprehend, which led to the creation of SETI@home, which allows for distributed computing to do a lot of the analysis work, saving the researchers from having to pay for computer power. With over 618 teraflops of power from over 290,000 linked computers, SETI can boast of having the sixth most powerful computer in the world.

Human beings have invented new ways to communicate since the beginnings of the species, leading to one of the most connective devices yet created, the smartphone. Capable of performing nearly countless functions, sales of such phones have exploded in only the last few years, with ComScore estimating that by 2010, over 45 million people in America had already purchased a smartphone. Thats nearly 20% of the total American cellular phone subscriber base that has adopted a technology that has been available for less than 20 years.

Sales of these devices have exploded because they allow the ultimate in solution portability. The earliest design, released by IBM in 1993, was extremely limited in functionality, offering less than a dozen features along with the ability to talk on the phone. Nokia followed with their best concept three years later, initially offering a product which would lead all future comers down the road of communication breakthroughs. Soon following this design with the first open operating system in a palm sized phone with power similar to a full sized computers, the smartphones by Nokia offered functionality like never before, but it came at a cost. Their phone offerings cost 20 to 40 percent more at the store than the competitions, which eventually drove consumers to other, cheaper brands.

Other brands flourished and continued to enter the smartphone market, as people became more and more attuned to the connectivity enabled by these new devices. Need to check your email, get a few stock quotes, have a quick glance at the weather forecast for the day, and enter a few data points into your business spreadsheet, all from someplace on the road, far from the office? Smartphones permit these tasks and countless others to be completed remotely.

Once Apple introduced their iPhone in 2007, with a full sized touchscreen and finger pressable icons, another revolution seemed poised to take off. This time, the revolution centered around applications. Within two years, over 185,000 custom applications were available to run on smartphones, allowing unprecedented functionality. Suddenly, there are more ways to communicate on a phone than ever before!

Throughout human history, the ability to communicate well has separated the species from creatures of lesser talent. While the first human communications were probably little more than grunts combined with hand or arm gestures, the intelligence of Homo Sapiens was manifested in their ability to improve upon this limitation. Such improvements have brought humans to the point where they appear to be the best communicators on Planet Earth, rivaled only by whales for distance of coherent vocal travel.

Humans cannot send their voices very far except by artificial means however, and it was in the creation of complex devices to do so that man truly set himself apart from animals.
In so doing, man rose above animals, in the ability to exchange useful information over vast distances. It is only via long range communication that masses of humans can be aware of very distant threats which could endanger their existence, such as approaching storms or invading armies. This ability helps to ensure that as long as the planet is inhabitable, humans will remain the domestic species at the top of the food chain.

In past human history, superior vocal communication also enabled the survival of the species, while other, less fortunate varieties of animals became extinct. Early humans learned to create more complicated sounds than just grunts and clicks, and from these sounds arrived language, which was the ultimate defense against approaching predators. While most animal groups can sound an alarm to approaching danger, humans improved upon this ability to add specifics such as directional cues, as in, ˜The lion is approaching from behind you! This skill vastly aided in successfully eluding capture.

This talent might seem insignificant to the survival of the species, yet it is only one of many examples of what a superior vocalizing ability can achieve. Excellent communication can relate that one is feeling cold and needs another blanket, or thirsty and needs another drink, before cold or dehydration weakens the afflicted. Each little communiqué can and does help to propagate the species, rather than leave an isolated person at risk from the surrounding environment.

Located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California, the Museum of Man is dedicated to explaining much about humans and their lives through anthropology. It is San Diegos only such museum.

To find the museum is not incredibly difficult. Locate Balboa Park, which is Northeast of San Diegos downtown district, and just minutes from the San Diego Freeway, otherwise known as Interstate Five. Park in the ample free parking lots, and walk toward El Prado Street. The Museum is easily identified, as it is the building with a 200 foot tall tower looming overhead. This is known as the California Tower, and it was built to showcase the Panama-California Exposition in 1915 and 1916. It is a highly wrought tower, carefully crafted to retain the architectural styles then current. As it towers over everything nearby, it is easy to see from virtually any vantage point inside of Balboa park.

Once you’ve reached the base of the tower, and spent a few moments absorbing this masterpiece of design and construction, you may enter the Museum itself. Inside, you will find exhibits which explore various indigenous cultures present long before European settlers arrived to Californias west coast. Another exhibit houses one of the most highly regarded collections of Egyptian artifacts in America. There are also exhibits which explain aspects of human evolution as well as the human life cycle. All of the aforementioned exhibits are permanent, and are utilized by local schools to educate and enrich students on these topics. Tag along behind a school group and receive an impromptu lesson articulated by one of the museums staff!

Along with permanent exhibits, rotating displays also circulate through the museum on occasion, spicing up the learning experience. From demonstrations on the origin of the human species, to displays which showcase games played throughout history to modern times, the range of human related topics covered in the Museum of Man is vast. The museum is open daily except for closures on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Prices range from five to ten dollars, depending on age or exclusions, with discounts offered to students and military.

Information transfer is occurring at the speed of fiber optics in the Communication Age, and part of that knowledge transfer is due to people creating web sites which promote their skill at a certain activity. As former methods of gathering information become obsolete, it is easy to see that the near instantaneous information sharing aspect of the internet is having a rapid effect upon society.

No longer do people wonder for long periods of time about something of which they are curious. In the past, relegated to books and libraries for information gathering on an unfamiliar topic, knowledge was a slowly gathered commodity. It took time to get to the library, especially during a busy workweek. It took time to look through the paper notecards which held details on various resources pertaining to the topic of interest. Finding such books on the shelf was also time consuming, as they were not always grouped together, and some were inevitably checked out by other patrons. Placing a hold on a desired piece of material required yet another trip back to the library once the material was checked in and set aside.

That entire process, made publicly available for free by Andrew Carnegie initially, is utterly obsolete in the Communication Age. Now, people who have interests from the smallest idea to the largest, and every size in between, can and do create websites accessible from any internet access point. No longer is information stored in centralized locations such as libraries – instead, it is everywhere on the internet. It is also created and updated regularly by interested parties, and those who lose interest and stop updating their information are ranked lower by search engines whose job it is to find and provide the most current and applicable information sought.

In an age where facts, figures, and records change daily, it is inconceivable to think of pulling a dusty encyclopedia from a shelf somewhere and expecting to find relevant, useful data inside. On a day-to-day basis, society may not physically move faster than it has in the past, but its information sure does!

It seems that no device in history has revolutionized societys ability to communicate more than the telephone. The apparatus invented by Alexander Graham Bell has gone through numerous iterations to become the modern device known as a SmartPhone, which is capable of performing many functions in addition to speech passage. But at the core of any cell phone or even SmartPhone, the primary function is to allow speech between people in distant locations. Human history would have turned out quite differently than it has if such a device had been available over the last 2,000 years.

The outcomes of wars might well have been different if nations had had access to instantaneous communication. Some wars might even have been prevented if countries who unified into opposition forces had been able to communicate between themselves, and thus present a unified cease and desist command to the aggressor country. As a young nation, fighting for its freedom from British rule, America sent one of its best and brightest to France to negotiate their allegiance, in the form of Ben Franklin.

A natural leader and politician, Bens years in France, spent away from his beloved wife and the new country which he by then called home, could have been spent far more productively in America, had he had access to a telephone. This device in hand, he could easily have reached the influential politicians which he needed to forge alliances with, and could perhaps have sped up the conclusion of the American War for Independence.

Instead, he was relegated to prehistoric communications means in the form of face to face speech, or even slower methods in the form of letters carried by horseback, then on a boat across an ocean. The War for Independence dragged on for years, partially because it took so long to arrange even the simplest of tasks or alliances. Not only individual lives, but many nations worth of entire populaces, were affected for a long time because communication methods were not available which are completely commonplace today. Remember to appreciate the time that a telephone saves you each day!

Never before in history has such a large percentage of society been so readily able to communicate with large numbers of their fellow people. Not only are people ready, they also appear to be engaging in the ability en masse as it has become available. Adoption rates for new communications technologies no longer take years to sort out, as once happened between the competing technologies of VHS and BetaMax video machines.

Look no further than the explosion in videos of people’s exploits of any and every nature posted to the popular video sharing site, YouTube.com. Daily, countless videos are uploaded to be viewed and shared between friends and strangers alike. This capability only became available to early adopters in 2005, so to call it a new technology is an understatement. Further, YouTube’s user base exploded in size almost instantly.

Facebook and Twitter, also relatively new ideas, allow users to share running commentaries on their lives, as well as including pictures along the way. These resources allow unprecedented access to the daily doings of anyone interested in so sharing with, well, anyone who signs up! And while some people are a bit nervous about posting their doings on the internet for all to see and read about, they can easily take the approach of only posting casual information, such as, ˜Heading out to see the latest Harry Potter film. These sorts of updates provide friends with conversational fodder, while keeping anyone with malicious intentions at bay, by providing no specifics as to location, time, or people coming along on the outing.

Perhaps this sense of safety is part of the reason for the recent explosion in societal communication. Online communications tools provide anonymity which has been hard to come by in past history. In Ben Franklins time, for example, anyone who wanted to submit an article for publication had to submit it to the newspapers editor for review prior to publication. Not only did the editor see it, but the typesetter did as well. In todays communication era, its easy to stay protected and still speak ones mind to the masses.