Language and Complex Communication

One of the defining features of human beings is the capacity for language and complex communication. Other animals can communicate at a very basic level, but it is believed that only humans have the capacity for abstract thought. Humans developed language more than 40,000 years ago. The next significant technological advance was the invention of writing about 5,000 years ago. Writing had four significant benefits:

• Information Storage

  Knowledge was no longer limited to what a person could remember. This change also helped make information more permanent and more transportable.

• Accuracy

  Writing significantly improved accuracy. Think about the childhood game of "telephone" where you whisper a sentence to a friend, who then whispers that sentence to the next person and so on. The message is radically altered after being communicated to just a few people, and the original sentence is lost forever. Writing allows the message to be stored and replicated accurately. With hand copying, errors still get introduced over time. Printing eventually allowed for perfect copies of the original message.

• Complexity

  The ability to store information and refer back to it allows for the development of more complex ideas. Think about trying to solve a difficult word problem in your head without writing it down! Writing allows for dramatic advances in knowledge and scientific discovery.

• Control

  Writing allows us to communicate instructions and coordinate activities more easily. Writing makes it easier for a government to issue orders to its army and its citizens, especially over large distances. Leaders of the ancient world depended on writing to manage their vast empires.