INFORMATION AGE

Information Age – Core Concepts

  • Information as Survival Tool

    • Webster’s definition: “knowledge communicated or obtained concerning a specific fact or circumstance.”
    • Life itself = constant internal & external data exchange (e.g., neural signals, hormones, DNA transcription).
    • Modern society = “data-driven, automated, technologically advanced.”
    • Key influencing sectors: communication, economics, industry, health, environment.

  • Formal Definition of the Information Age

    • Period beginning in the last quarter of the 20th century.
    • Marked by effortless access to information via publications, computers, and networks.
    • James R. Messenger’s 1982 theory:
    • Age is built on computer interconnection through telecommunications.
    • Systems operate in real-time/on-demand.
    • Driving forces: convenience & user-friendliness → user dependence.
    • Inspired the push for a global digital telecom infrastructure.

Historical Timeline (Writing → Digital Era)

Each bullet = “Date – Innovation – Significance/Notes”

  • 3000 BC – Sumerian cuneiform
    • Earliest clay-tablet writing system.
  • 2900 BC – Egyptian hieroglyphs
    • Pictographic + phonetic symbols on monuments.
  • 1300 BC – Chinese oracle-bone script (甲骨文)
    • Divination, record-keeping; carved on animal bones/tortoise shells.
  • 500 BC – Papyrus roll
    • Cyperus papyrus sheets → scrolls (proto-books).
  • 220 BC – Chinese small-seal script (小篆)
    • Standardized formal writing in Qin dynasty; still used for decorative seals.
  • 100 AD – Parchment codex
    • Folded notebooks (pugillares membranei); precedent for bound books.
  • 105 AD – Woodblock printing & paper (China)
    • Textile → paper printing; survives from <220\,\text{AD}.
  • 1455 – Gutenberg movable-type printing press
    • Metal matrices; sparks European print revolution.
  • 1755 – Samuel Johnson’s “A Dictionary of the English Language”
    • Set rigorous lexicographic standards.
  • 1802 –
    • Library of Congress founded (U.S. federal cultural repository).
    • Carbon arc lamp (earliest electric light; lighthouse/street use).
  • 1824 – Persistence-of-vision principle (Peter Roget) → future motion pictures; after-image lasts \frac{1}{25}\text{ s}.
  • 1830 – Charles Babbage designs first digital computer (Analytical Engine concept).
    • Ada Lovelace (1830s) writes first computer program; foresees music & art applications.
  • 1837 – Telegraph (Samuel Morse et al.) → long-distance electrical communication.
  • 1861 – Motion picture projection (Thomas Edison later refines); relies on persistence of vision.
  • 1876 – Dewey Decimal Classification (library organization).
    • Also year of high-speed photography proof (Eadweard Muybridge, 1877).
  • 1899 – First magnetic recordings (Poulsen’s telegraphone; Pfleumer’s tape concept).
  • 1902 – Motion-picture special effects (Rejlander / Alfred Clark).
    • 1906: Triode (Lee de Forest Audion) enables amplification & radio.
  • 1923–1939 – Television tech maturation
    • 1923 Iconoscope camera tube (Zworykin).
    • 1926 Vitaphone = 1st practical sound movie (“The Jazz Singer”).
    • 1939 NBC launches scheduled TV broadcasts (FDR @ NY World’s Fair).
  • 1940s–1950s Foundations of Digital Communication
    • 1945 Vannevar Bush envisions hypertext (Memex).
    • 1946 ENIAC = first large-scale electronic computer.
    • 1948 Claude Shannon publishes Information Theory.
    • 1957 Planar transistor (Jean Hoerni).
    • 1958 Jack Kilby’s first integrated circuit.
  • 1960s – LC-MARC catalog format; rise of Information Science as discipline.
  • 1969 – UNIX OS (Bell Labs) released; sets multitasking, networkable standard.
  • 1971 – Intel 4004: first single-chip microprocessor.
  • 1972–1974 – Optical LaserDisc & Videodisc standards.
  • 1975 – Altair 8800 kit sparks personal-computer revolution.
  • 1977 – TRS-80 = first complete mass-market PC.
  • 1984 – Apple Macintosh popularizes GUI for non-experts; CD-ROM format emerges (Denon 1982; popular 1990s).
  • Mid-1980s – Second wave of AI enthusiasm ends (hardware limits → “AI winter”).
  • 1987 – HyperCard (Apple) democratizes hypertext authoring.
  • 1990s – Information becomes business currency; Gates, Jobs, Zuckerberg become archetypal info-age moguls.
    • 1997 RSA DES/RC5 cracking challenges highlight