It was not until the development of agriculture about 10,000 years ago that technological innovations began to appear with increasing rapidity to the point that we see today when new inventions are replaced almost as soon as they are built. The evolution of our means of communication is one of the most significant and unique characters of modern humans. It is the basis of our exponentially developing technology. Due to the increased size of the brain, Homo sapiens has an ability to learn unequaled in the animal kingdom. To allow time for the assimilation of knowledge, our species has an extended childhood, and during this time knowledge is assimilated by the young, not only through experience but also through teaching by the older generation.
Communication is an essential tool for human learning.
The development of speech was a major milestone in human history, and the discovery that events and facts could be recorded permanently by the written word was another major breakthrough. Radios, telephones, and more recently televisions, videos and CD-ROMs have enormously increased our capacity to communicate, and in the last few years the internet has opened another even greater dimension to our communicative abilities. This means that we can now record an infinitely large bank of knowledge gained by previous generations, and we can make this knowledge more easily accessible for future generations to build on and expand than ever before. The learning opportunities for Homo sapiens are greater than they have ever been. All rights reserved.