1 Media and communication

Media and communication have changed enormously due to the huge technological advances that have occurred throughout the 20^th century. All forms of media have eventually become more human in their performance. They work in a way that resembles the way we are, the way we interact with each other. When the telephone replaced the telegraph, voice took over dots and dashes. Colour photography, that represents human vision more accurately, replaced black and white. Television took over the radio. Nowadays we can talk to a computer and it can even answer us, again another step towards a more human media.

In order to have a closer look at the way we live our lives in this Information Age, we need to look at some of its main aspects. We will start with technology because it is the power that fuels the information society: "Computer technology is to the information age what mechanisation was to the industrial revolution" (Naisbitt, 1984). If it had not been for computers there would not have been an Information Age.

We live in the world of digital imaging. Our lives and memories are recorded with video cameras, digital cameras, web cameras and home PCs. The development of sophisticated recording equipment not only allows us to make a visual record of our holiday, but can also provide an extremely useful resource for professionals. For example, in medicine the recording of an operation can be used as a valuable teaching tool to other people in the medical profession. Robot eyes enable us to see beyond the limits of human ability. Cameras and other sensors connected to computers provide machine vision systems that not only record, but also interpret the world. They help us understand the world by enabling us to see it in a different way, looking at it from a different angle, through a different lense. They extend our understanding by creating new ways of seeing. For example, satellites give us a view of the Earth from space and extremely powerful microscopes allow us to see and understand the human genome.

A 3D picture of the human genome