What Is the Future of Communication Technology?

What is the future of communication technology?

As humans, can we ever expect that we will be able to successfully communicate with one another on a whole in our brief life time on the planet earth?

On the surface, this might appear as a scientific and technical post, but this certainly got me to think lately very deeply about how we communicate and our lack thereof based on my own research.

Our own human communication can be alien at times.

The ramifications of this topic have opened up new frontiers of understanding for me that have given a new practical meaning as to WHY we have such difficulty communicating with each other so frequently.

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The Kardashev Scale

This method of scientific measurement called the Kardashev Scale, is a measurement of a civilization's level of communication through technological advancement, based on the amount of energy a civilization is able to use and harness for communication from its host body of energy.

It was first proposed in 1964 by the Soviet Astronomer Nikolai Kardeshev.

Various extensions of the scale have since been proposed, including a wider range of power levels (types 0, IV and V) and the use of metrics other than pure power. The scale is hypothetical, and regards energy consumption on a cosmic scale.

The Future of Communication Technology:   3 Levels of Civilizations

According to Kardeshev’s hypothesis, there are three levels of civilizations, based on the order of magnitude of power available to them:

In the year 2019, we as primitive earth-beings are closest to a Type I civilization, which means having a technological level of a civilization that can use and store all the energy that falls on our planet from our own parent star, our Sun (for Earth-Sun system, this value is close to 7x10^17 watts)

Currently, human beings have not yet reached Type 1 civilization. For us earth-beings to achieve a Type 1 civilization, we must still reach 5 orders of magnitude higher than the amount presently attained on earth, with energy consumption at ≈4 × 10^12 watts.

Astronomer Guillermo A. Lemarchand first postulated then calculated these Type 1 values comparative to our contemporary terrestrial civilization.

Pre-eminent physicist and futurist Michio Kaku has suggested that humans may:

It has been widely argued that, because we cannot understand advanced civilizations (such as extraterrestrial civilizations), we cannot understand them and predict their behavior. Thus, the Kardashev scale may not be relevant or useful for classifying extraterrestrial civilizations.

Let’s Take Kardeshev to a Micro-Scale

Considering Kardeshev’s hypothesis and its ramifications on a micro-scale, it is no wonder how many times we simply have such great difficulty communicating and simply cannot understand each other.

Even when two people are speaking the same language, there often seems to be such a formidable chasm between the speaker communicating a message and the listener understanding that message to the point it might seem as if we were each communicating with alien tongues!

I see it happen so often in human communication, and I have to wonder. Can it be that there currently exists several orders of micro-scales based on Kardeshev’s hypothesis that are sub-par BELOW a Type 1 Civilization?

Based on my observations here at WA, I would say a resounding “YES”!

Granted, we are all walking primitive “bags of water”, is our cause as earth-beings hopeless? Are we predestined to be ever so inept at communicating with each other?

Does Listening Even Matter?

How about we LISTEN to each other A LOT more folks. They say we were given 2 ears and only 1 mouth since we should LISTEN TWICE as much as we SPEAK.

I devoutly believe in this true nugget of wisdom with every fiber in my body. This appears to be a rather simple course of action for all of us to follow, am I correct?

Yet the majority of human beings on planet earth have a great deal of trouble doing this.

However, let’s go back to the teachings of pre-eminent physicist and futurist Michio Kaku. If we place our thoughts in this realm, we should not be at all surprised.

We must once more consider that as primitive human beings, the statistical significant majority of our earthling population simply will not capable of implementing this rather highly sophisticated skill set for at least the next 100-200 years.

The Future of Communication Technology:  Is There Hope for Humans?

The GREATER question then is, might merely our own positive belief system and taking practical intended action help our current communication dilemma so we can evolve into the future?

Or as based on Kardeshev’s hypothesis, will we be FOREVER doomed by a lack of consumed energy from our source “star” (and by our own lack of progress) to be an ever-primitive communication race?

In other words, will the future of communication technology forever be a hopeless endeavor for the human race?

This is THE interstellar question Ladies and Gents, please leave your comments below.

We will all certainly attempt to listen, albeit primitively!