SPEEDING-UP COMMUNICATIONS.

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 48, 13 June 1930, Page 6

SPEEDING-UP COMMUNICATIONS.

X THE functions attendant upon the Imperial Press Conference in London were made the occasion for important announcements concerning cheaper and quicker means of communication in the future. Professor Lees-Smith, Postmaster-General, suggested to delegates that the Press might agitate for the establishment of lower cable and wireless rates. In another quarter the announcement was made that cable rates were to be reduced to the level of wireless rates, in order to encourage traffic. ‘VAST improvements have been made in recent years in the more comprehensive use of cable and wireless services throughout the world for the transmission of both news and views. The time is rapidly coming-in fact it is almost here-when from the economic point of view it might be said that no barrier exists between the rapid transmission of items of importance to the human race. This aspect was stressed by the Postmaster-General in his: forecast of a 24-hours’ wireless telephony service from Rugby to all the Dominions. Through this a British telephone subscriber would be able to speak to 90 per cent. of the world’s telephone subscribers, thus making Rugby a world switchboard. Commenting upon this position and its reflex action upon the Empire, Professor Lees-Smith rightly said that the future. of the British Empire depended upon goodwill and mutual understanding, and not on coercive sanctions. It was the task of the Post Office and the Imperial Communications Company to promote that goodwill and enable the political genius of the different portions of the Empire to express itself in solving the inevitable difficulties that would be met. "THE attainment of this position in the field of practical communications gives point to consideration of the effects likely to flow from these developments, The human mind, reasoning from its past to its present attainments, looks forward curiously into the future. Sir Philip Gibbs focuses the spirit of inquiry in a volume recently issued from his pen, entitled "The Day after-To-morrow." This is an inqttiry as to what is going to happen to the world. Sir Philip makes a rapid survey of the development proceeding in various‘fields of scientific effort, and seeks to analyse their’attainments and probe their reactions upon the human race. The rapidity of physical intercourse effected by aerial transport is, he says, being accompanied by an even gréater development in the facilities of mental communication between all branches of the human family. Here the scientists have presented new opportunities to humanity which will surely alter their scheme of life, their habits of mind, their social customs and pleasures, almost as much as the

"we stand on the threshhold ‘of a new age, and -yet already we/are conscious of newly-revealed wonders which in the old days have been thought miraculous and are indeed taking us into a region ! beyond mere matter, into the sanctuaries of eterrial force." Perhaps, he says, these are high words to use about wireless or radio, so common now, after a few years of use, that most of us have a wireless aerial over our chimney-pots, and get bored at times, or even angry, with | the vulgarities and blare that proceed from a loudspeaker in the sitting- i room. And yet here is the power that is going to change the mind of man if anything can. . . . To many ignorant people it has already ; opened up new vistas of knowledge, giving them wider sympathies | in life, put them in touch with other countries and other minds. ... As yet it is not the sound that comes out of the loudspeaker, not the intelligence making the sound that is the great marvel. It is the revelation that we are in touch with a means of thought-transmis- , sion and close to mysteries, as they still seem, which endow the hyman creature with almost transcendental powers. me alteration of material conditions which are now awaiting, them. ould neg. ADDED to radio there will be television. This is a definite certainty of the future. Through aurivision sets established in | every home, there will be faithfully recorded in natural colours the : living scenes, films, pictures, etc., in distant parts of the world. And by the way, it has been found that pictures: can actually be transmitted into sound. Human faces can be recorded on a disc and reproduced, and it is not surprising to learn that some faces when | translated into sound, make distinctly unpleasant noises! WITH thése permanent developments consummated in the future, © what changes will occur? Sir Philip Gibbs asks if the written world will lose its potency, if, with the speeding up of the visual « record of history, the immediate contact with historical scenes, there will be the time for individuals to peruse great literary works of 4 past. Reading and writing might even become lost arts. ‘i "THEN comes the query: With all these high powers, what is man’s response? His is mankind. going to use these new and terrific instruments of science? He remains with all his frailties about him, neither rising in intelligence at the rate of his opportunities nor developing any new moral sense which will secure him from the evil use of those powers.. It is curious and distressing, says Sir Philip, that Man, so masterful over the powers of nature, has not exhibited any evolutionary force within himself since his early his- ; tory was known. In industrial communities he has actually degenerated, and even in brain power he is not in advance of his | ancestors. The Cro-Magnon man, he states, of the Early Stone Age, averaged six feet three inches in height, with one-sixth: more brain — than the modern European.. His sense of sight, hearing and smell . were more acutely developed. Without going further back than the Greeks, it is admitted that they had intellectual qualities, expressed in art and philosophy, which compare favourably with our own. yWith material advancement, where stands man’s moral nature-better or worse? That was the problem which is puzzling scientists themselves. | They were reaching the stage of questioning the advisability of giving mankind some of the powers looming on the horizon and accessible to them. "There is little doubt that in the main," says Dr. Schiller, of Corpus Christi, Oxford, "humanity is still Yahoo-manity. Alike in mentality and moral man is still substantially identical with his paleolithic ancestors. He is still the irrational, emotional, foolish, destructive, credulous creature he always was. Clearly it is risky to expose the inelastic nature of so stubbornly conservative a creature to new conditions at a rapid rate. He may not be able to adapt himself quickly enough. No wonder the more prescient are dismayed at the prospect of the:old savage passions running amok in the full panoply of civilisation !" THERE is the problem. We see radio attaining new perfection communications extending and expanding. The purpose of communications is the conveyance of thought. What better thoughts are to be conveyed over this more perfect machinery? Upon the manner in which humanity answers that question will depend its own future attainment of happiness.