Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Communication Device

When I grew up there was the telephone, the radio, the TV, the Newspaper, the magazine, the book and the two way radio. However, only the telephone and the two way radio allowed 2 way communication beyond someone screaming a message out loud or with sign language, telegraph or other symbols long distance (beyond shouting distance). That was it. since I was born in the late 1940s this was the world I was born into just after World War II and before the Korean War.

I remember reading Dick Tracy in the Sunday Comics in the newspaper even before we got our very first 17 inch black and white portable TV in 1954 when I was 6. Dick Tracy was a futuristic cop who had a watch that had a little two way radio with a TV picture of the person you were talking to. Everyone thought this was the bees knees(thirties and forties slang). Then the next communication device that everyone wanted was the "Communicator" from the 1960s TV program Star Trek with William Shatner. The Communicator was a small 2 inch by 2 inch piece of metal that allowed them to talk to the ship or to other locations on or under a planet or other ship to each other. One simply "after hearing a couple of clicks or chirps (like a telephone ringing) touched the "communicator" to activate it. To see pictures of the at least 3 types of Star Trek Communicators over the years here is the wikipedia article with pictures of 3 types:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicator_%28Star_Trek%29

Now cell phone seem to be trying to become like IPads or something with keyboard and flat touch screens. I think someday it might be "retro" or vogue to have a Dick Tracy watch connected wifi to an ear bud and go about it that way as well. Literally, the sky is the limit with communication devices now.

Some day like in my "Memories" series of books and short story sequels I think they might have "Biocom" like devices which are miniature video cams with built in microphones the size of a mole on a face. With an ear bud hidden inside the ear we are likely describing present day secret agent stuff. And usually the public gets this stuff 10 to 50 years later to buy and to play with. So, expect this kind of stuff to be marketed eventually.

So, for someone in their 60s or above, we have witnessed amazing changes here on earth, some good and some bad and many both. But I have a feeling that many different forms of communication devices will persist as long as electrical technology exists on this planet or when we move through space to colonize and live on other worlds beyond earth.

The Biocom, I believe first shows up  in "memories' part 9 at:

dragonofcompassion - Home

At the top of the page look for "Memories part 8 and 9" and scroll down to part 9 to learn more about "Biocom" which means 'Biological Sentient Computer' which is installed in Arcane, the man who is born on the planet New Deva and then travels about 1 million years into the past to 1987 Earth as a member of the Galactic Time Guard. As a member of the Time Guard he wears a "Biocom" within his body to keep him company and do research for him. All Galactic Archives on every planet "Biocom" has access to and can speak or write any language in the Galaxy and therefore translate for ARcane when necessary. If Arcane is rendered unconscious, Biocom moves Arcane's body to another time and place to be resuscitated.

No comments: