Spoken Word

Before we could speak - we would just look at someone in order to communicate.
But as we needed to interact with larger groups some say that we began to incorporate grunts or howls to add emphasis to certain points.
But then as we needed to communicate to even more and varied people we began to assign meanings to vocal noises which became words.

Histories, mythologies and ideas were passed from one generation to the next by men trained in the craft of oral history.
But as this means was somewhat imprecise and subject to interpretation, men began to draw pictures which evolved into letters and then words.
But as stone etchings were not easily transported between cultures and loci - we developed paper and stylus.
But books are somewhat limited in their effectiveness by those able to read and understand them.
Some books (like the Bible) were written in a language understood by only the elites.
This further limited the effectiveness of the written words and enabled a perverting of the books' meanings and hindered the progress of cultures.
As we developed these Internets - we have now reached the pinnacle of our powers in the mechanical transference of knowledge.
Just a few well placed and timed nuclear explosions could wipe out all of the electronic recorded histories of the human race.

How many people still know anything without having to look it up on Google?


As with most of the Fundamental Forces - the weaker forces tend to have the largest ranges.
While the Internet seems to be universal and powerful - it is by far the most ephemeral form of communication in our recorded history.