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II. RECORDING AND STORING INFORMATION: A
BRIEF HISTORY
From the dawn of civilization, humans have found ways to record,
store, and transmit what they have discovered and created. In fact,
human progress would not have been possible without all of the ingenious
ways humans have recorded, transmitted, stored, retrieved, and used
information.
Before the invention of writing, humans depended entirely on the
spoken word to record thoughts and ideas. Known as the oral
tradition, this was the process by which "culture,
tradition, and historical accounts were passed from generation to
generation in stories, folklore, songs, and poetry" (Bolner
and Poirier 2). But after writing evolved into the phonetic stage,
complete with symbols and alphabets, it was common for information
to be written down.
Scholars believe that humans first wrote their ideas by carving
or painting on objects they found around them: cave walls,
bones, and pieces of bark. Clay tablets and large pieces
of stone were used a bit later, and by 500 BC peoples of Egypt,
Greece, and Rome were writing on papyrus, a substance
similar to paper made from a plant that grew along the Nile River.
Papyrus was gradually replaced by parchment, a
substance made from specially treated animal skins thought to have
been invented around 200 BC in what is now modern-day Turkey. Parchment
was widely used for writing until it was replaced in the 1400's
by the introduction of paper in Europe and the
invention of the movable type printing press in
1450 .
The invention of the printing press is a milestone in human history
because for the first time books became available to people outside
the upper classes. By the 17th century, the first newspapers and
journals were published in Europe, furthering the opportunities
for the average person to learn about science, politics, and culture.
The Industrial Revolution of the 18th century saw improvements in
printing technologies and reductions in the price of paper, thus
initiating the mass marketing of books and journals.
The 19th and 20th centuries saw the development of many new ways
to record and store information other than paper: microfilm,
microfiche, phonograph records, audio tape, film strips, and video
tape. Probably the most dramatic advance in recording,
storing, and retrieving information came with the invention in the
1940's of the computer. Although people continue
to produce information in handwritten, typewritten, and printed
form, it can now also be generated in electronic format, i.e. recorded
as bits and bytes of computer data and stored on magnetic tape or
computer disk. Vast amounts of information are stored in electronic
format and retrievable using computers.
The latest advance in recording and distributing information has
been the rise of the Internet. The Internet has
its roots in the early 1970’s when the US government was funding
research into a computer network that could survive a nuclear attack.
In 1989, the Internet became an important method for scientists
to share information when an American physicist pioneered the use
of hypertext in an information retrieval system
he called the World Wide Web. In the early 1990’s,
Internet browsers first appeared, making it easier
for the general public to access an astonishing variety and amount
of information.
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