INFORMATION REVOLUTION
Information came from the verb Informare (to inform)
which means “to give form to the mind”, “to discipline”,
“to instruct”, and “to teach”. Information also traces its
roots from the Latin word Informatio which means
concept or ideas.
Communication
Regarding communication, information is identified as
something that is deconstructed upon the receipt of a
message, otherwise known as its “content”. What is then
perceived is interpreted as a message, where whatever
lies within that message is determined as information.
Thus, in communication, information lies upon the
communication and reception of messages.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the
word information is also associated with the words
Facts and Data.
Scientific
In terms of scientific sense, information is defined as a
collection of facts gathered from many places. These
facts came from ideas acquired by study, observation,
and experience. In physical sciences, according to J.D
Bekenstein, 2003, the growing trend in physics was to
define the physical world as being made up of
information itself. In thermodynamics, information is
any kind of event that affects the state of a dynamic
system that can interpret the information.
INFORMATION REVOLUTION
The Information Revolution, according to the History of
Technology website, began around the 1970s and is still
going on today. It is also known as the Computer Age,
Digital Age, or New Media Age. This era brought about
a time period in which people could access information
and knowledge easily.
It is also defined as the “development of technologies
(such as computers, digital communication, microchips)
in the second half of the 20th century that has led to
dramatic reduction in the cost of obtaining, processing,
storing, and transmitting information in all forms (text,
graphics, audio, video).”
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGHS THAT LED TO
THE INFORMATION REVOLUTION
Printing Press –This is a device that allows for the
multiple production of printed matter in a uniformed
manner, mainly producing books, pamphlets and
newspaper. This was created in China and was further
developed in Europe in the 15th Century.
Telegraph – This device was first invented by Pavel
Schilling back in 1832. It is an early communication
device that enabled the transmission of information over
long distances. This then sends messages known as
telegrams, which were then deciphered using the Morse
Code in the late 1800s.
Telephone – This is a device that converts sound and
electrical waves into audible relays and is used to
transfer messages that contain information from one
place to another. Its two essential parts are the
microphone and the speaker.
Typewriter – This is a hand-operated machine which
has typing keys that can produce printing characters on
paper. With exception to electronic typewriters, typing
mistakes on a typewriter are permanent, albeit
removable.
Industrial Revolution – The Industrial Revolution was
a period of major industrialization and innovation in the
1700s to 1800s. Through its advances in the realms of
machinery and science, this paved way for an improved
method of storing information, which then bore fruit in
the form of the information revolution.
TIMELINE OF THE INFORMATION
REVOLUTION
First Era (Mid 1960’s–Mid 1970’s)
– COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language).
It is a “high-level programming language for
business applications which first appeared about 60
years ago. It was the first popular language designed
to be operating system-agnostic and is still in use in
many financial and business applications today.”
– IBM System/360. This is an invention of the
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)
and “heralded the arrival of a new family of
computers that reshaped IBM and the entire
computer industry, which was announced on April
7, 1964.” Also, “The S/360 is ranked as one of the
all-time top three business accomplishments, along
with Ford’s Model T and Boeing’s first jetliner, the
707.”
Second Era (Mid 1970’s–Mid 1980’s)
– Personal computer (PC). It is a “general-purpose,
cost-effective computer that is designed to be used
by a single end-user.” Also, “one of the first and
most popular personal computers was the Apple II,
introduced in 1977 by Apple Computer.”
Third Era (Mid 1980’s–Mid 1990’s)
– Internet. It is “a globally connected network system
that uses TCP/IP (Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol) to transmit data via
various types of media. The Internet is a network of
global exchanges – including private, public,
business, academic and government networks—
connected by guided, wireless and fiber-optic
technologies.”
– “The first workable prototype of the Internet came
in the late 1960s with the creation of ARPANET, or
the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network.
Originally funded by the U.S. Department of
Defense, ARPANET used packet switching to allow
multiple computers to communicate on a single
network. The technology continued to grow in the
1970s after scientists Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf
developed Transmission Control Protocol and
Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, a communications
model that set standards for how data could be
transmitted between multiple networks. ARPANET
adopted TCP/IP on January 1, 1983, and from there
researchers began to assemble the “network of
networks” that became the modern Internet.”
– “The online world then took on a more recognizable
form in 1990, when computer scientist Tim Berners-
MESO – INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION
Intellectual Revolution is the term used to Greek
speculation about nature in the period before Socrates
(600-400 BCE). It is also known as the “Pre–Socratic”
or “non–theological” or “first philosophy.” There are
three characteristics features of this form of philosophy
which are:
1. The world is a natural whole (i.e., supernatural
forces do not make things “happen”);
2. There is a natural order (i.e., there are ‘laws of
nature’); and
3. Humans can ‘discover’ those laws.
MESOAMERICAN CIVILIZATION
Mesoamerica was a region and cultural area in the
Americas, extending from approximately central
Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras,
Nicaragua, and Northern Costa Rica and was where pre-
Columbian societies flourish before the Spanish
colonization in the 15th and 16th centuries (Oxford,
2002). Archaeologists have dated human presence in
Mesoamerica to possibly as early as 21,000 BCE. By
11,000 BCE, hunting and gathering communities
