IllogiBooks:Technology bookshelf
Man picks up a couple of pebbles. Twiddles the pebbles together. Fire is invented. It really catches on. Makes food better. Hence good. Utensils get invented. Then cutlery. Then dining furniture. Then the concept of regular dining spaces. Thereafter homes. Also domestic life. Steady habitats. Neighbourhoods and social life. Joint hunting expeditions. Some collective farming. Dinner get-togethers and a few festivals. Life has really got easier and more companionable. Why is an ad copywriter now in Mumbai taking a break to pen down the history of civilization through the evolution of Technologies when so many in History have done a rather good job of it ? Because all of it is worth remembering and often, that's why ! Also to introduce a question mark and an exclamation mark into the whole thing... ( not to mention ellipses).
So since life has got easier and more companionable - music, arts, literature follow. Societies get larger. Some crime and war become periodic features and are a regular nuisance, but civilization marches on. Ploughs are invented, implements to sculpt and shape, even some alchemy. A few maps, star catalogues, leaf-manuscripts too. Vocabulary really expands and also scripts/pictograms in a half dozen languages. Lake boating evolves into river navigation evolves into seaworthy craft for adventurous voyages. This leads to more possibilities - more exclamation marks !!! and more questions ??? Humanity manages to make a really big mark on Planet Earth ( they even give the orb a name and place it third from a Sun in what they call a solar system ). Innovations in optics really help.
Telescopes are useful in navigation, astronomy and keeping an eye on the neighbourhood. People get enamoured with the word "World". They want to know it, to explore it, to grasp its entirety. The local park and grocery fail to satiate their urges. Some form martial tribes to maraud atleast the continent they are on. Civilization still survives - peaceful congregations still take place. Education spreads further. There's more participation by the many in more and more spheres of activity. After some marvellous things like laser effects and their diverse applications are discovered, something called a Computer begins to develop rapidly. Then computer networks. It spreads super-swiftly.
The Internet emerges. Suddenly practically anyone can be on something called the World Wide Web. So the activity of doing a planet-scan for information, perspectives, ideas and gossip partners really takes off. You can even throw sticks for other people's dogs to fetch and not wait for just your canine's day! Soon, some philosophers ( byproduct fellows of this civilization thing ) declare that " To be, is to be an active member of a global online community, preferably several". And of course, all of this is enabled by a lot of technologies and some social instincts that call for the application of the said technologies to bring all these people together to interact.
While there has been nothing illogical about the explanation offered so far for how come you find yourself now looking at something known as a monitor, you will readily agree that the very name "Illogicopaedia" is reminiscent of a structured, alphabetically organised thingie. I propose that items be organised and indexed along a random selection of one of the last three alphabets in a name/word/phrase, for instance I should expect to find Illogicopaedia listed under either "d", "i" or "a", though some of you will object that this is too systematic an approach. If some of you don't join in soon, I will undertake this mammoth exercise of compiling the entire "Technology" section all on my own.
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- The Internet, Z. Ommeg, 1834
- General P. Fault, 5th Brigade: A Memoir, N. Bungie, 1995