Imagine a world where your interactions with technology no longer require a physical effort or mechanical input, but you control your devices, from your smartphone, your laptop, to your smart TV solely with the power of your thoughts. No more mouse pointers and keyboard clicks, just think it, visualize it, and it is done. 

The idea of controlling a machine with one’s thoughts might sound like a science fiction novel but is in fact a reality in 21^stcentury and rapid progress is made to master and commercialize this technology. This interaction is described with the fancy acronym of BCI, namely Brain–Computer Interface. BCIs are systems that allow a combination of hardware and software technologies to control external devices through brain activity. This technology has been researched heavily in the past few years because of its promising use in providing assistance to disabled or paralyzed people. Although the focus of BCI-related technology has been in medical applications, nonmedical applications such as gaming and device control have also been developed for commercial use. While the current state BCIs is not quite at the level of the seamless interaction that we imagined previously, it is a fast-growing and promising area of technology being actively invested in by the likes of Elon Musk and other visionaries.

I would like to explore this technology not only as means of communication between man and device, but a revolutionary method of collective interaction between people and machines, and argue the possibilities that it can open for person to person communication either directly or via a shared device. 

Some sources with further information on BCIs:

https://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/12/health/brain-computer-interface-partner/index.html

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-17534-3_8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain–computer_interface

https://www.wired.com/story/brain-machine-interface-isnt-sci-fi-anymore/

The excerpts from Digital Cosmopolitans that I read offered an interesting but not uncommon or illogical view of the role of internet in shaping modern society. Media scholar Ethan Zuckerman explains in this book why having the ample technological ability to communicate with someone does not necessarily lead to having deeper and stronger human connections. Essentially, the author argues that the human tendency to group with similar others means that most of modern human interactions, be it online or in person, happen with a small set of people who have a lot in common. In examining this fundamental tendency, Zuckerman draws on his own work as well as the research in psychology and sociology to highlight technology’s role in the opposite than what we might assume – disconnecting ourselves from the rest of the world.

I have come across Zukerman’s view a number of times, and I think people are beginning to realize the unintended consequences of easy access to any communication technologicy nowadays. However, Zukerman’s point still resonated with me personally. As I reflect on my experience here in NYUAD, a university that is supposed to be truly global and diverse, I quickly realize that my closest people are the ones that have the most in common with me, not the ones who are different or diverse. Exploring my social media feeds, my chat’s history, it is clear that technology had made it incredibly easy to identify the people who have common interests, values, and views as my own and my social connections have formed around them. This translates to my social interactions outside of the university too; the people that I communicate outside are also the ones who have very similar values and views. Putting that into perspective, it seems that out of all of the possibility for communication and interaction on campus and in this country, I have somehow formed connections with the people who are most similar to me, and it seems that technology was the catalysts that made it possible to first identify those people, and second engage with them. 

The second point of Zukerman’s argument that technology actually makes people disconnected from the world around them also holds strength in my personal experience. Going back to the example of my social circle on campus, the various forms of ‘staying up-to-date’ or ‘keeping in touch’ with people has resulted in me putting much less effort to engage with people in person or to dig a deeper connection. Endless information about everyone pops up on my Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat feed every morning, when I instantly know where everyone has been, what coffee they’ve had, what interesting happened in their day… etc. I easily have access to lot of surface information about my social circle (sometimes even unintended or unasked for information). Hence, I make less of a conscious effort to dig for this information myself by asking people directly or in person. And even when we meet in person and have a conversation, my background knowledge of their activities already gives us a topic of discussion that is readily available, perhaps interesting, but often taking precedence over other topics that might be more valuable and enriching on a personal level or that might deepen our connection, rather than discussion something that we already know about each other. 

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Following the somewhat simplistic self-reflection, I decided to ‘rewire’ my internet communications by changing the way I interact with people and the way I learn about the people around me on a daily basis. The most effective way to do so for me was to fundamentally change my source of information about my group of friends. To achieve this, I decided to eliminate completely the social apps I use the most, the abovementioned Facebook, Instagram. Instead, I chose to focus on more human and person-to-person interaction by communicating to my friends directly on the phone, or via text massage if they couldn’t talk (or didn’t want to). So for 24 hours my primary communication was people was phone calls and sms texts. No picture sharing and liking, no dramatic posts, no stories of sunrises and sunsets, nothing easily available for everyone. If I wanted to know something, I had to ask for it.

In the aftermath of the rewire experiment, I understood a bit better the extent to which social media has made it so easy to share personal information, yet so difficult to engage with people directly. Maybe not so much for me, but for some of my friends it seemed strange to talk on the phone for every little thing, or not to know what I am doing due to the absence of story on my Snapchat. Some friends even texted me on WhatsApp to see if I am alright or just too busy as they got worried by the absence of any updates and replies on Snapchat. Even when prompting people to open up about their day and their experience, I felt they found it burdensome to have to re-explain everything they already had posted on social media in the forms of stories, updates, pictures, etc, or to think of the highlights of their day without referring to their social media. This prompted me to think how superficial some of my connections have become, as Zukerman suggested, as a consequence of the ease of access to communication technologies I have become somewhat disconnected from the people around me who may not be as active on social media, or with whom I don’t have the chance to engage in person very often. To end on a positive note, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat has made it possible to stay in touch with those people that I cannot meet in person often and having some sense of connection with each other, which is better than nothing at all. 

Almost at the end of my undergraduate career in university, Stack Exchange has proven to be one of the most useful sites. Whenever I have question regarding homework from a computer science class, programming class, or a math class, chances are someone has posted a similar question on one of the Stack Exchange platforms in the likes of Stack Overflow, Mathematics, etc. Moreover, as a tech enthusiast who often plays around with under-the-hood options of operating systems, the Super User and Ask Ubuntu has proven invaluable in resolving problems ranging from minor tweaks and optimizations to critical failures. Hence, I embarked on this assignment with the expectations that I am well-versed in the Stack Exchange world.  Perhaps here is the place to say Thank You to every user on these sites who has made my life easier! 

One of the main aspects of this challenge was to try a site that I have not used before. Having a passion for photography, the Photography Stack Exchange bulletin board seemed the perfect opportunity to look at something that I have never used before, but I am interested in.

The first thing to do is sign up for the platform. Nowadays that’s just a single redirect to Facebook or Google anyway, I choose Facebook because my account there does not contain any personal information and I prefer to give out the least amount to any online service whenever possible, for privacy reasons. 

Being signed in automatically, I was already greeted with one message in my inbox – a welcome letter to the bulletin board. This welcome “page” contained a brief yet detailed overview of the site’s functionality, namely how to upvote and downvote posts, how to answer a post, and how to create a new post or tag a post. 

Now the interesting part – the points “reward” system. In a nutshell, your score goes up when others vote up your questions, answers and edits, with each of these adding a different number of points. When you reach a certain number of total points you unlock a new ‘privilege’, such as ability to upvote, comment, vote down, and eventually edit other user’s posts and answers. On top of that, depending on the quality of your contributions, you can receive badges to signify your ‘experience level’. 

At this point, the only privileges I had were to make a post or answer a post. I thought that would be easy, but the interesting part was that most of the questions were extremely technical, specific, or odd. For instance, “Calculate the distance of an object in a picture?” or “Connecting Yongnuo YN968EX-RT speedlight with a YN560IV off-camera”. Needless to say, I couldn’t find any question that I had sufficient technical knowledge or practical experience to answer. There were some questions that I tentatively knew the answer to, but I was afraid to post it in case it was incorrect, as being downvoted would affect my reputation (and I know how annoying it is to spend hours trying to follow a given answer on Stack Exchange only to find out it is wrong).

So, in the end, of the day, I was too scared to write any replies, I did not have any questions to ask, and I couldn’t do much else on the site at that time. I was able to gain a whopping 1 point for signing up for the bulletin board. Moreover, I was able to get 2 whole badges – “informed” for reading the entire tour page, and “autobiographer” for filling in the about section of my profile. Next step is to answer 30 questions from users. Will update in a month! 

Premise: Recreate ResEd housing application process, invite the audience to join a satiric internal view of the ResEd team on the day of opening the housing portal and hear about what two eager students are going through in the process.

Interaction 1 – Setting the scene

Flavia: Good morning Howler Radio tune ins, this is RA Flavia Cereceda on set with you and you are now listening to Sounds of the Housing Arrangement, a special live broadcast covering Housing Selection-  brought to you by our main sponsors, The Gazelle national newspaper.

On this fine Saadiyat morning we also have RA Ali Al Dhaheri on site, the housing portal just opened so he is currently sitting on his RA desk in A5B and is going to be handling any potential problems students might encounter through the process, can you hear us Ali?

Ali: Hello Flavia -Yes yes, I can hear you.

Flavia: Perfect, it’s great to have you here with us today Ali, how are you feeling about the housing process?

Ali: I’m actually feeling pretty good about it, this year ResEd worked very hard on the portal so I’m confident that there won’t be many problems, I’m expecting a very calm morning and I’m sure I’ll be able to handle any issues that come my way .

Flavia: That is great to hear Ali! So, the housing application has just gone live – and for all you tuners, we would like you to know that if you’re going through any problems, we’re also going to be taking live calls here at Howler starting now – so please don’t hesitate and dial our Howler # written in the comments – We are here for YOU. But the meantime, let’s listen to some under-appreciated jazz elevator music.

(Jazz Music plays for a few seconds – Inter)

Interaction 2 – Sharon’s Complaint

(Phone rings)

Flavia: Oh well, that was quick

(phone pick up)

Sharon: Hi, I just wanted to say I’m SO excited for this. I’ve been counting down the minutes and I have everything ready!

Flavia:  Great!  

Sharon: This year is the year! I’m not making the same mistake as last time. The housing time slots are in Gulf Standard Time, right?

Flavia: No, actually this year we changed it to GMT – 3!

Sharon: Oh wait what, why would you do that?  – Nevermind, I’m having trouble with the housing portal. Just a minute ago, I was logged in and I was ready to choose my room but then the website crashed!

Flavia: Okay – can you send an email to our IT team to let them know?

Sharon: I tried but the whole wifi system is down too.

Flavia: Well, umm, hmm, yeah lemme see on my side of things. I might have to talk with our IT team and see why some residents would have access while other don’t. Not to worry, it might just take 5 minutes to fix. Hopefully nothing happens again…

Sharon: 5 minutes?! That’s way too long. My time slot is now, I can’t miss it!

Flavia: Just wait a little bit, it should be fixed soon. That’s strange, the wifi signal seems fine in the freshmen dorms

Sharon: Wait – hold on – I think it’s working now actually

Flavia: Oh okay awesome! I’m glad it’s working now!

Sharon: But the room I selected is not showing up anymore. Why is that?

Flavia:  It’s tough competition out there. Better luck next time.

Sharon: What? No, no wait you don’t understand, I’ve been waiting three years for this chance, everything was going as planned… I think the freshmen blocked the wifi here somehow… They’re taking up our spots! Please, you must help me – can’t you change it?   

Flavia:  Sorry, I can’t do anything to help from here! Please head to the RA dest at A5B and I hope you have a great semester!

(Hangs up phone)

Interaction 3 – Tensions Rises on Ali’s Site

Flavia: Well that was an exciting! How are we doing down in A5 Ali!

Ali: Exciting??? If she was affected by this, then there are probably others who are experiencing the same issue! If this goes on further, we might just have to postpone the Housing Selection yet again!

Flavia: Haha, it might be just minor issues Ali, don’t think into it too much.

Ali: What do you mean?!?! If she didn’t have a chance in selecting her room, there will be an uproar, especially in FaceBook, and we both know how much that affects how things are dictated here!

Flavia: Relax Ali, if the selection was really going bad, we would have gotten another call by now…

(Phone rings)

Interaction 4 – Theo’s Complaint

Theo: Hi, I am calling because I JUST got a reminder email that that the room selection period opens up on Monday Dec 4… anddd it is Tuesday the fifth! I thought it opens up on the 7th!

Flavia: Uhm , it must have been a technical glitch. It actually opened right now! We just got a new system, coded it ourselves, pretty proud of it!

Theo: Uhm, anyway, So I went to the housing portal using the link in the email you sent me. The link doesn’t work. Can you please give me the correct address asap, I hope the good rooms are still available.

Flavia: Ok. Go to www.res.ed.housing.abu.dhabi.nyu.edu. (say it fast) Did you write it down.?

Theo: Uhhmm yeah… sure. SO I opened the housing portal, it says that I didn’t register on time…

Flavia: Yeah, you have to pay a 147 dollar late application fee, 38 dollars excessive reminders fee, and 29 dollars for timbits and other incurred expenses, and 21 dollars value added tax/

Theo; what…

Flavia: yeah, this is the only way we can let you proceed with your room selection.

Theo: ok then… I just wired the funds. Why is the portal still not opening…

Flavia: oh… must be another technical glitch…

Theo: ok so I just got in. I am searching for rooms and it says no singles available!

Flavia: Yeah unfortunately at this point all the rooms have been taken by freshmen. we are trying some new incentive strategies giving them priority. Also, instead of singles, we created a shared living community area which houses 60 students in the same room. We just  opened the new wing of campus housing, previously known as D1. This is your only room option left, so I will go ahead and reserve you a sofa in the new d1 apartment.

Theo: but but.. ..

Flavia: Thank you for calling Res-Ed. For any further complaints please visit the RA Desk on A5B! Have a great semester!

(Hang-up the phone)

Interaction 5: Uproar happens

Ali: Flavia!!! I heard that!! – That wasn’t helpful at all, this is only getting worse!!

Flavia: Haha its okayyyy, I mean this is why we have charges, whenever we mess up, we can just blame it on them and make them pay!

Ali: I know Flavia, but all these bean bags, hammocks, timbits, and donuts around us won’t help us now with our residents’ issues!

Flavia:  ooooooh talking about donutss, can you save me a glazed one??

(Sound of protest outside)

Ali: Wait…. Do you hear that?

(sound becomes louder)

Flavia: Oh wow, would you look at that! It sounds like there are people outside probably praising us! Listen, they are chanting our names!!

Ali: What do you mean?!?! It’s an angry mob! I’m so dead!!

(Sound of mob stops)

(sound of someone breaking the door)

Ali: (screams and shouts) – sound is cut

(Jazz starts playing again)

Flavia: Oh that was weird!  It seems like we’re having some small technical problems on site – but that’s no problem, we’ve sadly reached the end of our broadcasting time. I hope you’ve had a good time with us, we most certainly have with you! For any live complaints please head to A5B, else have a great Housing Selection and make sure to tune in for our Dining Hall special next week!

THE END

First, I would like to briefly explain what communication technology signifies to me in the context of this assignment. Although in general I subscribe to the idea of Technological Determinism as a view of technology driving the development of society, for the purpose of this assignment (and eventually my paper) I find that definition of technology limiting. Hence, I looked at technology as any means of progress by any tool that is present in the daily lives of people that helps them achieve a task, namely the propagation of an idea/message through a medium – “communication”.

Idea 1: Cyrillic Alphabet, invented around 940 in First Bulgarian Empire

The first thing that came to mind when thinking about pre-modern communication methods and technologies emerging in Bulgaria was the most obvious and omnipresent part of the national identity – the language and its alphabet. The Bulgarian language has been written down in Cyrillic script since the 10th century, shortly after The Cyrillic script was created at the Preslav Literary School, derived from the Greek uncial script letters, augmented by ligatures and consonants from the older Glagolitic alphabet for sounds not found in Greek. Cyrillic was formalized either by Saints Cyril and Methodius or by their disciples in the late 890s. The purpose behind the creation of a new script was primarily for religious purposes, as the Church was the driving force behind education, art, and science at that time. The Cyrillic script was more suitable for church books as it better captured the sounds of verbs and nouns in the Bulgarian language, which did not exist in Greek and could not be captured using the Greek alphabet or the Glagolitic alphabet. 

The emerge of the Cyrillic script had a profound effect on the Bulgarian history and arguably on the existence of the nation in present day. The Cyrillic alphabet was used to write down pieces of the Bulgarian folklore and tradition that were hitherto transmitted either verbally or written down using foreign languages and/or the script of foreign languages. Having an alphabet that directly related to the national language strengthened the sense of a nation and protected the culture from foreign influences. The crux of its importance was during the period when Bulgarian territories were under Ottoman Empire rule, when a foreign culture, religion, and language were forced on the local population, which was grappling for a hold of its own identity, religion, and tradition. The Cyrillic script helped the effective (and permanent) communication of all those nation-defining aspects from one region to another, and from one generation to another. Last but not least, the Cyrillic is the basis of alphabets used in many of the languages with Orthodox Slavic origin, and non-Slavic languages influenced by Russian as well. As of 2011, around 252 million people in Eurasia use it as the official alphabet for their national languages, according to population data sources on Wikipedia. 

Idea 2: Canon gun fire as communication signals in 19^thcentury Bulgaria

Language and script are one of the foundational means of communication, that in fact differentiate man from the rest of the animal kingdom. One of the premises of verbal communication is that it is universal, or at least understood by multiple parties with a certain level of precision and unambiguity. There are situations in life, however, that necessitate the ability to transmit a message from one party to another with a level of secrecy that protects the meaning of the message from becoming known to parties for whom it was not intended. This concept has been critical historically in transmitting messages during wars and is equally important in the present day with issues of privacy and secrecy of data in the digital era. However, the ability to send messages that convey meaning only to an intended audience was key in the April Uprising in Bulgaria in 1876. One way to do so was through auditory signals, namely the sound of canon gun firing. 

To understand the importance of canon guns in Bulgarian culture and history, one must understand the cultural and geographic circumstances around it. The geography of Bulgaria is dominated by mountains and forests. This fact was used as an advantage to rebellion groups and defense groups during the uprisings against Ottoman occupation. In simple terms, the ancient trees in the forests provided material for making canons easily, while the mountain ranges provided acoustic environment in which sound propagated far and loud. Hence, a canon gun fire became a viable method for relaying a message across villages and among different rebellion groups hiding in the forests. There were a set of parameters that were mutually agreed upon prior to such a communication. For example, the number of fires could have a meaning, or the time of the day (hour and minute) could indicated different things. 

The practice of firing canon guns as communication method became prevalent and iconic for that period of Bulgarian history, so much that it became a premise for one of the most famous Bulgarian novels – “Under the Yoke” by Ivan Vazov, as well as part of many traditional celebrations in Bulgarian culture nowadays, such as weddings and marches. 

For this assignment I had to create three emojis that relate to my hometown. The very definition of hometown sparked some inner debate and left me perplexed for a while, but for the scope of the assignment, I decided to take the small town in which I spent most of my first 4 years growing up. Teteven is situated in the heart of the Balkan mountain range in central Bulgaria, the houses are seated in a small cutout of the forest and surrounded in every direction by tall mountain peaks. The local population has names for every peak and every stretch of land between the town and the top of the peaks belongs to the original towners. Now, there are around 10,000 people living in the town, although its population peaked 30,000 in 1990s when the town was a local industrial center. Now tourism is the only commercial activity in this quit town. 

When I was first confronted with this task I was lost and had no idea where to start. Part of the problem was that that some tasks/activities that came to my mind immediately when thinking about my hometown were already captured by built-in emojis in my phone, and I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. I wanted to create something that couldn’t be explained with one of the existing emojis, although it could be communicated by a combination of them. Hence, I began to brainstorm activities that I used to do with my friends when I was in there in the summer, the sort of things that everyone in the town would be doing on a regular basis. The first thing that came to my mind was a picture of the mountain peak right across our house, where there is a lush forest and hiking track. I used to go hiking and playing there with my friends, so it was a location that we were often talking about in our childhood. Hence, I imagined myself as a child now, and thought to myself “how can I send this location/hiking route/ to my friends with one emoji only. Then I began to draft the image of the mountain peak and the river underneath it. 

This is the first draft of my emoji:

Then I sent it to one of my friends Radi, without any prior explanation of what he was looking at. His first reaction was: “This is a nice drawing. Did you make it? What am I looking at?” Then I said it is something from our hometown, and he replied: “Is it [that] peak???”

I explained what I was trying to depict, and he agreed that it looks similar, but the brought up one point which evaded my attention – the peak was not grey. There were some rocks on top of the peak, but it does not show as grey, as it is usually covered by low shrubs. So the second iteration of my emoji removes the grey peak and makes it green to match the rest of the forest beneath it.

The second emoji represents one of my favorite activities that I would do every summer, and every time the weather allows it – swinging in a hammock between the trees, only the sky and the sun above. Since there was no official emoji to show this activity, I thought it would be nice whenever one of my friends texts me “wyd?” to be able to reply just with one emoji that captures the scenery. 

For the first iteration of the emoji I wanted to keep it simple and make it as stripped-down as possible. Hence, I drew two simple trees and a hammock between them. 

This time my friend Radi already had context about what I am doing, so his reaction immediately connected the hammock with what I used to do all summer. He also said it looked like a “creepy smiley face”. LOL. His suggestions for improvement were to include the sky and sun to make the emoji more wholesome and easier to situate the activity in its environment – outdoors in the open air, and so that it doesn’t look like a creepy smiley face. 

The third emoji captures an activity that relates more universally to the people in the town, not so much to my own experiences. Needless to say, a community in the heart of the Balkans in a drinker’s community, in fact there are legends that men from this region of the Balkan can drink all night and not get affected by the alcohol. Hence, even young people in the town drink casually. I wanted my emoji to capture the social aspect of drinking together and having a good time, hence I decided to depict the moment of clinging the bottles together to say “Cheers!”. For us, Balkan people, this is part of tradition and permeates the social and family environment, especially in mountain areas where the climate is harsher and people use drinking as a recreational activity to escape the rough conditions outside. 

Radi’s initial reaction was laughter. He found the emoji on point with the social and cultural conditioning of young people in this town, and he agreed it might simplify their texting life. His feedback was to try to represent the clinging of the bottles better, to highlight the social aspect of drinking and the good times of it.

In the aftermath of this exercise, I realized how hard it is to capture a universal experience and represent an activity in such a way that everyone understands its meaning and rich sociocultural implications. Also, graphically, I wish I was able to create more simplistic and minimalistic emojis, so that the reader’s attention is grabbed immediately and the they convey meaning instantly, without the need to inspect the details. 

After completing the Digital Detox exercise, I was frankly relieved to finally have my phone and feel connected again. In the first few minutes I was ecstatic, checking different apps and messages franticly, and after a few minutes of replying to conversations, checking stories and notification, the excitement came to a halt and I felt kind of empty again – “Ok, I checked everything, I’m all caught up, so now what?” I thought to myself. Of course, I could have started scrolling through endless news feeds and subscriptions, but I didn’t feel compelled to do so. I was happy to finally make arrangements to go out, to see my friends, to talk to my parents, to be able to listen to music as background to my daily actions, as well as to Google (Duck actually) things that I needed to know more about, such as what movies are playing, where to order karak from, how long does it take to get to Al Muneera by taxi, etc.  

Thought this exercise, I was surprised that I didn’t have to change many aspects of my daily life – for instance, I didn’t feel uncomfortable that I don’t have my phone around when in the dining hall, or that I would have to sit alone because I didn’t plan to meet anyone. I have to keep in mind however that I had to do many things in preparation for this day- to print my readings, to make to-do lists, and avoid traveling off-campus. On another day, it might have been much more challenging to stay away from technology. What I felt was hurt the most by my digital abstinence were the little conveniences that technology provides me with, such as reminders and timers, quick Duck searches, taking notes on my laptop and having spell-check to proofread my writing.  

Sherry Turkle’s recollections of her experience with reclaiming person-to-person communications resonated with me on some level. Even though I consider myself very present in the moment, observant and invested in the immediate world around me, many of the social situations described by Turkle captured my own experience with people around me. For example, the level of “emotional intelligence” or “emotional development” of some of my friends lacks in ability to recognize emotions in people around them, inability (or lack of desire) to empathize, put oneself in another person’s situation and look at the situation from another point of view. This is not meant as a criticism, but just an observation of how easy is it in the present time to be emotionally distanced from people around you and to fall into thinking that you have a worldly perspective just because you have travelled and you have contacts from different nationalities, as opposed to trying to looks on the individual level at the moment and ask yourself “How is this person feeling in response to my actions, and why might that be?”. I certainly try to ask myself this question more often, and sometimes I apply the principle of embracing life’s “boring bits” and resisting temptation to seek comfort in digital entertainment to fill in the time.  

Many would argue that the fundamental notions that the two terms communication and technology carry are tightly intertwined with the very existence of mankind and the traits that elevate man above the rest of the animal kingdom. Namely, the ability to ‘communicate’, which I understand as the intended exchange of information/knowledge through any medium, as well as the ability to utilize ‘technology’, which I see as a basic ability of man to use physical or intellectual tools to complete tasks that either would not be possible without that tool or would be much more difficult and achieve, are the two quintessential characteristics that are attributed to homo sapiens but are not present in other living organisms to a similar extent and sophistication.

Building upon my simplistic definition of what communication and technology mean to me, being two important concepts that place mankind on the top of the evolution ladder, I believe that communication and technology together synergistically provide a set of capabilities that, in present day and recent past, establish a new grander scale for interaction between people and manifest additional value from these interactions to one or more or all of the parties that take part in these interactions. I want to highlight a few of what I consider the most important and revolutionary domains where tremendous value has been added by the interactions of communication and technology.

Connectivity – an overwhelming percentage of the citizens of the modern world utilize various technologies (such as apps, and social media, digital content consumption and creation) that help entities establish deeper connections between each other and between parties which might have been inaccessible to such an extent in the past, such as government, companies, celebrities, etc, and thus give them more rewarding experiences of everyday existence. Such connections can also deeply inform the personality formation of the individuals who embrace connectivity full-heartedly and unquestionably.

Data-empowered decision making – a concept that is becoming possible by the omnipresence of technology and the positive networking effects that this omnipresence induces. It enables individuals to make decisions based on factual information based on the collective experience of others, eliminating to a large extent the uncertainty of unavailability of information in a certain domain. Best of all, this data-empowered decision making opens up the possibility of tracking evolving patterns of human behavior in real time, due to the access to a large pool of data points that are constantly in interaction with each other or a certain system. 

Process automation – participants in the digital revolution of modern technology can leverage can focus their efforts on well-defined processes that can be performed by technology in order to save time, increase precision and outcome predictability, and ultimately alleviate burden of repeated human interaction. Successful process-automation involves designing the future state for each process, without regard for current constraints and in a sense enables achieving a better state by allowing the possibility to consider such state theoretically, then find ways to implement it in reality.