Page 44 - Communications Satellites Global Change Agents

20 PELTON

Television first occurred within national boundaries. Programming was sent
out over localized radio waves within neighborhoods, cities, and sometimes
across a nation. However, this was extremely difficult to accomplish in the 1950s
with the terrestrial transmitters and coaxial cable systems that existed then. The
early days of TV spearheaded change, but not global revolution. It was actually
only when satellites came on the scene in the mid-1960s that worldwide change
began to occur.
In the 40 years that have followed, satellites have brought us change in every
possible way—in terms of culture, business, and even warfare. It is satellite sys-
tems that have made Internet a truly global experience. Without satellites, the
Internet would not be a force in countries as diverse as Mongolia, Bolivia, Zaire,
and Vanuatu. Today, fiber optic networks are a key part of the global network, but
fiber only interconnects about half of the world's nations. If one wants to reach
the more than 200 countries of the world—places like Lesotho, Truk, or Tuvalu—
satellites are the medium of choice.
In his book of essays entitled Utopia or Oblivion?, Fuller (1971) singled out
the unique aspects of satellite technology. Fuller explained nearly three decades
ago why geosynchronous satellite systems represented a "breakthrough technol-
ogy" that allowed us to accomplished much more with much less. He called this
phenomenon ephemeralization; Buckminster suggested that this breakthrough in
intelligence is critical to human evolution and to achieve his ultimate dream—that
"intelligence in the universe" might ultimately overcome entropy.
He argued that the satellite created a virtual sea change in human existence
(akin in its force and range of impact to the printed word or electrical power). In
1973, at the White House World Communications Year observance that I luckily
got to attend, Fuller, 2 weeks prior to his death, argued that the uniqueness of hu-
man intelligence is in the ability to do things in totally new ways. He suggested
that ephemeralization is not only essential, but forms an ineluctable part of human
development. Thus, ephemeralization is the ability to achieve tasks or activities of
the past in ways that are orders of magnitude more efficient in terms of time, en-
ergy, consumption of resources, and reduced cost. In "Bucky's" view, it repre-
sents the best long-term hope for human survival.

THE AMAZING NEW SATELLITE TECHNOLOGIES
YET TO COME

Advances such as books, electricity and electric motors, artificial intelligence,
solar energy, the telephone, TV, the Internet, computers, and satellites have un-
locked a new future for humanity. Fuller's view of the need for humans to
search for new pathways to the future takes on almost religious implications in
his writings. These breakthroughs or fundamental discoveries are needed to di-
vert us from conventional pathways to profound societal and physical change.