0017: OUTDOOR LONG DISTANCE COMMUNICATION IS HARD

Outdoor Long Distance Communication Is Hard

474 words, < 3 minutes

Once upon a time, we used to talk to each other, face-to-face, in real-time, all of the time. For thousands of years, it was the only way we communicated.

Then about 5,000 years ago, we invented writing. Writing transformed spoken language into symbols that allowed us to store and share ideas like never before. Disconnecting language from time meant we could communicate on our own schedules. We could learn from history and send messages into the future. Communication became nearly timeless, but timely communication was still important.

Throughout history, the greatest challenge to timely communication was distance. Without modification, the human voice can only travel about the length of two football fields. Whales can sing hundreds of miles to each other, howler monkeys can be heard from miles away, yet we’re lucky if we can shout nonsense a couple of hundred feet.

We experimented with bells, horns, whistling, smoke signals, torches, and fireworks to communicate over long distances, but these methods were difficult to decode and couldn’t communicate complex ideas quickly. So for most of history, when people wanted to communicate we moved closer together.

When we needed to communicate over long distances quickly, we moved faster. For example, there’s the apocryphal story of Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens. It took him hours to share the message that Greece won the battle, and supposedly he died upon completing the first marathon. It seems like the moral of the story is that long distance communication is hard, and so is running fast.

Pigeons, on the other hand, are surprisingly efficient. For thousands of years, pigeons quickly carried messages across hundreds of miles. Did you know that a pigeon is one of the fastest animals on Earth? Pigeons can fly horizontally at speeds nearly 90 m.p.h. Peregrine falcons get all of the fame, but really, they’re just falling.

What does the history of long-distance communication have to do with adventure?

Unless you carry pigeons in your pack, when we are in remote areas without electricity, our ability to communicate over long distances is similar to life thousands of years ago.

If there is an emergency, shouting isn’t going to get you very far.

Smoke signals and fireworks (signal flares) might get attention, but your communication is pretty much limited to “hey!”

There is no edit button when you send a message by runner. This method will take longer than you think, and time changes the context of the message.

Most importantly, the difficulty and disconnect of long-distance communication create an opportunity to connect. Without the distractions from faraway places, we can slow down and enjoy the most ancient way of communicating – moving closer together and talking to each other. We feel more connected to others when time and communication are in sync. Our conversations become ephemeral, and those moments together are even more special.

These thoughts were originally part of a longer piece about long distance communication. We’re working on a companion article that includes a wild true crime story about the brothers who became the first hackers, Napoleon, pigeons, cheating the stock market, betrayal, roulette, and a courtroom surprise. The article also explains the designs on our limited edition t-shirts.