Database Reference
In-Depth Information
table 9.3
technological Advances in the Last Century
Space
Time
Sliding
Altering
Sliding
Altering
Description
+
ve
-
ve
+
ve
-
ve
+
ve
-
ve
+
ve
-
ve
Paper
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Vehicles
X
X
Telephones
X
X
X
Voice Mail
X
X
X
X
X
X
Photographs
X
X
X
X
Transmitted Pictures
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Motion Pictures
X
X
X
X
Audio/Video CDs
X
X
X
X
X
Audio/Video CD Players
X
X
X
X
X
Deepfreezers
X
Microwaves
X
X
Credit Card Payments
X
X
X
Telephone Charge Cards
X
X
Computers
X
X
X
X
X
Networks
X
X
X
X
X
Internet
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
alter both space and time to a degree that is unlikely to be surpassed for quite some time in
the future and is matched only by that of printed paper.
Frances Cairncross coined the phrase “the death of distance” to describe the way in
which the Internet helps in eliminating geographical constraints. In a 1995 article on
telecommunications, she had predicted that “the death of distance as a determinant
of the cost of communications will probably be the single most important economic
force shaping society in the first half of the next century.”
