The Story Of Cyberspace (week 2)

Relevance and Obsolescence

The Fax machine or facsimile machine was invented by the Xerox company in 1964. The original technology that inspired the creation of the modern version of the fax machine that we know nowadays is to be created to a great man far back in History, much further back than you would ever expect my dear reader! The credit is largely pointed towards a man who was born and raised in Scotland to create a technology called the ‘electric printing telegraph’ which was furthermore based off of another technology known as the printing telegraph. This goes to show that the fax machine has a deep and rich history that spans back 2 millennia ago. The simple premise behind the fax machine or the telegraph was that the fax machine would be capable of copying files and information at one location and reproducing it to another location this happened with a scanner reading line after line and reproducing the same result on the other end. For it’s time it was an incredibly efficient medium so much so that every major workspace had to have it included to be considered functional and for it to exist with other fax-equipped counterparts. Sadly however, this form of communication was shrouded into obsolescence with the invention and popularisation of the internet and email during the 1990s and the 2000s.




Let us now talk about the email. It was a revolutionary invention that shattered it’s competition upon it’s release to the public in 1978 by VA Shiva Ayyadurai or according to others by Ray Tomlinson of ARPANET. This is a highly debatable and controversial topic
which if argued upon would not end with a pretty or satisfactory conclusion. However, it’s invention completely revolutionised communication after the first commercial email service Hotmail was released in 1996. It’s release to the public meant the permanent and concrete extinction of commercial uses for any other form of written communication such as the standard mail, telegraphs, fax machines etc. Email, like the fax machine has integrated itself and become one with the very idea and thought a working and function healthy successful workplace. It is impossible to exist without an email address in a workplace or on the Job Market. After the rise of instant messaging on popular platforms such as Instagram, SMS messaging, Blackberry Messenger, Twitter DMs etc, email has taken a backseat the past couple of years but it is far from being obsolete. In my opinion, it has become a lot more influential than it used to be earlier for a man without an email in my opinion has no presence, it is like a proof of existence that you really are or are not. Without an email, you would not have access to an online voice on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter etc., your email gives you an online identity. Email will exist far into the future as it has now even penetrated important official government documents and are present at almost every major sign up in the real world. Without an email, you are not here.

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