# Bertrand Russell and an interconnected world. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 24, 2010, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265 "2010-12-24T07:49:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265/1 "2010-12-24T07:49:35Z")
In this [BBC](http://www.tnr.com/video/culture/bbc-interview-bertrand-russell) video ( 1:59 minutes) he talks of an increasingly interconnected world. My question is, which early 20th century personalities have talked of world getting interconnected? ---
**Author:** ![Myself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@Myself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myself)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265/2 "2010-12-24T15:43:36Z")
Jobs and Wozniak come to mind. Any of the internet pioneers. ---
**Author:** ![lexi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lexi/32/6806_2.png) [@lexi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lexi)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265/3 "2010-12-24T16:10:35Z")
Can’t remember off hand where or when I heard it, but I remember reading about the great depression & WW2 as being the birth of a philosophy of living in a global culture. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265/4 "2010-12-24T17:27:06Z")
> [@Myself](#): > > Jobs and Wozniak come to mind. Any of the internet pioneers. Jobs and Wozniak? _Early_ twentieth century? You have to go back before Leinster’s [A Logic named Joe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Logic_Named_Joe) (1946) for that. I’m thinking more along the lines of Wells. There was a prediction that went something like, “You will call with the electromagnetic voice, and your friend will listen with the electromagnetic ear, and if he does not respond, you will know that your friend is dead” that was published sometime before the First World War, but I’m trying to find a cite. [Here it is](http://www.todayinsci.com/M/Marconi_Guglielmo/MarconiGuglielmo-Quotations.htm): > [@](#): > > Professor Ayrton said that we were gradually coming within thinkable distance of the realization of a prophecy he had ventured to make four years before, of a time when, if a person wanted to call to a friend he knew not where, he would call in a very loud electromagnetic voice, heard by him who had the electromagnetic ear, silent to him who had it not. “Where are you? ” he would say. A small reply would come, “I am at the bottom of a coalmine, or crossing the Andes, or in the middle of the Atlantic.” Or, perhaps in spite of all the calling, no reply would come, and the person would then know that his friend was dead. Think of what this would mean … a real communication from a distance based on true physical laws. 1901! ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265/5 "2010-12-24T17:34:09Z")
This interview was probably done around the 1950’s by which time the idea of an interconnected world was pretty commonplace. The first great age of globalization took place in the late 19th century when you had developments like the railway, steam ships and particularly the telegraph which connected the world together more closely than ever before. I wouldn’t be surprised if writers at the time didn’t discuss this. Perhaps someone like Jules Verne who of course wrote a famous book about going round the world in 80 days. ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265/6 "2010-12-25T03:59:38Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Jobs and Wozniak? _Early_ twentieth century? You have to go back before Leinster’s [A Logic named Joe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Logic_Named_Joe) (1946) for that. I’m thinking more along the lines of Wells. There was a prediction that went something like, “You will call with the electromagnetic voice, and your friend will listen with the electromagnetic ear, and if he does not respond, you will know that your friend is dead” that was published sometime before the First World War, but I’m trying to find a cite. > > [Here it is](http://www.todayinsci.com/M/Marconi_Guglielmo/MarconiGuglielmo-Quotations.htm): 1901! **Sunspace,** Thanks for the link ! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2010, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265/7 "2010-12-25T04:05:41Z")
E.M. Forster’s _[The Machine Stops](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops)_, from 1909, pretty much predicts the internet (complete with users who never venture out of their basements). ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2010, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265/8 "2010-12-25T10:18:31Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > E.M. Forster’s _[The Machine Stops](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops)_, from 1909, pretty much predicts the internet (complete with users who never venture out of their basements). interesting! Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![tetranz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@tetranz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tetranz)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265/9 "2010-12-25T22:25:34Z")
Buckminster Fuller was always talking about more and more people having a global view of things once air travel became commonplace. His [Dymaxion map](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map) was designed to show that most of the land on earth is one big island. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2010, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265/10 "2010-12-26T08:16:46Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > E.M. Forster’s _[The Machine Stops](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops)_, from 1909, pretty much predicts the internet (complete with users who never venture out of their basements). Wow! That was amazing for 1909. Everyone is a couch potato sitting alone in their rooms communicating via Skype until The Machine runs into technical difficulties… I watched two adaptations of the story: [ol] [li]This one aired on the BBC in 1966. Very close to the original with low budget effects. Worth watching but it will be clearer if you read the story first: [/li][http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2072180223855159236#](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2072180223855159236#) [li]A recent very short film loosely based on the story with lots of CGI. Not so good, in my opinion:[/li][http://www.freisebrothers.com/studio/index.php?/motion/the-machine-stops/](http://www.freisebrothers.com/studio/index.php?/motion/the-machine-stops/) [/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2010, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bertrand-russell-and-an-interconnected-world/565265/11 "2010-12-27T08:20:27Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > Wow! That was amazing for 1909. Everyone is a couch potato sitting alone in their rooms communicating via Skype until The Machine runs into technical difficulties… > > I watched two adaptations of the story: > > [ol] > [li]This one aired on the BBC in 1966. Very close to the original with low budget effects. Worth watching but it will be clearer if you read the story first: [/li][http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2072180223855159236#](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2072180223855159236#) > [li]A recent very short film loosely based on the story with lots of CGI. Not so good, in my opinion:[/li][http://www.freisebrothers.com/studio/index.php?/motion/the-machine-stops/](http://www.freisebrothers.com/studio/index.php?/motion/the-machine-stops/) > [/ol] Thank you for sharing this. I intend to watch the BBC film. This is another reason to love the dope (straight , that is!).😉