Book excerpt: In every age, science and technology have played an important role in advancing human civilization. From architecture to engineering, communication to transportation, humans have invented and developed extraordinary wonders. The myriad of methods we have used to communicate with each other throughout history have changed our society. Today’s tools of communication have the power to spread information across the planet in a matter of seconds. Millions of human beings are now interconnected through advancements in communication technology. In this book, we’ll explore seven wonders of communication, capturing the journey from the throaty grunts of our ancestors that formed our first language; to hieroglyphs and the development of written communication; to telephones and cell phones, the World Wide Web, and robot communication. Along the way, we’ll see how visual technologies enhanced our communication, how the speed of communication keeps accelerating, and what challenges the future holds. We’ll also learn the stories of how and why these communication advancements became important to the world.