In Search of Certainty

Chapter 11. The Human Condition: How humans make friends to solve problems

“While any new technical device may increase the range of human freedom, it does so only if the human beneficiaries are at liberty to accept it, to modify it, or reject it: to use it where and when and how it suits their own purposes, in quantities that conform to those purposes.”

Lewis Mumford, The Myth Of The Machine

The SOS Morse code signal ‘Save our souls’ is one of the most recognized hails on our planet. Although it is based on a phrase in the English language, its significance transcends the language of its origin. The simple pattern of dots and dashes (. . . – – – . . .) is so clearly recognizable that anyone could discern it and learn its meaning. Morse code follows a tradition of nautical signalling using simple coloured flags. A good signalling code is easily discernable under difficult, noisy and foggy conditions.

Today, a whole generation of mobile phones, with custom ring-tones has weakened the association of this signal with the m’aidez cry for help, and the SOS signal is instead associated with certain brands of phone. This reveals that the challenges of communication are not just in the content of a message, but also in its interpretation. Where humans are involved, how we promise meaning is at least as important as information.

Morse code is a set of audio symbols formed from two atoms: dots and dashes (or dits and dahs). It was designed as part of the single wire telegraph by Samuel Morse ...