“Are you ready” was the first ever wireless message sent over open waters on May 13, 1897, one hundred, twenty-eight years ago yesterday. The brain behind this creation was Italian electrical engineer Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, whom thankfully we merely refer to as Marconi. His telegraph system ultimately laid the foundation for future wireless communication systems and that… got me thinking.
Marconi had no formal higher education, and he struggled at school so much so that his parents hired private tutors to help him with his studies, and the tutors fed Marconi’s curiosity in science and electricity. Scientists at that time were interested in radio waves in terms of their scientific phenomenon, but it was Marconi who imagined their potential for communication that might one day allow for sending messages across oceans.
After Marconi’s first wireless transmission in 1897, he set up demonstrations over increasingly greater distances which piqued little public interest. As a new century was being welcomed, he turned his attention to signalling across the Atlantic to challenge the existing transatlantic telegraph cables placed in 1866. By 1907, regular wireless transmissions were heard between Ireland and Glace Bay, but still little notice was given. When the Titanic went down in April of 1912, it was Marconi’s communication equipment on board that enabled them to send a distress message to the Carpathia fifty-eight miles away, resulting in the rescue of 705 lives that would have otherwise been lost. Now Marconi had the attention of the world.
This essay wasn’t meant as a history lesson so where is the “got me thinking” part? I’ve been wondering about where we find ourselves all these years after Marconi, with all our wireless gadgets and the internet we are obligated to participate in to do our banking, our taxes, retrieve information from Revenue Canada and most other matters. As a result, we’ve managed to create a global workplace for hackers and scammers that grow more sophisticated every year. What was once easily detectable due to poor grammar and pitiful logos has become professional. Our credit cards are constantly hacked and banks who make billions in fees attached to those credit cards offer little support. I have a friend whose credit card was used by hackers for Uber Eats in the U.S. while she was using the same credit card at home in Toronto. Did her bank contact her with a query as to the significant funds spent on home delivery for food? Nope. I have a business account with Canada Post and every single time I prepare a shipping label on the Canada Post website, I then receive emails advising my postage was short and they require my credit card to correct the problem. This sounds like someone on the inside has a sideline business, but when I call Canada Post they aren’t interested in my alarm. The FBI reported in 2023, a whopping sum of $5.6 billion lost to scammers, with a frightening increase to $16.6 billion in 2024.
I realize in a few decades there won’t be anyone living who knew what it was like when we relied on the postal system for communication and, on rare occasions, we made long distance phone calls. No one will have firsthand experience of waiting to get home to listen to the day’s phone messages, of needing a set of encyclopedias for the facts, and or when going out for dinner with friends and family involved having a meaningful conversation rather than phone-staring.
So, are we better off? I suppose I would have to say yes, but I’m weary of the flood of misinformation, of those who rely on Facebook for their news and believe that Tom Hanks is head of a pedophile ring because some idiot on TikTok said so. We have created generations of those who believe more willingly in conspiracy than in science. I’m fed up with the constant spam in my inbox. I have received countless messages telling me my email has been hacked, and they will go public with the websites I have visited if I don’t pay up. Knock yourself out, I tell them. I got nuthin’ to hide, unless visits to knitting sites and recipes and book reviews is considered scandalous.
I do find myself longing for “the good old days” despite the feeling of panic that erupts when my internet service goes down; a bit hypocritical I realize. I wonder if Marconi had any idea where his imagined idea would take us, but then again, that could be said about any invention and discovery that has been used for harm rather than the greater good for which it was intended.
wendistewart@live.ca
