Our generation has been so blessed with the gift of instant communications, that we can’t help but wonder how life could have been had every other generation been afforded the same luxury.
So, in the name of science, we’ll let our imaginations run loose and provide our dedicated readership, 4 people and counting, with a look at an alternative history, where people could call on telephones in their hour of need (pun intended). It’s safe to say that things might have turned out a little differently, for instance…
4. The World Wars may have never happened
We know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking “but Telappliant, they had telephones during WWI & II, yet those wars still happened!”. Well, in a way you are right – but also you are completely wrong.
You see, when those wars broke out, the concept of conflict had already been ingrained so deeply into the human psyche that it was practically inevitable, and basically human nature, to fight for land and beliefs, at this point. But for the sake of this experiment, we need to travel back to before the first ever conflict and stop it by using the power of the telephone alone, and in the process, stop war from being invented altogether.
The thing is that prior to the invention of the telephone, the only way to communicate in a non-face-to-face way was by mail or telegraph. Before that you literally had to get someone to deliver your message by hand, or even go yourself.
The problem with this is that it was incredibly time-consuming and dangerous. It depended heavily on the message arriving safely and also that the receiver would interpret the message correctly. Have you ever sent a dry, sarcastic text that didn’t translate well and caused an argument? Of course you have. Well, imagine sending a text that takes a month to arrive and then once it gets there, it’s taken the wrong way. If that’s not a recipe for disaster, then we don’t know what is.
So let’s use our imaginations and picture that you’re a General that’s about to be involved in the very first conflict of all time. Imagine you’ve spent a long time communicating with the enemy via pigeon or whatever, purely because you have been too scared to discuss your problems face-to-face, for fear of death – and now imagine that someone hands you a telephone.
We bet that within 5 minutes of talking about the situation in real time, without the fear of death, you’re able to come to an amicable solution which involves no conflict at all. Simply talk about your problems and they will go away. Everybody wins, and war is never invented. World War I & II never happen and everybody lives happily ever after, with the word “war” actually going on to mean something like “share” instead.
3. The Dinosaurs would still be around
Okay, so let’s imagine you’re a Tyrannosaurus Rex, you’ve clear dominance over the Cretaceous era (not the Jurassic era, as Spielberg would have you believe) and you can pretty much eat, kill or do whatever you like. You are the king of the free world, with your name, Rex, even translating to “king” in Latin. You literally cannot be stopped by anyone or anything – unless that anything is an asteroid the size of 111 football pitches, which, let’s be honest, you won’t know what football pitches are as they are not going to exist for another 65 million years – so the jokes on you, go to school much? Don’t fear though, as we have one word for you and it’s going to save your entire species from extinction: Bluetooth.
You see, it’s been a known problem that Tyrannosaurs Rex’s have big heads and little arms, which makes it impossible for them to hold a telephone to their ear without dropping it. However, by utlising Bluetooth technology, they could have easily synced a headset to their Aastra IP Telephone, enabling them to talk with each other, totally hands-free.
What this means is that when the asteroid was first spotted in the night sky, the T-rex in charge of astrology would be able to use his voice-activated Bluetooth headset to quickly warn the rest of the pack of the danger, advising them to move away from the impact zone, and thus saving them from extinction. Come on, it’s basic paleontology!
2. Lost would have ended after one episode
Over the years, thousands of people have mysteriously disappeared. For example, Amelia Earhart, who achieved a number of firsts as a female aviator, becoming an icon in the process, disappeared whilst flying to Howland Island some 78 years ago, never to be seen again.
The entire cast of the TV show Lost also disappeared in a similar manner, which SPOILER ALERT, they were all dead the whole time*, so we guess that doesn’t really count in hindsight.
The point to take away from this is that people go missing, and then we cannot find them. This is actually the definition of the word lost and if we were a betting company, we’d say that’s where the TV show Lost got its name from. Question: If you get lost in a TV show and nobody is around to see it, are you really lost?
But before we get lost in our own point, let’s talk about how none of these people had to go missing, and that, by using a little technology, they could have survived long enough to see their future TV projects get cancelled.
If Jack Shepherd (Lost) had been more prepared and taken an IP DECT Phone with him on Oceanic Flight 815, he could have enabled remote tracking to track his location in case of an emergency. This means that when the plane went down, authorities would have found The Island and Jack in about 5 minute flat.
If this point is lost on you, then we’re basically saying that if you run a business and need to track your employees location for safety or security reasons, then you can do that with IP DECT phones.
*We made the spoiler up. We would never admit to watching Lost.
1. Columbus would have never discovered America
If you don’t know the story, then let us recap for you. In August 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail for Asia, where the riches of gold, pearls and spice awaited him and his crew. However, because he was terrible at his job, he actually ended up in America. Now, we’re not bitter, but if we had drifted 4000 miles in the wrong direction whilst travelling to work in the morning, we would have most certainly been fired, yet Columbus gets remembered as the greatest explorer of all time? Ah, c’est la vie, we’re over it.
Anyway, if Columbus had unified his communications, then he would have never discovered America, as he would have already known it was there the whole time. How? Welcome to the (non) magical entity that is known only as Presence.
Now that you’re hooked, we’ll explain. If Columbus had VoIPOffice Communicator installed on his PC or Laptop, he would have seen that America had been “online” or “available” throughout all history. Presence is a feature of VoIPOffice Communicator which basically lets you know if someones there. If they’re not there, they’ll be offline. As America was always there, nobody would have ever had to discover it, as it was always online. This goes for the rest of the world too. Everywhere would have been discoverable, just by looking at the screen. You’re completely welcome, Earth.
For more facts about science and history, sometimes hopefully relating to telecommunications, check out our other posts. However, if you want us to rewrite your business’s future, then contact us.
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