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<p>Every new communication method is marked by the technology’s first message sent. Colin Barras at the <i>
<a href=”http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14957-first-contact-pioneering-messages-from-new-technology.html” target=”_blank”>New Scientist</a>
</i> rounded up the first messages broadcast with various devices, including the 8,500-year-old Chinese tortoise shells (“woman … eye … window”), Samuel Morse’s “a patient waiter is no loser” telegram in 1838, and “Merry Christmas,” the first text message in 1992.</p>
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<i>New Scientist</i>
<a href=”http://technology.newscientist.com/info.ns?id=in214″ target=”_blank”>invites readers to submit their predictions</a> for the next communications revolution: “What will be the next communication medium to change the world? And what would your first, historic message be?” One submission will be chosen to win a six-month subscription to the magazine.</p>
<p>I’ll get the ball rolling with my submissions:</p>
<p>1) A banner towed by an airplane bearing a message in <a href=”http://speaklolspeak.com/?t=anon” target=”_blank”>LOL speak</a>: “Oh hai! Im up in ur airspace, decorating ur sky!”<br />
2) Subliminal messages embedded in presidential debates: “Attention <a href=”/2008-10-16/politics/in-final-debate-the-tyranny-of-joe-continues.aspx?blogid=30″ target=”_blank”>Joe the Plumber</a>: You are being exploited as a talking point.”<br />
3) Hundred-mile-high lettering etched into the moon’s surface with dynamite: “I Am Writing On the Moon with Dynamite.”</p>
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<i>Image by <a href=”http://flickr.com/photos/mrbill/” target=”_blank”>Bill Bradford</a>, licensed by <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en” target=”_blank”>Creative Commons</a>.</i>
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