It’s fall, and I'm out on the plains, hunting and see a petroglyph of a few Antelope. Over the next rise, I look out and see the herd. We’ll be set for next winter.
Rock paintings, petroglyphs and cairns were simple methods to communicate water holes, hunting grounds and important information to early humans. Simple and direct, the person saw it and understood somewhere nearby there was what the image communicated. Early rules or Protocols? I doubt early humans used that term.
However, when I was told about the Internet, my neanderthal mind was blown. How did all those networks all over the world, in all the countries, businesses, schools, cities, universities and homes send and receive all that information? The Internet follows a set of rules or protocols which determines how the information is packaged, then sends it across the network.
As I learned, there are various types of protocols (rules) for information depending on the situation. For example, for perfect data, we use Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), but it has drawbacks since it slows down the transmission. For speed, we use User Diagram Protocol (UDP), but we can end up with missed information packets, which may end up with halting video when watching a streaming video. For security we use Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) with a Transport Layer Security (HTTPS), which encrypts the data along the link allowing users to send confidential data without worrying about it being intercepted and read.
So, this fall, I can hang up my spear, bow, and arrows, and don’t have to worry about looking for petroglyphs or rock paintings to stock the larder. I can log onto the Internet using TCP/IP, use a website with an HTTPS address to order online, sit back and watch a streaming video using a UDP protocol and wait for delivery of the vittles. Hopefully, I don’t gain too much weight. Technology!!!
