5 Ways We Have Connected Our World

Hundreds of years ago, people walked across villages, fields, or mountains to connect with each other. Over time, travel by horse, boat, train, and car brought more of the world within reach. These technologies linked people and places far away. With the invention of airplanes, jet engines, and satellites, we now have an even broader view. We can travel and communicate with incredible speed. Our understanding of the planet shifted: Earth was becoming one connected planet—one global neighborhood.

Over time, new and changing technology has altered the way we connect with each other, as we see in these examples: 

1. Connecting during Congressman Peter F. Mack’s Goodwill Tour 

In the unsettled aftermath of World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in competition for global influence and prestige known as the Cold War. The two counties’ very different approaches to politics and economics prompted an arms race between the two countries. People were looking for ways to promote friendly relations in an time period when nuclear war was a real threat.  

Congressman Peter F. Mack Jr. flew a Beechcraft 35 Bonanza named Friendship Flame on a round-the-world goodwill tour, visiting 31 countries on three continents in 1951 and 1952. He met with ordinary citizens and foreign leaders to promote peaceful dialogue. His flight is an example of how aviation can connect people in a peaceful way across the globe.

2. Bringing programming to rural India

NASA worked with the Indian Space Research Organization (also known as ISRO) on the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment in the 1970s. They provided programming on health, education, and agriculture to 24,000 villages in rural India using the ATS-6 satellite. The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment also led to the development of India’s own satellites.

3. Upping the power of air travel with the CFM family of jet engines 

People worldwide became more mobile and connected when jet engines were introduced into commercial aircraft in the 1950s. Jet engines allowed people to get where they were going much faster than ever before. This allowed people to become more mobile, and as a result, more connected to each other. Since then, jet technology has become increasingly powerful and efficient.  

The CFM56-2 turbofan engine pictured here was developed in the 1970s by CFM International. The CFM family of engines became the most widely-used jet engine design in commercial aviation—connecting thousands of people to destinations across the planet in a short time. The CFM56-2 also reflects the impact of the 1970s environment movement. It was designed to be quieter than earlier versions in response to concerns about air traffic and noise pollution. 

4. Listening to your favorite radio station from anywhere with Sirius XM radio  

Technology had broadened our horizons by the 1990s. More and more people were able to connect with each other through satellite views of Earth, cell phones, the internet, satellite radio, far-reaching air travel, and GPS. Satellite constellations in lower-earth orbits help make mobile communications easy. They fill in where ground-based systems, such as undersea cables, leave off. Together, these systems connect people through credit card networks, mobile phones, satellite radios and the internet. We can do business, talk, listen, and learn—almost anywhere in the world. 

Remember going on road trips and having to find a new radio station every time you left one place and entered the next? In 2001, Sirius Radio offered a solution: satellite radio. Sirius Radio is known as Sirius XM radio after merging which its biggest competitor, XM Satellite Radio, in 2008. 

Sirius Radio developed the first generation of space-based commercial radio. When service to North America started in 2001, it used three satellites and offered more than 150 channels. Satellite radio reaches cars, but it also reaches ocean-going boats and ships as well. This keeps people connected to important information (and their favorite tunes) from coast to coast and ocean to ocean.  

5. Connecting children to the internet via the One Laptop per Child program

As the internet expanded, it became clear that it had the potential to reach further and provide access for less-affluent people and less-connected regions of the world. In response, more affordable networks and computers were produced. This effort continues, increasing the ease of internet use worldwide.  

For example, the One Laptop per Child program designed a small, durable laptop for use by children. The organization provides computers and internet access to millions of children worldwide, including many in the United States.

Together, these technologies shape the routines of daily life. They affect us in ways visible and invisible, and in different ways depending on where we live.