Since 1973 the experts of O.C.D.E. have been presenting the development of systems born of computer science and telecommunication as a “ second industrial revolution.” A year earlier the Japan Computer Usage Development Institute announced for the year 2000 the advent of a “society of information.”.

Spoken language was long thought to be mankind's earliest means of communication, with visual and gestural languages appearing only later. “ And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field;…” (Genesis II, 20). Today, with the most diverse hypotheses in circulation, the only point on which all scholars agree—in this case, a negative one— is that the question of the origins of language remains to be answered; this has (...) little importance for the present study, and we will not dwell on the problem of origins. (shrink)

At the end of the 17th century, 80 per cent of the French were illiterate. A hundred years later, despite a certain amount of progress in reading and writing above all in already favoured regions, their number still represents 63 per cent of the population. Throughout Europe from the 16th to the 18th century, the proportion is never lower than this.