How would Instant communication affect early Civilization Economy

Question

There are three stones that allow basically instant communication. The brighter the stones the clearer the message. A brownish red stone wouldn't be as good as a bright red one. The way these stones work is that if you get two stones and isolate them from all other stones together, the stones become bonded and now can communicate with each other. What I want to know is how would these stones affect an early civilization economy. When there is instant communication certain things become economically possible.

• Red: somewhat common if you tried hard enough you could fined one . Most of the time though you would get the darker weaker variety.Only give vague emotions between two individuals.

• Blue: Uncommon if one tries hard enough you could find it or get someone to find it.Gives clear emotions with and image associated with said emotion. For example: if your village was burning down and you used the stone the other person would see fire.

• Purple: basically a modern cellphone that can send emotions as well. Rare and quite dangerous to get. The darker unpure variety tends to be unstable and explodes once bonded.

Answer 1

It depends a lot on the existing culture and who discovered the stones first.

If the culture that first discovered them were nomadic tribesmen with a warrior culture, they could coordinate raids on a massive scale across vast distances to great advantage. It would enable a particularly charismatic chieftain to have a much wider influence than he normally would, since it can convey emotions and images.

If instead the stones were discovered in a heavily agrarian society with a strong centralized bureaucracy (e.g. Egypt in the late bronze age), the stones would likely be used to expedite communication from the central government. This would likely result in larger kingdoms and empires having a more uniform culture with less autonomy and regional variance in different cities and districts. It could also make spreading religious orthodoxy much easier, depending on the influence and organization of the temples.

Lastly, if the stones were discovered in a maritime or other merchant culture, it would enable extremely savvy and opportunistic trading, giving them a huge advantage over their rivals until knowledge and use of the stones inevitably spread. After usage becomes commonplace, then trade would become far more resilient and organized. Long voyages would be far less risky, since conditions in the distant market could be continually verified, and storms reliably seen far in advance if scout ships are sent ahead of the main vessel. This means more merchants would be willing to undertake said voyages, which means a greater proliferation of goods to more places, and always to places where there is a demand for said goods. This could have the effect of making societies themselves more resilient because now a food shortage wouldn't necessarily mean inevitable starvation and riots, or a shortage of needed materials the collapse of an industry. This though is assuming a very mature trade network well-adjusted to the use of these stones. If the stones are rare enough, the effects could be much more limited and localized.

Answer 2

This sounds to me like the equivalent of having radios that are too expensive to be mass-produced, but not so expensive as to be prohibitive for governments/militaries/wealthy tradesmen.

The biggest impact I'm immediately seeing is for warfare. Throughout the history of warfare strategy, communication has always been a pain-point. The general may be on a hilltop seeing most of the battle, and knows exactly what he wants his regiments to do, but with a communication method (couriers on horseback) that is measured in several minutes, there is only so much he can do. All of that changed in WWII and as radio communications have been improved, communication has become even more critical in battle--without good communication systems, you have a huge disadvantage towards those who do.

In an ancient context, I see these stones being used very effectively by commanders. A general has a few different pairs, each of which goes to a different one of his "sergeants" (or whatever word they use). Combine that with horseback and your manueverability would be devastating.

Many of the ancient civilizations that dominated the known world did so because of being more advanced with their horseback skills, starting with the Hyksos that took over Egypt, and continuing with the Assyrians, Babylonians, Mongols, and Huns, to name a few. Give these people radio communications and they will be even more devastating. Likewise, defending against invaders can only be done effectively by other generals using the same technique.

Basically, as with so many technologies, the radio takes something that is already useful (the art and science of warfare tactics) and amplifies its importance even more.

I can see the landscape of your world developing into a high-conflict landscape, like the time of the warlords in feudal Japan. The only effective leaders are brilliant generals, or individuals who have a brilliant general in their pocket.

Answer 3

I know you asked for a more economic solution, but I'll opt to give a more political one, as economy has always been secondary (and directly related to) how well the government functions.

Govenments would form more quickly.

Imagine having the communications technology to call the police or the fire brigade instantly as a caveman. Humans would adapt this technology rapidly to request help from other people where needed. People would become more social, and things like war would be complicated enormously because requesting reinforcements instantly would be trivial. Also when an attack happens, telling people to flee instantly would be easy as well, completely minimising losses.

This would need to be regulated, and political solutions would be preferable over military ones, meaning governments would form rapidly to deal with the amounts of information and tactical solutions available. Information sharing has always been crucial for any kind of conflict, and instant communication has not been available to humans until something like the last few hundred years. Having that option early on would change the dynamic completely. The governments would form around the people having access to the more advanced/expensive stones, and it is likely they would regulate the distribution of the lesser stones as well. People would unify and seek out societies with proper stone distribution, as this, from a survival standpoint, would be much preferable over an anarchic society where the stones would be less useful by not being part of a larger network.

Inventions would be shared more quickly as well, as people would come to check out why this guy is so happy collecting water, finding out he invented the bucket. This would mean industrialisation and technology would evolve more rapidly than it did on our world.

Unification of the human race early on would not be infeasible, although I'd still be sceptic about that. But tribes and nations would be able to expand rapidly, and form quicker and more rigidly than they did in our society.