[beamatronic]

I think a lot of it comes from the fact that (almost) every literate human being can communicate (almost) instantly around the planet with (almost) every other literate human being, and the fact that with machine translation, language is less of a barrier all the time.

[jacquesm]

Illiterate people can too using Skype and such. Instant planetwide communication between any party of humans sharing a common language is now pretty much a given.

[sqeaky]

While you are correct for the most part, I would point out that text services have wider distribution even if only for bandwidth reasons. But there are other reasons, there are good (enough) and widely distributed text standards (SMS), but not yet for video.

But maybe we are both over thinking it, does the old voice network reach even further?

[ooqr]

Writing is reusable and presumably most of the learning going on behind rapid technological expansion requires literacy. Even just to navigate around Khan Academy.

[Florin_Andrei]

Audio-only is a little better that way.

[jacquesm]

You can use Skype and similar services without video.

[sqeaky]

You can but it doesn't fundamentally change my points. The old analog audio network and the text systems have much larger reach.

Laying out enough digital network fabric to have skype and its kind everywhere is an admirable goal though.

[Cerium]

Totally agree on this. I can video and audio chat with my grandma since apps like WeChat are designed for illiterate usage. Photos of participants, easy audio button, inline small videos.

[bvm]

If you think about it, rapidly reusable suborbital rockets are like a physical version of the communication you describe here. It's plausible to physically be anywhere in the world (if you burn enough fuel) within 30 minutes. Ditto up to 10 tonnes of cargo.