What If Emails Worked as Carrier Pigeons?
Imagine how you write a letter and then tie it to the foot of a carrier pigeon to deliver it somewhere else in another city.
The use of carrier pigeons for sending messages from one city to another had been common practice for many centuries. The concepts of an inbox, email, or "send" were non-existent.
Nowadays, an email travels all around the world in just seconds.
However, there are some similarities between these two methods of sending messages to each other.
They involve preparing the message and delivering it to its destination by means of delivery service.
What if we were to imagine the emails as carrier pigeons for modern-day usage?
The Email Address Becomes the Destination for the Pigeon
To a pigeon, it is necessary that it knows where it has to go.
This is equally true for an email.
Each email has an individual address, like:
name@example.com
By virtue of this email address, the message is delivered to the appropriate destination.
But if the wrong address is entered, your email will either not reach the correct person or anyone at all.
Just as if the wrong directions are given to a carrier pigeon.
Your message may have been perfectly composed, but the wrong destination makes everything fail.
Composition of an Email Is Equivalent to That of a Letter
It is important to understand that prior to sending a message to pigeons, a letter must be written down.
Exactly the same goes for emails.
It entails opening the program for sending messages, specifying the subject of your message, typing the letter itself and, sometimes, attaching pictures or pdf files.
- The subject of your email could be considered as a kind of brief note giving information on what the letter is about.
- The body of the email is a letter.
- The attachment is additional documentation to the letter.
The basic difference between the two lies in the amount of information that can be transferred using a digital letter as compared to a letter written on a sheet of paper.
Pressing the Send Button and Releasing the Digital Pigeon
After completing your e-mail, you press the button Send.
This one-click action triggers a series of events in the background.
Your email doesn’t somehow teleport to the recipient’s inbox.
Rather, email servers collaborate to get the email transferred from your mailbox to the other end’s email server.
The servers can be imagined as digital stations that help the carrier pigeon reach its destination.
Since everything happens so fast, we are often unaware of all the technology involved.
From your computer screen to the recipient’s inbox in a matter of just a few seconds.
Email Servers Are the Means for Delivery
Carrier pigeons are in fact transported through the air.
Emails are delivered via computer networks.
When you send an email, your email service provider forwards that email via a mail server and the mail server evaluates the location to which the email needs to be sent and delivers it to the mail server of the receiver.
All being well, the recipient mail server will receive the email and place it in the mailbox of the recipient.
When the recipient starts his/her email software, he/she can read the email.
The pigeon reaches its destination.
Spam Filters Work As Security Guards
But not all the messages are dependable and useful.
Therefore, the modern technology of sending emails employs the spam filters.
Spam filter is scanning every incoming message looking for something strange in it.
Consider the security guard who is waiting in the entrance of the pigeon post office.
Any strange letter on the back of the pigeon will not be combined with other letters.
Such letter will be delivered to the spam.
Attachments Are Additional Packets
It is not obligatory for the email to be only text.
It can include photos, bills, presentation, resume, video, etc.
In terms of our carrier pigeon comparison, this will be a request to deliver additional packet with the letter.
But there are limitations concerning the physical carrier pigeon.
There are some limitations concerning the emails as well, but there are more of them.
Usually the email services have limitation of the size of the attachment.
Larger files will be delivered via URLs of cloud storages.
In terms of our carrier pigeon comparison, this means that “packet is too large and map is needed.”
What Happens If Delivery Fails?
Carrier pigeons didn't always manage to deliver the messages to their recipients.
Weather conditions, distance, predation, or navigation problems prevented carrier pigeons from delivering messages.
It is possible that the delivery of email fails as well.
- The recipient's address may not exist.
- Recipient's inbox may be already full.
- The server receiving email may refuse to receive it.
- Sometimes the email is wrongly identified as spam.
In case of failed delivery, you get an automatic reply informing you that your message was not delivered.
This kind of automatic reply is called a bounce message.
According to our analogy, it is as if the bird flew back home with the message since it couldn't deliver it.
The Response Causes the Pigeon to Reverse Direction
Probably the most valuable characteristic of e-mail is that the dialogue takes place at a rapid pace.
Your message is read by the person receiving it, and then he or she will click on Reply, respond, and send you the message back.
And so now another pigeon will be sent off flying in the opposite direction.
What makes this different from an ordinary letter is that this process can take place several times within just a few minutes.
Individuals living on opposite ends of the globe can correspond with each other within just seconds.
And this rapid exchange is precisely what makes e-mail a very powerful means of communication.
Email Is Much More Efficient than Any Pigeon
The first thing that should be noted is time efficiency.
While a pigeon may spend some time depending on the distance, emails only take a few seconds.
They travel across different countries, oceans, and continents within seconds due to the use of digital data via the internet.
But there is one thing that these two have in common.
- Both messages require a sender.
- Then comes the recipient.
- There is a delivery method used for moving the message.
- And finally, there is the message receiver.
Thus, the technology changed the process but not its essence.
Conclusion
And now, what can we say about the analogy of the carrier pigeon in terms of the real world of e-mail?
For instance, each time you press “Send,” you could imagine a little pigeon carrying your e-mail somewhere.
Your address will guide it to the correct destination, and your mail servers will ensure its transportation, spam filters will examine it at the entrance, and finally, its destination will be the inbox of your addressee.
Fortunately, the current system of e-mail communication is much more efficient, secure, and convenient than the use of carrier pigeons as a means of delivering and receiving messages.
However, the analogy of the carrier pigeons gives us an idea of what is involved in the process of a phenomenon that is taken for granted daily.