The Speaker. Language as the driving force behind man's success, from its first appearance to the webAdopting a didactic approach, the book traces the history of civilisation by focusing on some key moments: the alphabet and the number zero; the dichotomy between divinity and nature; the evolution of technology, which took us from the cogwheels of medieval clocks to the Moon; logic, which was born in ancient Greece and is now a fundamental part of man's new best friend, the computer. Man had his Big Bang in the appearance of language. Language has allowed him to become stronger and win over animals, thus conquering the globe without having to develop wings, get bigger, or be equipped with venom and jaws. Now, the era of the 'robot sapiens' has come, the perfect slave at the service of - and created by - the speaker. One could even say that it is the Holy Grail of the new millennium.