The right of man to communicate is likely to be a concern of the Speech Communication Association for some time to come. The communication era promises to unfold in the period from 1970 to 2020--the next five decades. The communications models of the future will emphasize both transmitting and receiving capacities and will be concerned with the effects of communication between cultures, including future shock, cultural shock, and communication shock. The specification of communication needs would be useful to the engineer who designs the communications technology, the statesman who shapes the policy, and the educator who designs the curricula that anticipate the future of human communication. (RB)