Starlink Is Humanity’s Hangul

Some inventions add a feature.

Some unlock the whole skill tree.

Hangul was one of those. I think Starlink is the next.

Short answer: King Sejong promulgated Hangul in 1446 so ordinary people could read and write, and some powerful officials pushed back. Starlink in Africa started with Nigeria in January 2023, and by 2026 it worked in more than two dozen African countries. South Africa still has no license. In both stories, the tool is for everyone, but not every door is open yet.

Why did some people oppose Hangul?

King Sejong finished a new alphabet in 1443. In 1446, he promulgated it in a book called Hunminjeongeum, “the correct sounds for instructing the people.”

Before that, writing in Korea meant Chinese characters. Thousands of them. Learning them took years, and years took money and free time. So reading belonged to a small group.

Hangul changed the math. Twenty-eight letters. The book’s postface says a smart person could learn it in a morning, and even a fool could learn it in ten days.

Ten days. That’s not a patch. That’s a new game.

Not everyone was happy. In 1444, a group of scholars led by Choe Malli sent the king a memorial objecting to the new script. They worried it would make Korea look like the “barbarians” next to China. They also worried that if a simple script was enough to get ahead, officials would stop studying the classics.

To be fair to Choe Malli, historians still argue about what he was really against. Some say his real target was the king’s plan to use the new letters to fix how Chinese characters were read, not the alphabet itself. Either way, the people who already held the key were in no hurry to hand out copies.

Then came 1504. King Yeonsangun found anonymous letters, written in Hangul, attacking him for killing his ministers and for how he treated women. He couldn’t find the writer. So he went after the alphabet. No one was to teach it or learn it, those who already knew it were not to use it, and anyone who could read it was to be reported.

The ban didn’t last long. But think about what it means. A king was afraid of an alphabet.

Because an alphabet lets anyone talk back.

Hands first, then letters

Here’s how I see it. Hangul is a big reason Korea developed as much as it has. Once anyone could read, anyone could learn, write it down and pass it on.

It’s like hands. Humans didn’t get ahead by thinking harder with nothing to hold. We had hands, so we made things, and making things made us think more.

Hangul gave ordinary people hands for knowledge.

Is Starlink available in Africa?

Now look at Starlink.

It’s spreading to places that never had high-speed internet. In January 2023, Nigeria became the first African country to get the service. Rwanda followed a month later, and Kenya that July. By 2026, it was working in more than two dozen African countries.

Those of us using fast internet in a city don’t notice it. It’s like air. You only notice it when it’s gone.

But imagine that benefit spread evenly. People everywhere thinking with the same information. More people awake. And when more people are awake, things develop. People make more, they buy more, and it keeps going.

So here’s my claim. Starlink is to humanity what Hangul was to Korea, and what hands are to humans.

Why doesn’t South Africa have Starlink?

And just like in 1444 and 1504, not every door is open.

South Africa, one of Africa’s biggest telecom markets, still doesn’t officially have Starlink. The sticking point is a licensing rule: network license holders must be at least 30% owned by historically disadvantaged groups. SpaceX has proposed investing in a program instead, and the communications minister has backed that kind of route. But the regulator says the law has to change first, and as of this month, it hasn’t.

To be fair, that’s not a king banning an alphabet. It’s a country applying its own rules, with its own history behind them. But for someone waiting for fast internet, the door is still closed.

There’s another wall, too, and it has nothing to do with laws. The dish costs hundreds of dollars, plus a monthly bill. In the places that need it most, that’s a lot of money.

We’re still in the tutorial

Hangul didn’t win overnight. For centuries, the ruling class kept writing in Chinese characters. Ordinary people picked up Hangul first, because it was the one they could actually learn.

Starlink’s rollout has only just begun. In game terms, we’re still in the tutorial. The potential is huge.

Almost six hundred years ago, a king gave his people letters so they could think for themselves.

I hope the people waiting for this next gift don’t have to wait that long.