Game changers: printing press or internet

A friend says the printing press is more of a change agent than the internet.  I disagree. The only book I have on my Kindle directly related to the reception of the printing press is "Divine Art, Infernal Machine: The Reception of the Printing Press in the West from First Impressions to a Sense of an Ending" by Elizabeth  L. Eisenstein.  She says that many monks hated anyone connected to the new invention of printing and gives a quote about the reception of Bibles in print:

FUST, or FAUSTUS (JOHN) a citizen of Mainz and one of the earliest printers. He had the policy to conceal his art; and to this policy we are indebted for the tradition of "The Devil and Dr. Faustus," handed down to the present times. About 1460, he associated with John of Guttemburgh… and… having printed off a… number of copies of the Bible, to imitate those which were commonly sold in MS, Fust undertook the sale of them in Paris, where the art of printing was then unknown. As he sold his printed copies for 60 crowns while the scribes demanded 500, this created universal astonishment: but when he produced copies as fast as they were wanted and lowered the price to 30 crowns, all Paris was agitated. The uniformity of the copies increased the wonder; informations were given in to the police against him as a magician;… a great number of copies being found [in his lodgings], they were seized; the red ink with which they were embellished was said to be his blood;

Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. (2011-01-21). Divine Art, Infernal Machine (Material Texts) (Kindle Locations 171-178). University of Pennsylvania Press. Kindle Edition.

Concerning the comparison, note the book is entitled "reception in the West" and that is a major marker for me.  In about 20 years, some people in the entire world are using keyboards, monitors and software to communicate, even between languages.  Facebook alone has a BILLION users.  There are only 7 billion humans so in twenty years, one seventh of mankind is using Facebook, which is only 10 years old.  It is true that a couple of years ago, Time had an article that said the hot new innovation across the whole Earth was television since much of humankind hadn't experienced it yet but wanted to.  But commercial tv, like printed books, are one-way.  I get your book and read it but you don't get my reaction, comments or objections.  You don't get my questions, which by themselves might lead to improvements in your book and lead you to a deeper understanding or further investigation.

I just phoned you to see if you had a Kindle yet.  I hope you get one, much as I hope you have the conveniences of electricity and running water in your house.  I am interested since it is itself a side of the internet but more importantly, you could get the book "Too Big to Know" by David Weinberger, a Harvard law librarian, on the subject of the impact of the internet on the state and use of knowledge today.

You have mentioned your distinction before between convenience and culture.  You might be interested in the paper by P.W. Anderson (1972), called "More is Different", emphasizing what is often called "emergence", the fact and phenomenon that with sufficient increase in numbers or quantity, the whole deal changes qualitatively, not just numerically.  Much like the earth with a million humans is very different from the earth with 20 billion humans.  So with the internet.  Publishing is now in the hands of nearly anyone, not just those with connections and proper English.  I think just about any argument that applies to the printing press applies as well to the internet.  Note that the internet is moving quickly from transmitting written words in all languages all over the place to transmitting sound files, pictures, videos, and movies.

In Lynn's history of Stevens Point, she makes the point that the railroad made getting to Point easier "so more people came." Enough change in convenience and you get a different deal altogether.

As I said before, it seems smart to wait a while for the comparison since at least 100 years ought to lapse before judgment.  You point to the disturbance the printed word made to the systems of authority.  Don't you think the Arab Spring, China's suppression of Google and other worldwide effects are being felt from what we call "free speech" and electronic communication? Philosophers are especially aware of the power of conversation and dialogue and multilogue, and the internet provides that.  The internet is the printing press on stilts.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

"Gutenberg to Google"

I just finished "From Gutenberg to Google" by Tom Wheeler.  I also read his "Mr. Lincoln's T-mails" and Elizabeth Eisenstein's "Divine Art, Infernal Machine".  I have posted the hightlights I made in Gutenberg here:

https://sites.google.com/site/kirbyvariety/from-gutenberg-to-google---my-highlights

I enjoyed the book more than I expected to.  I have read some of Elizabeth Eisenstein's "Divine Art, Infernal Machine" but I feel I have grasped more about moving from writing by hand to printing from Wheeler's Gutenberg.  

In today's world, how could print be exciting?  It's so commonplace, so static. Both Eisenstein and Wheeler explain that the cost of a book when written by hand was high but much cheaper when printed.  It seems natural to me to think of moveable type, but at first the notion was to make a block to print a whole page and then a new block for the next page.  People are reported to be so astounded that a given page in one copy was identical to the same page in another copy, that they figured the producers of this stuff HAD to be in league with the devil.  They weren't kidding! The printers were reported to the police for witchcraft and deviltry.

I learned that Martin Luther, much like Lincoln and the telegraph in Wheeler's other book, happened to post his complaints about indulgences at the time the printing press was available.  I didn't know that earlier complaints had been made but without the printing press or the notion of using it, those earlier complaints had gone nowhere. With the press, all of Germany had good access to the Luther theses within 15 days of their creation.  Those ideas and the speed of their spread resulted in 200 years of warfare, bloodshed and realignment of religious and polticial forces.

Wheeler does a lovely job of explaining that the telegraph and the train moving people and goods were literally unbelieveable.  People worried about the physical effects on their bodies of transporting themselves at (wait for it) 25 miles an hour!!! At a time when most people MIGHT have heard of something called electricity, word spread that messages were being sent by lightening.  It was said that messages and information could be sent across the US in less than a minute. Had to be bull!

Then, just as we were getting used to all this, along comes Marconi with his wireless, sending voice right through the air.  The air! More deviltry! Where will it all end?

Wheeler explains that all of the networks that have grown up, have tended to be centralized, much like today's hub airplane paths.  If we have a few central hangars where we can repair and shuffle passengers, we can cover vast areas with our services. But with the internet and with ubiquitous computers and smartphones, more and more of us can communicate quickly and cheaply with more and more of us. True, some of the communication may be porn or insults or hatred but much of it will not be.  In the last week, as many people looked at this blog from outside the US as looked at the blog page from inside. I have no idea if they gained from looking at it or even read it or even can read English. But not for the first time, things are changing.

Thanks, Folks

I can get enthused by new ideas and new devices. I began graduate school to get a master's degree but I finished with some knowledge and experience with computers.  A friend explained that word processing, spreadsheets and databases were indeed wonderful but I should just hold on until I had experienced the internet. I saw his point quickly after we had email and Netscape, an early and superior browser.  

When I first heard that the railroad and the telegraph were more astounding to people than YouTube and Facebook, I didn't believe it.  Now, I can undestand that, yes, the speed of transportation of both people and goods, and the speed of information achieved by wire were unprecedented and in many cases, literally unbelieveable.  Recently, I found Tom Wheeler, formerly chair of the Federal Communications Committee, and his book "Mr. Lincoln's T-mails" and learned of the frequent reluctance people felt about trying to send messages by telegraph.  It was said to be communication by lightening and some new-fangled force called "electricity."

When I watched the 2003 movie "Luther", I thought I was going to see a story I already knew.  Luther challenged the idea that paying extra to the church could assist a deceased loved one advance from purgatory into heaven.  But here and there, I gathered insight into the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation and centuries of bloodshed, confusion and warfare.  

The other Tom Wheeler book "From Gutenburg to Google" got my attention even more.  After all, I use Google every day. I save my post in Google Drive, send copies in G-mail, post my blog in Google Blogger and publish things on my Google Sites website.  Wheeler pointed me to Johannes Gutenburg and the printing press. I know the book "Divine Art, Infernal Machine" a little bit and have some references to it in this blog.

https://fearfunandfiloz.blogspot.com/search?q=divine+art

But I didn't get the connection between the phenomenon of printing and Luther and intellectual open thinking and science and today.  

Yesterday, I attended a board meeting for LIFE, a learning in retirement organization at UWSP.  We started with a quickly made agenda and not much of a mission but the conversations moved across many subjects and areas.  Wisconsin and its Wisconsin idea that the borders of the campus are the borders of the state, is the home of continuing education and county agents and university extension.  That little room showed what communication and language and the tug and tussle of ideas and purposes can accomplish, given the contributions of many thinkers, traditions, and inventors over the centuries.

Technology subjects

I made a list of possible topics for today:

Zoom and other substitutes, lighting

New phones we have and their options

The book "City of Girls" by Elizabeth Gilbert

Good movies and the history of film

"Wisconsin Life"

Since we are staying home most of the time, it might be expected that the themes relate to technology and the use of electricity. "Zoom" is just one of the computer programs, like Skype and Hangout, that enable video calls over the internet that include seeing others on a monitor and hearing them

We recently got several new Panasonic cordless phones.  They and some of our older ones give us plenty of opportunity to call or be called.  Of course, they also give us chances to be interrupted by robocalls and their unwanted intrusions, not to mention genuine scams that try to trick us out of money or privacy or safety.

I finished reading "The Body" by Bill Bryson and we did some searching and comparisons to find a new read-aloud book.  We settled on "City of Girls" by the author of "Eat, Pray, Love" and other good books.  I have now read 25% of the book aloud and it is good.  It is not a book that young, red-blooded men would be charmed by, unless they are aware that more than half the human population is female and being female is somewhat different in the main from growing up male.  In general, whichever side of the gender divide one is on, things could have been different.  Besides, most of us are going to be very much concerned with the other gender much of our lives.  

The book "From Gutenberg to Google" by Tom Wheeler and the book "Divine Art, Infernal Machine" by Eisenstein both look at the technology of the printed book from the development of printing in the West to today.  However, I use a Kindle to get books like "City of Girls" and to read it.  If our electricity is down, I can't obtain a book through the air like a cellphone call but most of the time, I can.  

Several of my friends are interested in and knowledgeable about the history of film, of movies.  At lunch today, we again exchanged insults and puns about my barbaric opinion that "Citizen Kane" and Jacques Tati and "The Big Sleep" are films of no interest, but that "The Russians are Coming!" and "In the Spirit" are wonderful and memorable.  So, we used computer and internet technology to argue about film, a different technology.

The length of various tv shows and movies is such that we often have 30 minutes at the end of an evening to fit in an episode of "Wisconsin Life" on Wisconsin Public TV.  This state, like all our American states, has a history and a population of interest and energy.  Last night, we watched a segment about a Wisconsin artist who carves ducks from wood for both decoys for duck hunters and for those who appreciate good art.  The man was struck with macular degeneration at the odd age of 9 but manages with what sight he has to make good art.  

Elizabeth Eisenstein's "Divine Art, Infernal Machine"

The book by Elizabeth Eisenstein, "Dvine Art, Infernal Machine" reports that after Gutenberg and his business partner printed copies of the Bible, they traveled to Paris and sold copies of their product on the street.  The price they asked for a copy was much lower than Bibles sold for usually.  People were amazed but some reported the sellers to the police.  The problem?  It was obvious that these sellers were in league with the Devil!  The telltale evidence was the observable fact that a given page in every copy was identical to the same page in all the copies!!

A problem with a really new kind of achievement

After sixteen hours of bouncing disorder, Ireland miraculously appeared beneath them, and Alcock crash-landed in a boggy field. They had flown 1,890 miles, only slightly more than half the distance from New York to Paris, but it was still an astounding achievement. They emerged unhurt from their mangled plane but struggled to get anyone to grasp quite what they had just done. Word of their departure from Newfoundland had been delayed, so no one in Ireland was expecting their arrival, removing all sense of excitement and anticipation. The telegraph girl in Clifden, the nearest town, was not terribly good at her job, it seems, and could only manage to transmit short, mildly befuddled messages, adding to the confusion.

Bryson, Bill (2013-10-01). One Summer: America, 1927 (Kindle Locations 152-157). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition

I used to teach a 5th grade social studies unit on the history of transportation.  We used to show a Disney film on the history of the dream of flight.  The Kitty Hawk flew with the Wright Brothers in 1908 and that was the climax of many centuries of dreaming and trying ways to travel through the air.  The hot-air balloon predated the Kitty Hawk with its first flight in 1783.

The famous and important flight by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 across the Atlantic is described in Bryson's book mentioned above.  The little celebrated flight mentioned above from Newfoundland to Ireland in 1919 was a very big achievement.  But it is the comment by Bryson on the difficulty of getting anyone to understand what they had done that catches my attention.

Whether it was Franklin's demonstration that lightning was electrical, or Edison's invention of electrical lighting or the more recent landing men on the moon, some things are difficult to describe.  I have heard Pasteur shocked Parisians with his information that there were many forms of life that affected us and our health that were too small to see.

Of course, we evidently have people today that are unconvinced that there were Americans who walked on the moon.

Elizabeth Eisenstein's "Divine Art, Infernal Machine: The Reception of Printing in the West…." reports that Gutenberg and his partner printed and sold Bibles in Paris of such quality at such relatively affordable prices that some people reported the pair to the police as being in league with the Devil.  It was easier to believe in some sort of evil magic than that a new achievement had been accomplished.  

Just expect it: if something new and important comes along, the first few attempts to explain will be met with disbelief or complete lack of comprehension.  Such reactions are the first step in humanity's learning about new achievements. It takes a while for us to understand, believe, [and these days, verify] new and surprising claims.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Have you read the book?

Right now, I am holding this book to be one of the most useful for understanding the modern world: "Divine Art, Infernal Machine" by Elizabeth Eisenstein.  The book's sub-title is "The Reception of the Printing Press in the West".  Add this book to the fact that some people are worried about the effect of the internet and constant connection and Facebook and YouTube and you can get a picture of human communication and the state of human knowledge.

You know that Socrates, that smart, inquisitive and thoughtful questioner, had strong doubts about the new (in his day) practice of what is called writing.  Later, you had thoughtful, bookish monks and others making notes and manuscripts of marks intended to remind and preserve.  Some people spent much time reading these preserved notes and quoted them from time to time, not always helpfully but often impressively.  Along comes Gutenberg, cited by some British historians as the most important figure in the last 1000 years, and his machine. It is not only the idea of moveable and reusable printing blocks, it is the social and commercial result. 

Walter Ong, Jesuit priest and scholar of technology has a paper on Latin as an adolescent rite, open only to males, of course.  While knowledge, saved and expanded by the Arab scholars, spread through Latin as a wide-spread language, science rears its head with Galileo and Bacon.  The Bible gets translated by Luther and Tyndale and others into people's native tongue.  The Americans begin universal public education so girls, too, can read.  Books of printed paper come to carry knowledge and ideas, poetry, diagrams, science and emotional material, as well as political, of course.  Reading and writing come to be seen as universal basic rights, not skills of specialists.

Well, yes, I read the book.  Oh, not that book, another one.  Well, it was a long time ago.  I am not sure about the title or the author but I know I read it.  Pass a quiz?  Answer a few questions?  I don't know. Give me a few minutes with a copy and I am sure I can refresh my memory.  Good!  I can download it.  Here are the passages marked often by readers.  Ok, now, I am ready to talk about what the book says, what seems to have been omitted, where it has helped me and where I doubt it or disagree with it.

Now, we have books actually flying (in digital form) through the atmosphere, literally.  Many can be plucked from the air, free or for nominal cost.  In 50 years or so, another Elizabeth Eisenstein will recount the worldwide reception of this new form of knowledge flow.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety

Changing world

No blog yesterday because we went to a matinee an hour away.  We  saw "Six", a musical about the six wives of King Henry, the 8th.  I was curious to see what a musical about six wives in the 1500's would be about.  I looked up the show, the authors and the women.  I learned the six word summary: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.  Catherine Parr survived Henry's death.  

I noticed that I am getting older and I hear that the world changes.  I have been looking out for just what changes, if any, I can see. I have been lifted up by books since I was a little kid and I have learned from Tom Wheeler's From Gutenburg to Google, Gordon Howe's What Hath God Wrought and Elizabeth Eisenstadt's Divine Art, Infernal Machine about the spread of language through books and libraries.  My recent review of my younger reading included Jacques Barzun's "The House of Intellect" and he makes clear that literacy, a gift from education and schools, once divided those in power from those not, far more than it does today.  

You don't have to ask what these kids are doing.

I was struck when looking at books I remember fondly but not accurately that books I read with enthusiasm in college are "old".  As my businessman brother-in-law informed me, some things are "not in the demographic" of interest.  

I have read about current alternatives to marriage, alternatives to becoming a parent, greater longevity being forces and movements to reckon with today.  One of the results that matters of covid-19 has been Zoom, Facetime and other tools for meeting with others from home or office. 

Using a different method

When British thinkers and authors were asked what they thought was the most important idea of the last 1000 years, they voted the printing press.

What could be simpler?  You write on parchment scroll or a piece of paper.  No, how about we have carvers make blocks of our alphabet's letters?  We assemble the blocks in racks to spell out the pages of our book and we smear ink over the pages.  We press pages of paper on the blocks and make whole pages quickly.  Sure, it takes time to set up but after that, watch out!

The book "Divine Art, Infernal Machine" by Elizabeth Eisenstein is about the printing press and its impact.  Again, a simple change of method but it has changed lives and civilizations.  And, that big change was basically a change wrought on minds.  The changed method enabled communication of information and ideas to greater numbers of people more quickly and more cheaply. The printing press was first used in 1450.  About 200 years later, public schools were being opened in what was to become the United States.

Fast forward to the late 1900's, about 1980.  We have Commodore, Apple, Radio Shack and other computers of various makes, capacities and purposes.  It seems that another angle to the current situation is the internet, the worldwide web.  As with the computer, you can argue about who did what when.  I was just getting involved with computerized email in 1991 but my friend said to just wait until I saw what "networks" could do.

You may be familiar with "Napster", the process and software and idea that people could share the recorded songs they owned over the internet.  You may have heard of the expanding and disruptive results of creating more electronic ways to create, share, modify and use health records electronically.  You can see the book "The Patient Will See You Now" to get a feel for some of the changes that can come from greater electronic communication in medicine. Or, look at "Is This Something George Eastman Would Have Done?: The Decline and Fall of the Eastman Kodak Company" to get a feel for the difference a new method of photography has made to the film industry.

Stay tuned for big changes afoot for law and for all work in general with advancing artificial intelligence and robots.

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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety