For thousands of years, information was disseminated via storytelling. Individuals had to remember things and spread the word via storytelling rituals. Centuries later, the printing press was invented which allowed mass production of information and history was documented in writing. My personal opinion is the most abrupt advancement has been the Internet which has provided vast amounts of information to the average person beyond anything in history.
In the 1960’s, Marshall McLuhan quoted, “Today each of us lives several hundred years in a decade”. These words are equally appropriate in the 21st century with social networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. All of these sites require active user participation making each of us an “author” launching a whole new digital age of storytelling and making the printing press obsolete. I am excited to see what the next technological advancement will be and I bet it won’t take centuries to discover.
McLuhan quote retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/content/d333l83427057462/
1 comment:
Abrupt, no doubt, though be wary of overstating your case. Imagine the shock of the Greek orator, who had memorized the entire Iliad and Odyssey epics, only to find out later that there was a book! I'm making that up, but to the oral culture, the phonetic alphabet must have seemed like a miracle.
Second, while the printing press may be obsolete, print is not. We are using it now, and we are as disattached now as we were then. This suggests that it merely the physical object that has been extended (as the book extended the voice) by the blog. If you want me to "go McLuhan" on you, consider that the new paradigm, in this case, is filled with the old one.
Last, consider the philosophical implications involved in the difference between a "scarce" book versus an infinitely duplicable and transportable data file. Does the "infinite" data file make you perceive the value of the content differently than the "finite" book? In other words, a rare record has intrinsic immutable value, and its contents are valued by association of its rarity. MP3 files, however, are not valued, as a commodity, unless someone has amassed 10 million of them, and one instance of a file can be made "unrare" instantly. Books require attention and care. I cannot help but think that has an effect on the perceived value of its contents. Just a theory. - Steve: apescience.com/id
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