“I thank God that there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall never

have these [for] a hundred years; learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world and print has divulged

them… God keep us from both.”

“I thank God that there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall never

have these [for] a hundred years; learning has brought disobedience and heresy and

sects into the world and print has divulged them… God keep us from both.”

“I thank God that there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall never

have these [for] a hundred years; learning has brought disobedience and heresy and

sects into the world and print has divulged them… God keep us from both.”

--William Berkeley, colonial Governor of Virginia, 1671

the question I’m interested in: what happens when

society suddenly has access to a buttload of

new information?

the question I’m interested in: what happens when

society suddenly has access to a buttload of

new information?

(or when information is distributed in a radically

different way)

easiest way to answer this: use the precedent set by

the Gutenbergian printing press.

my goal:

my goal:not political philosophy,

my goal:not political philosophy,

merely history.

easiest way to answer this: use the precedent set by

the Gutenbergian printing press.

ironically, we don’t know much about Gutenberg

(except that he had an awesome beard)

(except that he had an awesome beard)

(and that he made this thing)

(which made this thing)

(which made scribes very happy)

“he who does not know how to write imagines it to be no labour, but although these fingers only hold the

pen, the whole body

grows weary.”

“he who does not know how to write imagines it to be no labour, but although these fingers only hold the

pen, the whole body grows weary.”

- scribe in 954

…which made the Church very happy.

…which made the Church very happy.

(happy scribes == happy church == happy society?)

“printing was valued not only for efficiently replicating the writings of the church fathers, but also for enabling the

Roman Church to raise money quickly, for serving an aid to conversion, and for demonstrating Western Christendom’s

superiority to the infidel... as early as 1452 [the church] had authorized the printing of thousands of indulgences... to

raise money for the crusade against the Turks.”

-- Eisenstein

“printing was valued not only for efficiently replicating the writings of the church fathers, but also for enabling the

Roman Church to raise money quickly, for serving an aid to conversion, and for demonstrating Western Christendom’s

superiority to the infidel... as early as 1452 [the church] had authorized the printing of thousands of indulgences... to

raise money for the crusade against the Turks.”

-- Eisenstein

…at least, until this guy comes along

“the Roman church that had initially welcomed the divine art became much more ambivalent about the invention after

Protestant revolt.”

--Eisenstein

“oh &#!^”

– the church

“As if to offer proof that God has chose us to accomplish a special mission, there was

invented in our land a marvelous, new, and subtle art, the art of printing. Each man

became eager for knowledge, not without feeling a sense of amazement at his former

blindness.”

“As if to offer proof that God has chose us to accomplish a special mission, there was

invented in our land a marvelous, new, and subtle art, the art of printing. Each man

became eager for knowledge, not without feeling a sense of amazement at his former

blindness.”

- Lutheran Historian

the church : gutenberg’s time :: market/nation-state : today

printing press : gutenberg’s time :: internet : today

after the printing press…

“Representation... may be considered a new invention, unknown [prior to the 18th

century]; it was almost impossible to put into practice before the invention of printing, which so

much facilitates the communication between the

constitutes and the representative, and renders it so easy for the

former to control, and the latter to account for his conduct…”

“Representation... may be considered a new invention, unknown [prior to the 18th

century]; it was almost impossible to put into practice before the invention of printing, which so

much facilitates the communication between the

constitutes and the representative, and renders it so easy for the

former to control, and the latter to account for his conduct…”

-- Destutt de Tracy, Enlightenment philosopher

what happens after the internet?