It is interesting to me that the topic for today's discussion should include printing and movable type, when this was just yesterday the topic for discussion in an entirely different class, American Heritage. By the 1500s Gutenberg and his movable type had washed across the European scene completely changing the availability of reading materials and the influence of the common man, provided he could read.
When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church, his intent was to start a debate, not a whole new way of life. However, as a result of the recent invention of the printing press, all of Europe was able to read his words in a matter of weeks. Thus in Prof. Patterson's words Luther and his nails was the modern day equivalent of beginning a blog and letting the world see what you thought.
The power of modern technology is truly amazing, and as we consider its awesome power we should also not forget to consider what it is that we use it for. Are we willing to start a revolution for our words?
I thought of Martin Luther's 95 theses too when I was reading about the movable type. I compared it to when Book of Mormon was finally able to be published into a printed book.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see how they use to go from only being able to print a few books a week to the hundreds and thousands they can print now.
I totally agree going from handwritten scripts to print to printing with computers and then on to the Internet and ebooks have each been a revolution of their own, changing the culture and lifestyle bit by byte.
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