Paradigms Lost
The life and deaths of the printed word
Four times in Western history – the 1400s, early 1800, the 1880a, the mid-twentieth century – inventions kept coming that made it simpler and cheaper to produce and disseminate printed communication. Each time, what had been guarded knowledge reached more and more people. Rare and often disorienting, information ultimately stirred the political waters, advanced science, altered trade and finance, spurred mass migrations and spilled much blood. Powerful new governments and businesses replaced those of the past, creating shifts in politics, wealth and religion.
And then the costs of distributing knowledge fell a fifth time, far, fast and nearly free. Tectonic shifts followed again.