Opening the doors of the modern age

Johannes Gutenberg was indeed the key to opening the door of the modern age.

I watched a programme last night presented by Stephen Fry taking us through the story of printing and its father Johannes Gutenberg.

Stephen Fry asks why it took so long to take ink, paper and type and combine all these skills to be able to print and publish.

3 million books are published every year. The amazing stat is this one however, in the 15 years after Gutenberg printed the 42 Line Bible 20 million books were published - this was indeed the ignition for The Renaissance.

Marshall McLuhan argues in the Gutenberg Galaxy that technologies are not simply inventions which people employ but are the means by which people are re-invented. The invention of movable type was the decisive moment in the change from a culture in which all the senses partook of a common interplay to a tyranny of the visual. He also argued that the development of the printing press led to the creation of nationalism, dualism, domination of rationalism, automatisation of scientific research, uniformation and standardisation of culture and alienation of individuals.

The 42 Line Bible Fry says was the signpost to the future -to a new information age fueled by the power of the printed word.

And so we have migrated from Gutenberg to Google

As technologies for electronic texts develop into ever more sophisticated engines for capturing different kinds of information, radical changes are underway in the way we write, transmit and read texts. Peter Shillingsburg considers the potentials and pitfalls, the enhancements and distortions, the achievements and inadequacies of electronic editions of literary texts. In tracing historical changes in the processes of composition, revision, production, distribution and reception, Shillingsburg reveals what is involved in the task of transferring texts from print to electronic media. He explores the potentials, some yet untapped, for electronic representations of printed works in ways that will make the electronic representation both more accurate and more rich than was ever possible with printed forms. However, he also keeps in mind the possible loss of the book as a material object and the negative consequences of technology.

No more scriptoriums as we have our laptops

So what comes next?