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Dave Malki! Creator of Wondermark, has been posting lately on the history of technology, a subject I assume he came to through collecting 19th-c images for his webcomic.
For the last few weeks he and his readers have been digging up “damn this modern technology” screeds from different eras; and have at length got back to Socrates vs. the written word. The pattern that’s been coming out, though, is less a straight “curmudgeons vs. new stuff” and more of a “centuries-long, back and forth battle over whether the spoken or the written word is superior.” Go read it, it’s well worth a look.
For the last few weeks he and his readers have been digging up “damn this modern technology” screeds from different eras; and have at length got back to Socrates vs. the written word. The pattern that’s been coming out, though, is less a straight “curmudgeons vs. new stuff” and more of a “centuries-long, back and forth battle over whether the spoken or the written word is superior.” Go read it, it’s well worth a look.
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Date: 2011-01-28 06:10 pm (UTC)From:I recall at least two neat rants on the subject. One was decrying the advent of the "Scribblers" with the introduction of pencils to replace chalk. The other was from some Ancient Greek guy decrying the advent of writing because now people would be able to look smart via stuff they'd just read about instead of thinking it up themselves or going to a tutor. He was especially concerned about the latter and would probably have liked to install some kind of Digital Copy Management system to protect his Tutor business model.
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Date: 2011-01-28 09:19 pm (UTC)From:That would be Socrates :)