Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Brain Winston: Messages: Free Expression, Media and the West from Gutenberg to Google

Prologue I

Why nobody in the West was moved to "invent" printing before this time (1444) when Gutenberg was inspired by the East to do so?

The frist thing printed from Gutenberg's press were indulgences, a certificate sold by the Church as means of raising revenue in return for the remission of sin.

Later on, Gutenberg's press was applied to printing Bible because the Church was so corrupted that individual salvation required uncorrupted scripture and prayers.

Very often, the technological advance involved in what is commonly thought of as the "invention" is minimal. It is the focusing of social needs which really acts as the driver pushing more than one individual "inventor" onward.

Gustav Holst - The Planets, Op. 32


Borodin: In the steppes of Central Asia - USSR Symphony Orchestra / Evgeny Svetlanov, conductor (1966)