I wrote this essay for my Grade 12 History course.
In it I took the flawed opinion that computers have had more impact on the world than
the printing press. Although I belive that in the long run they will. The printing
press has had many many more years for it to take its effect.
Throughout history, many technological advances have altered our society. Society
has never been affected as much by new technology as it was by the introduction of
two great innovations: the printing press and computers. Johann Gutenberg developed
the first printing press in 1436; it allowed the cheap production of books at a cost
that the common individual could afford. The first computer was developed in the 1940s
for military use; nowadays they are capable of doing almost anything imaginable -
given the right components. The development of the printing press allowed researchers
to all work from exactly the same books therefore allowing them to make fewer errors.
Computers, through networks allow people to access the same information instantly
and to add their own work to be accessed by people around the world. When the press
created inexpensive books, many people began to find that reading is a wonderful source
of entertainment. Computers have limitless pleasure possibilities, with: video games,
Internet chat and information that you can download and read forthwith, all without
even leaving your chair. With the printed book, it was much easier for anyone to learn
how to read and write because the people could afford to buy themselves books. Computers
advanced the possibilities of education even farther, with interactive simulations
and CD-ROM resources. The year 2000 problem in computers is a great example of how
much they have affected our life, one problem in them has such a possible impact that
some people are predicting the apocalypse will come from it. The printing press allowed
current news to be distributed though newspapers. Computers allowed the information
in a newspaper to be as up-to-date as the moment that it was printed. The printing
press had a considerable effect upon society but computers caused an incomparable
change in civilization.
The printing press and computers allowed people to work together on projects with
much greater ease than before either of them were developed. Before the printing press,
scribes copied books by hand; they made errors nearly every time they copied a book
therefore adding to the errors made by the scribe who copied the previous book. The
printing press made exactly the same copy every time. Computers allowed people to
work from the same source on a much greater scale. Using the Internet, people can
transfer files between their computers, communicate through e-mail, and access journals
and other books all without leaving their desk. One person when asked about the usefulness
of the Internet said "A person ... on electronic mail can say 'Help' to 10 000 people
... The next morning he may have 15 answers to the problem of which 13 are wrong.
But he has answers". The printing press only allowed people to work from the same
source. Computers allowed people to work from the same source easier and also allowed
people to post changes to the sources, post their own work for the world to read,
and to talk to people all over the world.
Each of the technologies opened new worlds of entertainment for the public to enjoy.
The printing press was initially used primarily to produce books and pamphlets for
churches including Bibles, missals, Psalters and antiphonies. However, people also
requested many romances of chivalry along with other books just for the enjoyment
of reading them. The books allowed people to read about great adventures and imagine
the worlds in their minds they wished to interact in these fantasies. With the advent
of computers, video games were created; they allowed people to interact with the adventure
and change it in whatever way that they would like. An eight-year old boy once said
"A long time ago there were no toys and everyone was bored. Then they had TV but then
they were bored again. They wanted control. So they invented video games" Leonard
Steinhorn showed how much video games are affecting society when in 1992 he wrote
in the Washington Post that video games define "a dynamic new cultural milieu ...
Through video and computer games and all the fast-paced and disjointed videos on MTV,
young Americans have been processing information in a way that makes little sense
to the uninitiated, but is really the wave of the future. To them, ideas and information
come visually, in images ... All those hours playing Nintendo are preparing them for
a new age of interactive technology? Clearly the printing press just allowed people
to read and imagine adventures; computers let people interact with them and to let
them unfold in the way that they desire.
The printing press made education much easier for people, but computers revolutionized
the entire education process with multimedia CD-ROMs and simulations. When middle
class people were able to buy printed books they were able to learn how to read and
write, a talent that previously only the wealthy were able to attain. In addition,
the press radically changed the way that university lectures were executed. Previously,
lectures consisted of a teacher reading from a book and the students rushing to write
it all down; alter the invention of the printing press the students were able to obtain
a copy of that book and read it at home at their leisure. The printing press was limited
in how many pictures that could be in a book and in the 16th century, teachers were
worried that printed books would destroy the visual image and demanded more pictures
in books. Computers allowed multimedia books containing hundreds of pictures and videos.
The multimedia books can be stored on CD-ROMs, which cost less that 50� each
and they can hold 1000 books that have 300 pages each. The military uses computer
trainers to practice pilots and tank drivers; the simulators have a very realistic
recreation of the real thing without the danger that is always present in actual combat,
The printing press simply allowed people to learn in an easier fashion. Computers
could do that and offer multimedia resources including simulations, pictures and videos
that give people a much more useful education.
The best example of how much that computers have affected everyone's life is the year
2000 problem, or Y2K as it is called. The Y2K problem is that many computer programmers
stored years in their computer programs by using only two digits such as '99 instead
of 1999; the problem is that when the year rolls over to 2000 it will be called '00
and interpreted by computers as 1900. Many people have begun to say that Y2K will
result in TEOTWAWKI, "The End of the World, As We Know It". The whole world is dependant
on electronics that have the Y2K problem and people believe that on January 1, 2000
this will happen: First, the power goes out and groceries go bad. Food distribution
systems will die, leaving store shelves empty. Businesses will fail because they are
not Y2K prepared or are reliant on companies who are not. The stock market will plummet
and banks will calculate interest for negative 100 years. The police will be crippled
and the law of the jungle will run the world. 13 Many religious people believe that
the four horsemen of the apocalypse will ride in with a global computer crash. The
Information Technology Association of America released a poll in March 1998 showing
that 44% of the companies polled already had experienced problems caused by the Y2K
bug. It is expected that 15% of households will have power problems due to Y2K, 12%
will have transportation problems, and 15% telephone problems. Clearly the year 2000
problem will affect nearly every aspect of life and therefore shows how much computers
have been integrated into our society. The printing press never had such an effect
on the world that a simple mistake made by its creators could have such a momentous
effect upon the world.
Both innovations gave people unprecedented access to up-to-date information in newspapers.
James Gordon Bennett, publisher of The New York Herald said in 1830 that the newspaper
is "the great organ and pivot of government, society, commerce, finance, religion,
and all human civilization". The computer gave the newspaper the ability to contain
information that was as up-to-date as the moment it was printed. Reporters could type
their articles into a computer, causing them to be 20-30% more efficient than before
computers. They were more efficient because now they could easily make changes, send
the article to be proofread by their colleagues and then send it off to be printed
much quicker. Nan Robertson a reporter for the New York Times said "The Computer has
made it infinitely easier. And now I'm absolutely addicted. The computer has liberated
us". The articles could be send over networks to printers worldwide to be printed
where the papers are to be sold instead of printing them in a central location and
then sending the papers out to be sold. This saved money on shipping and allowed the
printing of late-breaking news? Clearly printing a newspaper without a computer was
slow and did not allow late breaking news to be printed. Computers allowed reporters
to write their articles quickly and have them sent worldwide over a network to be
printed.
In conclusion, it is obvious that computers had a greater effect upon our civilization
than the printing press. The computer allowed many new things to happen and improved
extensively upon what the printing press brought to our world. The computer let people
to work together and communicate about their work with unprecedented ease; the press
just allowed people to work from the same resources, not to communicate together.
Computers can be used to play video games which let people explore huge imaginary
worlds and take part in what is happening in that world around them. The press only
let people read books and imagine the worlds, they could not take part in these fantasies.
The computer let people learn in amazing new ways, with multimedia presentations and
interactive simulations; the books that the printing press produced only contained
text and the occasional graphic. Computers are integrated into every part of life
so much so that many people are worried that a simple change of the year from 1999
to 2000 could cause the end of the world, as we know it. Computers allowed newspapers
to be much more up to date and informative than the traditional printing press allowed.
What could ever influence our civilization as much as computers did?
Works Cited
Price, Eugene F. The Foundations of Early Modem Europe 1460-] 559. New York: WW. Morton
& Company INC, 1970(L)
Lubar, Stephen. Info Culturel Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993.
Trueman, John H and Dawn Cline Trueman. The Enduring Past: Earliest Times to the Sixteenth
Century. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1982.
Ogden, Frank. The Last Book you'll ever Read: and Other Lessons from the Future. Toronto:
MacFarlane Waker & Ross, 1993.
Poulsen, Kevre. "The Y2K Solution: Run for Your Life! !," Wired 6.08, (August, 1998).
de Jager, Peter. "Y2K: So Many Bugs ... So Little Time," Scientific American 280,
no. 1 (January, 1999)
