Grade Level: SrH-Adult
Producer: BBC
Closed Captioned: No |
Running Time: 50 mins
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Study Guide: No |
Copyright Date: 1991
Available in French: No
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Scribes of the Middle Ages pioneered a medium that became the foundation for modern culture. Before the invention of the printing press access to books was confined to the few. Because of the labor-intensive process of copying books, they were priceless, often a single book being equivalent in value to an entire farm. Even after the arrival of the printing press, books were generally large and expensive. In the 16th century, libraries began to make the stacks accessible to the public, but only by chaining the books to the shelves to prevent theft. In order to become central to modern culture, books would have to lose their chains by becoming smaller and cheaper. Today the paperback book is mass produced and has become an ubiquitous part of society. In a similar historical progression, the early computers were controlled by an elite priesthood. They were enormous machines that were astronomically expensive, making them inaccessible to the masses. Just like the scribes, a rigorous education was a prerequisite to uncovering the "mysteries" of computation. In order to threaten the book as a rival medium of culture, the computer would also have to lose its "chains". |
