I doubt there was much hype about the printing press when Gutenberg introduced invented it circa 1440 but if there was any hype, the printing press certainly li

I doubt there was much hype about the printing press when Gutenberg introduced invented it circa 1440 but if there was any hype, the printing press certainly lived up to the hype. I can think of no mechanism which has enabled such widespread transmission of knowledge/information (without distortion) in human history. No great success or failure is usually the result of one cause but I'd wager that most of technological progress in the last 5 centuries has been greatly enabled by the printing press. Some (light) reading on the topic : https://www.history.com/news/printing-press-renaissance https://www.history.com/news/printing-press-renaissance