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Remember, the invention of the movable type printing press was a catastrophe depending on the perspective. It brought down the existing European social and reli

Remember, the invention of the movable type printing press was a catastrophe depending on the perspective. It brought down the existing European social and religious order which led, for example, to the Thirty Years War in which millions of people died. More recently, the ability to rapidly print books also led to the rise of Hitler and World War II. AI may lead to catastrophe, but I bet it will be a lot less catastrophic than the printing press.

peoplefromibiza 4y ago
> Remember, the invention of the movable type printing press was a catastrophe depending on the perspective no, it wasn't. > It brought down the existing European social and religious order which led, for example, to the Thirty Years War in which millions of people died No, it didn't. The thirty years war happened 200 years after Gutenberg The religious order wasn't brought down by the press BTW and it was alive and kicking in the 17th century.
- arp242 4y ago
  It's pretty uncontroversial that the printing press was instrumental in the reformation and Martin Luther's ability to spread the word. It wasn't like Gutenburg invented the printing press and immediately everything became different: it was a slow-motion revolution which took many years (as well as further improvements to printing technology).
  - deleted 4y ago
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  - peoplefromibiza 4y ago
    the critiques is not about that, but to the fact that - it wasn't a catastrophe - it didn't bring down the Church, on the contrary, it strengthened its authority
throwaway05050 4y ago
The Thirty Years War happened because the Catholics were using technologies such as the printing press to spread their propaganda further and in more quality, and the Hussites and Protestants had enough of it, so they tried to fight. And the Catholics have defeated them - a forced catholicization (and germanization) of the population of the Holy Roman Empire (especially the Austrian-controlled part) began. So it's the exact opposite - the printing press cemented the social and religious order and led to the destruction of the opposition. Only the First World War changed this, hundreds of years later, when the ethno-national tensions created within the Austro-Hungarian Empire because of the Thirty Years War finally became unbearable to the masses. Yeah sure, the Protestants used the printing press too and had a lot of success with it. But they lost.

peoplefromibiza 4y ago

> Remember, the invention of the movable type printing press was a catastrophe depending on the perspective no, it wasn't. > It brought down the existing European social and religious order which led, for example, to the Thirty Years War in which millions of people died No, it didn't. The thirty years war happened 200 years after Gutenberg The religious order wasn't brought down by the press BTW and it was alive and kicking in the 17th century.

arp242 4y ago
It's pretty uncontroversial that the printing press was instrumental in the reformation and Martin Luther's ability to spread the word. It wasn't like Gutenburg invented the printing press and immediately everything became different: it was a slow-motion revolution which took many years (as well as further improvements to printing technology).
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- peoplefromibiza 4y ago
  the critiques is not about that, but to the fact that - it wasn't a catastrophe - it didn't bring down the Church, on the contrary, it strengthened its authority

throwaway05050 4y ago

The Thirty Years War happened because the Catholics were using technologies such as the printing press to spread their propaganda further and in more quality, and the Hussites and Protestants had enough of it, so they tried to fight. And the Catholics have defeated them - a forced catholicization (and germanization) of the population of the Holy Roman Empire (especially the Austrian-controlled part) began. So it's the exact opposite - the printing press cemented the social and religious order and led to the destruction of the opposition. Only the First World War changed this, hundreds of years later, when the ethno-national tensions created within the Austro-Hungarian Empire because of the Thirty Years War finally became unbearable to the masses. Yeah sure, the Protestants used the printing press too and had a lot of success with it. But they lost.