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The printing press also led to books changing from being something only rich people had to everyone having books. This also enabled the industrial revolution, a
by WalterBright 9mo ago
The printing press also led to books changing from being something only rich people had to everyone having books. This also enabled the industrial revolution, as books made literacy worth having, newspapers, and became a great storehouse of knowledge.
I.e. it created far, far more jobs than it destroyed.
- 1shooner 9mo agoI have not heard even the most enthusiastic AI booster describe net job creation as a possible outcome. If you have any details on that prediction, I'd be interested to hear what they are.
- lechatonnoir 9mo agoI mean... you can't think of any ways that AI could actually generate new value? Or more abstractly, of a way that Jevons' paradox can't apply in the case of AI?
- WalterBright 9mo agoNobody remotely believed what the printing press invention would lead to. After all, Gutenberg had only a modest goal of printing and selling indulgences. He didn't understand what the printing press was good for, either. Pretty much all the jobs today did not exist before the printing press that enabled them.
- anon291 9mo agoI mean in some countries today, the idea of universal literacy helping people is still met with skepticism by some segments of the population. It's apparently not obvious that mode access to books , learning, and literacy will improve lives
- anon291 9mo agoNet job creation will be the outcome as the insane number of businesses that were once too expensive to start due to lack of knowledge labor suddenly come online.
- nacozarina 9mo agowe all be employed as hunters, gatherers or revolutionaries
- apical_dendrite 9mo agoOne wonders if a German in 1600 would have cursed the invention of the printing press. The printing press accelerated the reformation, which led to over a century of bloody religious wars. Something like a third of the German population died as a result. From the perspective of 2025, the printing press was undoubtedly positive for humanity. But millions of people suffered.
- WalterBright 9mo agoPeople are still engaging in religious wars. The printing press didn't change that.
- beedeebeedee 9mo agoIt is refreshing to hear someone mention that when discussing the printing press (however horrible it is). Most people only paint a rosy picture.
- Shocka1 9mo agoIndeed, and I think this is one of the things Hazlitt mentions. After the first initial shocks, opportunities and pathways will eventually present themselves.