The First Information Revolution
491 views · Published 26 January 2012 · 1:48:28 · Indexed 4 October 2026
Channel: Rabbi Simon Jacobson at Meaningful Life Center · 2012 · Howto & Style
How Knowledge First Spread Across the World
Are We Illiterate People Who Know How to Read?
Much has been written about today's Information Age. Scientists and analysts attempt to trace its roots through the ages, looking for telltale signs of human progress in developing tools and instruments to document and communicate information. We know about Gutenburg's invention of the moveable type printing press in 1440 (and the first printing of the Bible five years later), which changed the course of history. As early as the 12th century wood-cut printing was used in Europe, but it was very prohibitive and expensive. In 1041 Chinese Bi Sheng invented the first moveable type (out of clay). Before that some attribute the first dated example of block printing to the Buddhists. But would you believe that the first pioneering step of the information revolution actually took place 3284 years ago this week?
There are, of course, also those detractors of communications technology. Beginning with Socrates, who criticized the written word, stating, as Plato documents in Phaedrus, that it "destroys memory {and} weakens the mind, relieving it of...work that makes it strong. {It} is an inhuman thing." Thoreau objected to the telegraph arguing that even though it speeds things up, people won't have anything to say to each other. These condemnations are only amplified today in our ADD, fast food, instant gratification world of Twitter and sound bytes. Who was it that famously said: "The illteracy rate today is not lower than in the past. It's only that today illiterate people know how to read." So which one is it? Is communication technology a vice or a virtue. Can we have the best of both worlds?
Please join Rabbi Jacobson for a fascinating discussion on the earliest beginnings of the information revolution. If you really want to understand the roots of texting, Twitter and our other modern day communication devices -- and the new ones to surely come in the future -- we need to travel back to the times of Moses, who first instituted a method of disseminating knowledge, while preserving its integrity and the critical human interactive factor. Discover the secret how to make use of all these technologies while ensuring that you don't remain illiterate. Learn how to master the art of mastering information rather than being enslaved by it.
