The Book

The book is the most powerful thing humanity has ever invented. While I have reflected on this often throughout my life, it became more apparent while I was watching a lecture by Doctor Roy Casagrande.

In his lecture, Dr. Casagrande was talking about the four different eras when humanity attempted to modernize. While listening to his lecture, I thought about what happened to all of the knowledge that was lost, temporarily misplaced, or just was not developed any further at the time. While the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, and Arabs all had writing systems and extensive records for the time, they all lacked one thing. And that one thing is books.

Yes, they had scrolls and tablets. But none of those transport well, and are generally more exposed to damage. Contrast this with the typical book, and one person can travel with an extensive collection of knowledge. Also, storing books is relatively easier than any other means of writing.

The utility of the book was only further enhanced with the invention of the printing press. This allowed books to be mass produced, further distributing knowledge. And from this inherited knowledge, it could be expanded, challenged, or lead to new fields of study.

The best way to conceptualize the world before and after books is through imagining knowledge on a personal level. A father throughout most of human history would spend his life learning his craft. And in turn, he would pass everything he learned down to his son, who would typically follow in his vocation. Thus, a carpenter’s son would himself become a carpenter, and his son after him.

However, once books became more prominent, and with that, a corresponding rise in literacy, one was no longer destined to stay in their father’s vocation. That boy, so long as he became reasonably literate, could change his stripes.

In this way, you sow the seeds of upward mobility through means other than brute strength, inherited wealth, or any of the traditional means beforehand. This also lead to the chronicling of extent technical advancements, farming techniques, and medicine. These are the foundations of the modern world, as the technology to grow more bountiful crops and treat diseases led to greater survival, thus leading to greater populations.

In addition to this came the reality that fewer people were required to harvest the same or more land, the world began to industrialize. And again, this is where the book becomes a keystone of the modern world.

As the world advanced into the modern era, techniques and practices could be shared across vast distances. A Pennsylvania blacksmith could read about a new method for smelting stronger steel, or more pliable copper. Over time this led to an explosion of technology beginning in the mid-nineteenth century that continues to today.

Despite what some tech bros may think, the modern world is built on books. Most of the tech industry today has little or no knowledge of the analog world. A world where you couldn’t just surf the internet for how to program, write code, or find a script kiddie.

In an ever changing world, books are one of the few constants in human civilization. They are some of the few things that survive disasters and multiple translations. While humans have, and continue to exist independently of books, the reality remains. Human civilization does not exist without books. For if there is no record, does anything exist at all?

We are the chroniclers of the universe and all known existence. We, so far as we know, are the only creatures that currently exist with such a wealth of knowledge from nutrition to nuclear power, the bricks that form the house of human civilization are books. And no matter how we may feel about some of them, every book is a necessary component to the human condition.

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