How the written word impacts human behaviour
The other day I went to see the 1800 year-old temple of Mithras on display at the Bloomberg Space in London and one out of the many amazingly well-preserved artefacts I saw blew me away: a wooden writing tablet and stylus used for commercial recordings. That’s when I realized how important the ability to write and read has been for humans and how it clearly has changed the way we lead our lives.
It has enabled the Romans, who settled in London about 2000 years ago, to communicate with Rome about what happens in their empire and to keep track of their losses and successes. So, economically and strategically it has been a powerful tool.
Would we be able to share and use all the wisdom humans have collated over time without the written word? Hardly. Our whole education is based on it really. From the incredible Greek philosophers’ thoughts and teachings to all the research that has been conducted over time — we couldn’t revisit any of it without having written records.
Recently I read an interview with Steven Pinker about his latest book called “The better angels of our nature”, in which he makes the claim that the rise of the written word, especially after the printing press was introduced in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century leading to the age of enlightenment, has led to violence declining increasingly all the way into our present…
