6min chapter

Long Now: Seminars About Long-term Thinking cover image

Ryan North: How to Invent Everything

Long Now: Seminars About Long-term Thinking

CHAPTER

What Is the Hardest Part of Writing?

The first time we ever invented written language was in Mesopotamia with cuneiform. The idea of taking invisible sounds and turning them into visible shapes that carry the same meaning occurred maybe four times plus or minus a few in all of human history. This is where you can have the single greatest impact on the planet with a time machine. Go back to anatomically modern people, teach them to talk,. teach them to write their thoughts down and you'll be giving every civilization on the planet a 196,000 year head start. I believe there's so much low hanging fruit in this book that there could be not enough to fill out the book if they're doing it alone. And yes

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