Rewriting Nature

Abstract

Human ingenuity is marvelous. It boils down to an impeccable and often ethereal balance among its constituent elements, including knowledge, curiosity, creativity, and action. When the magnitude of each element expands in harmony, human ingenuity becomes transformative. It translates to power-the kind that transforms the world! This book is a testament to that power. Whether you are holding it in your hands or scrolling through pages on a touchscreen, you and I are able to communicate through this medium because, once upon a time, human ingenuity led to the creation of one of the most significant and consequential inventions of all time: the printing press.Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith who lived in the early to mid-fifteenth century, is generally credited with inventing the printing press circa 1436. 1 Gutenberg did not invent books. In fact, he did not even invent printing. Long before the Renaissance, woodblock printing had already been customary during the seventh and eighth centuries in China, Korea, and Japan. 2 And the metal, movable-type system of printing, which originated in Korea, had been used since the eleventh century. 3 Gutenberg's contribution rested on his ability to concoct a novel mechanical contraption to mediate ink transfer between the movable type and paper. He used prior knowledge to adapt screw mechanisms found in antecedent inventions-namely, the wine, papermaker, and linen presses of the time-as the basis to create the mechanical, movable-type printing press. 4 But he did not stop there. When he realized that the conventional water-based ink was not durable for printing purposes, he developed oilbased ink, which, as it turned out, bonded more effectively with the types. 5 The amalgam of knowledge, curiosity, creativity, and action aimed at speeding up the printing process, which culminated in the ingenious design of the first movabletype printing press, fundamentally transformed the world. By the end of the fifteenth century, Gutenberg's invention had spread all over Europe. For the first time in history, books could be produced en masse and at a low cost relative to other printing methods. Indeed, more than twenty million books had been printed by the year 1500. 6