Word: gutenberg
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...especially with our outside experts, were those concerning the relative influence of thinkers vs. tinkerers--those who work mainly inside their own mind vs. those who turn their mind to practical things. In some centuries the tinkerers are more influential. The 15th, for example, was important for Gutenberg building his printing press and Columbus setting sail; the 19th for Fulton and his steamboat, Morse and his code, Bell and his telephone, Edison and his light bulb. But in other centuries the pure thinkers were more influential. The 17th, for example, boasted Newton, Galileo, Descartes and Locke...
...centuries go, this has been one of the most amazing: inspiring, at times horrifying, always fascinating. Sure, the 15th was pretty wild, with the Renaissance and Spanish Inquisition in full flower, Gutenberg building his printing press, Copernicus beginning to contemplate the solar system and Columbus spreading the culture of Europe to the Americas. And of course there was the 1st century, which if only for the life and death of Jesus may have had the most impact of any. Socrates and Plato made the 5th century B.C. also rather remarkable. But we who live in the 20th can probably...
...Planck's 1900 theory of quantum physics, this discovery led to the first weapon of mass destruction, which helped hasten the end of the Second World War and became the defining reality of the cold war. Alan Turing harnessed electronics to devise the first digital computers. Five centuries earlier, Gutenberg's printing press had cut the cost of transmitting information by a factor of a thousand. That paved the way for the Reformation by allowing individuals to have their own Bibles, and for the progress of individual liberties, which became inevitable once information and ideas flowed freely. The transistor...
...think big about history. We can pause to notice what Grove calls, somewhat inelegantly, "strategic inflection points," those moments when new circumstances alter the way the world works, as if the current of history goes through a transistor and our oscilloscopes blip. It can happen because of an invention (Gutenberg's printing press in the 15th century), or an idea (individual liberty in the 18th century), or a technology (electricity in the 19th century) or a process (the assembly line early in this century...
Berners-Lee is the unsung--or at least undersung--hero of the information age. Even by some of the less breathless accounts, the World Wide Web could prove as important as the printing press. That would make Berners-Lee comparable to, well, Gutenberg, more or less. Yet so far, most of the wealth and fame emanating from the Web have gone to people other than him. Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, drives a Mercedes-Benz and has graced the cover of several major magazines. Berners-Lee has graced the cover of none, and he drives a 13-year...