History Repeats: What Gutenberg’s Critics Can Teach Us About the AI Revolution
It promised to change the world — but opponents fought to stop it from spreading
In 1474, a group of scribes petitioned the Republic of Genoa (located in present-day Italy) to outlaw the printing press.
For centuries, scribes had a monumental impact on the text being copied. An individual’s skill, integrity, and attention to detail became embedded into the manuscript being reproduced, reinforcing the idea that copying was an intrinsically human activity.
Because printers employed uneducated people to operate the press, scribes argued that this new technology had no place in society. The Senate of Genoa, however, saw the invention’s enormous potential, and ruled that printers were to be granted unrestricted freedoms.
Most of the world, however, responded differently to this new technology.
For the first century after Gutenberg’s revolutionary invention, printing remained a novelty. The press was so costly to purchase and set up that printed books were significantly more expensive than handwritten ones. Only the elite could afford printed books, but the most educated members of society preferred handwritten ones.
