A man said to the universe:
"Sir I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

Stephen Crane

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

It's a thousand pages give or take a few . . .5番

One of the more interesting inventions humans came up with over the two thousand years we have been talking about was printing. It seems that for most of the long, mostly forgotten history of humankind either you or your mate actually had to remember everything you needed to know to survive. I mean everything. Stuff like:
  • How to find and catch dinner without doing too much damage to yourself.
  • How to keep the neighborhood lion from feeding her family with yours.
  • What the exact procedures were when someone had coveted your ass (or worse yet, your wife’s ass).
  • How to build a shelter, a fire and a baby carrier.
  • Which mushrooms were safe to eat, which ones would cause you to see strange things, and which ones would kill you
  • Where it was safe to cross the river, and where to suggest strangers cross it when they came by trying to sell you some kind of god.
  • How to keep the kids amused in the evening.
And that’s just for starters.