Episode 55: The Gutenberg Parenthesis with Jeff Jarvis

When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450, it ushered in a modern era. Or so we thought.

It was embraced and fought, but the very notion that print was supposed to simplify knowledge was turned on its head: instead, print multiplied knowledge, and often in unexpected ways.

Jeff Jarvis, in his latest book The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The Age of Print and Its Lessons for the Age of the Internet, helps us understand how we’re now at the modern equivalent of 1450 and that we need to rethink how we communicate. It will require us to give up on traditional thinking and forge new paths into the future, particularly with the advent of AI.

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