The Power of Written Language

Which technologies in history have had the most transformative impact? Venkatesh Rao, a tech blogger, lists these:

“Electricity, steam power, precision clocks, written language, token currencies, iron metallurgy and agriculture.”

That made me wonder why he said “written language” as opposed to just language. And then I remembered these points from different sources.

James Gleick in his book, The Information, pointed out that “speech is too fleeting to allow for analysis”. He went on to point out that logical reasoning has “no power unless people can examine and evaluate them”. And he’s right: can you imagine confirming any theorem from geometry unless it was written down, allowing you to go over it at your own pace, to look back at a previous step in the chain of reasoning? Of course, the point extends beyond just the theorems of geometry: it applies to every logical chain of reasoning.

From a different perspective, Paul Romer, in one of his blogs, wrote that:

“Clear writing produces clearer thoughts.”

The beneficiary isn’t just the reader, it’s also the author himself!

“For better or worse, writing changes your mind.”

Written language also solved the problem that Richard Feynman brought up in his lecture titled “What is Science?”:

“Is it possible to learn more rapidly what somebody learned … than the rate at which the thing is being forgotten, either because of bad memory or because of the death of the learner or inventor?”

So yes, Rao was indeed right in listing “written language” instead of just language.

But there’s a danger with written language, as Feynman warned in the same lecture:

“(Writing) had a disease in it. It was possible to pass on mistaken ideas… (It leads to) accumulations not only of practical and useful things, but great accumulations of all types of prejudices, and strange and odd beliefs.”

I never cease to be impressed by Feynman’s ability to think through and articulate things with outstanding clarity. And we know so many of his thoughts thanks to written language!