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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 1904240" data-attributes="member: 6533">You've got the wrong Holy Roman Emperor there.  That was Charles the V gave us that line.And, in terms of the Guttenberg argument, that's more than little overstated.  No denying the print revolution was important, but it took a lot longer than most people claim in the argument and affected a lot of cultures in similar ways.  Most of the big arguments for the print revolution can't really be seen until the 19th century when these empires were firmly established. Accusing China of not being properly literate and text based is a bit off base.You can make a strong argument for European and Middle Eastern educational systems but those were in place a long time before Gutenberg.Most cultures developed writing out of accounting.  Actually, everyone did.  The west was no different in that respect. In terms of China and the computer, probably, I'm certain there would be differences between what we have now and what we would have, but I don't so much think language was the issue.  There used to be some arguments based on the shape of the alphabet and its adaptability to keyboards but then the stroke based keys appeared and pretty much blew that out of the water.Were I to assign a conceptual variable to the issue of computers it would probably be A.) the complexification and specialization of computer, as in people, labor in the early and middle twentieth and B.) the Arabic number system which is itself Indian so I don't know how that makes anyone's point.Quepu's appear to be zero based, might be that the Inca's would have gotten closer conceptually.</blockquote>

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