One Final Paper

             When going through the ages and looking at the different forms that knowledge transmission has taken, and the different institutions in which knowledge has been preserved, it’s impossible to avoid noticing trends.  When the history of knowledge is examined from the standpoint of these institutions, the ideas proposed by Ian McNeely in his book Reinventing Knowledge seem to almost present themselves.  One thing that is certain is the inevitability of change.  I have found, however, that there are a few things that remain constant in the way that things change.  In almost every case, as media and institutions shift, the new method tries to imitate or reproduce the old, then grows into its own niche, finally reaching the end of a ‘learning curve’, where a new institution or medium can meet new needs left by the old medium.

            This is evident in the transition from oral knowledge to written knowledge.  The earliest written stories seem to have been simple transcriptions of epic poetry, such as the epic of Gilgamesh and Homer’s writings (as described in Summer’s blog post).  As writing has progressed towards what we recognize today as books, leftovers of the earlier oral traditions can still be found.  Romances, the early predecessors of novels, were written in verse, and often contained mnemonic devices that are similar to those used by ancient poets.  However, as writing became more widely accepted and book writing took the manuscript form, it became generally accepted that the forwardness of prose was more important than the poetry of romance, and languages adapted themselves.  Attention was given instead to the beauty of the writing, and being a scribe was a very specialized job.

            Towards the end of the manuscript time period, European culture was growing, literacy had been improving for years, and books were becoming a valuable commodity.  Scribal writing was slow, imperfect, and occasionally difficult to read, however, and so it was time for a new medium to appear.  This led Gutenberg to the invention of his printing press.  As discussed in class, the earliest Bibles produced by these printing presses were large, printed on vellum or other scarce materials, and attempted to imitate the artwork and prettiness of scribal writing.  However, as people became more used to the new medium, printers began to realize that what was important was not high quality so much as high quantity, and so vellum was replaced with paper, more legible and compact typefaces were invented, and books became more portable. 

            On a related note, when knowledge was transmitted vocally and writing not yet established, it was difficult to establish authority.  Texts were viewed as authoritative only when ‘Socrates said so’ was attached somewhere.  When writing had become more established however, and even somewhat as printing came into acceptance, there was a backlash where too much authority was given to authors, such as the erroneous texts by Galen.  Perhaps due to the questioning nature of the times, people began to question that which had been written, and while the authority of texts remained, truth slowly caught up to the reputation of the authors, and those with less merit were discarded.

            An example of an institution that went through a similar transformation can be found in the origins of the University.  The first universities grew out of guilds and closely resembled them; they were groups of people, not buildings; they had similar rules and structures; professors were to students as masters were to apprentices.  As this institution grew, however, it became more like the institution we are familiar with today.  Buildings were established for the use of the teachers and students, more purely academic pursuits and discussions were allowed, and there began to be an informed dialogue between these different scholars.  The university left study in the specialties of the guild to pursue academic studies instead.

Finally, the transition into the digital age has certainly followed this pattern as well.  Originally, most of the websites on the internet contained bulky texts like what you would expect in a book.  There were few contributors, and it was seen as an unreliable source.  The internet seems to be discovering its own potential now, however; as pictures and interactivity are becoming increasingly popular, and barriers to entry are coming down, the internet and “digital knowledge” seem to be both the knowledge institution and medium of the foreseeable future.