Chapter 4 Industrial technology, rising much as language did, assists invaluably in making the written word ubiquitous. The printing press integrates the bound form of language as deeply into humanity as thought itself. Words are no longer primarily thought of as a sound, but as a written mark, precisely captured and defined. It's the dictionary which has the authoritative say on what a word is. Reading becomes an essential skill.
Nothing is deemed official or real unless it's written.
Written words become the law. As technology accelerates at its own viral pace, shifting from industrial to informational, it begins to push society towards a warp speed, leaving little time for reading all the written words it facilitates. Never before has the printed word been so prolific, so beautiful, so cheap to produce and obtain. Yet books increasingly languish on dusty shelves, appreciated and loved but little used. Yet the same technology which has encouraged the overrun of the written word is also reviving and revising the oral tradition.