The printing press

    During our presentations of technology I had the pleasure of learning about the printing press and why it was so important/valuable in early forms of communication. We learned that in1436 Johannes Gutenberg began developing his own model for the printing press. Although he is not the inventor of the printing press he is given credit for making it better. The printing press was created to fill the existing demand for books. The printing press had many benefits. It made it possible for information traveled at light speed which was very important back then and even today. It helped a lot of people back then because writing was starting to become an actual job not just a hobby or skill that you get hired for.

    The printing press revolutionized the way of communication. Books and pieces of literature were able to be produced and spread much faster than before. Newspapers started to become popular due to the fact that they now could print so many so fast thus news would be spread all around the world more quickly and effectively. David McGuffin said "Because of the success of the printing press and related technologies, the sheer number of printed books in western Europe proliferated. Between the first printing press in 1440 and the turn of the century, the ability to print copies of books and texts had been established in more than 2,500 cities across the continent. As a result, more than 15 million books representing more than 30,000 titles were press printed by 1499. Universities and centres of learning began to develop at a rapid pace, also matching the spread of literacy throughout the continent." That just goes to show you the kind of impact it had. Just think to yourself how many more people were able to learn something new that benefitted them due to the invention of the printing press. 

Sources

Roos, Dave. “7 Ways the Printing Press Changed the World.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 28 Aug. 2019, https://www.history.com/news/printing-press-renaissance#:~:text=ClassicStock%2FGetty%20Images-,In%20the%2015th%20century%2C%20an%20innovation%20enabled%20people%20to%20share,and%20faster%20than%20ever%20before. 

McGuffin, David. “Advantages & Disadvantages of the Printing Press.” EHow UK, 14 July 2020, https://www.ehow.co.uk/info_8090557_advantages-disadvantages-printing-press.html.

Anti war

  I am very anti war for many different reasons. This website provides many different and amazing insights in the discussion of war on a global scale and level. The website talks about many different wars from all around the world and goes very in depth with each article written. I believe that we never see anti-war news stories in the news because they do not generate views. If you think about it, news channels main goal is to not only get news out to the public but get the most amount of views possible. Nobody wants to watch or read an article that is anti war because that is not as interesting as reading or watching news about war. In terms of the common consumer they would much rather read and watch about issues going on in the world than a bunch of different countries coming to agreements whether that be a peace treaty or ceasefire clause. At the end of the day as humans we like when things are going bad for some reason and these news stations are going to put out stories that attract the most people and views. 

I also believe that the mainstream media is in favor of wars because of the opportunities presented when countries are fighting. War, although it is very bad in many aspects, can also create a lot of opportunities. War creates millions of jobs throughout the world and can right others countries wrongdoings. America has a tendency to get involved with some issues it maybe should not, which is a good and a bad thing. The only positive thing is that sometimes on a rare occasion we help people who are truly in need of help without causing too many issues or damages to the country. The issue is that America kind of has a history of doing too much damage in other countries. 

The Carrier Pigeon

The piece of technology I chose was the carrier pigeon. The carrier pigeon, although it may not seem like it, was arguably one of the most important technologies ever to exist purely in terms of a way to communicate safely. In the early days of the world one of the biggest issues was communication with people who were not near you. Although we do not know who for sure, somebody thought to train pigeons to deliver notes and return back after they delivered the note. It was a safe and genius way for people to get word to others that were not near them in a quick and effective way of transport. 

As you can see on the picture above the idea was to write a note and tie it on the leg of the pigeon so it would not affect the pigeon's ability to fly. The next step was to train it to fly to certain places and then come back. The pigeon would fly to its destination and let somebody untie the note from its leg. Then if the person receiving the message wanted they could write a note and attach it to the leg of the pigeon so they could respond to the person who originally wrote the note. 

Generals in war realized that carrier pigeons were a genius way to transport messages from camp to camp during a war because nobody could intercept them. The only way that somebody was intercepting one of those messages was either if the pigeon randomly died and fell or they would have to shoot it out of the air. It was a great way for people in power during wars to send strategy plans without the fear of the enemy intercepting them. Sometimes countries would have people deliver messages on foot but if they were captured then the note would never get to the intended receiver and the enemy would now know your plan.

While researching this the only disadvantages I could find was that maybe the note could get wet due to rain or horrible weather conditions and also if the pigeon were shot down or randomly died then anybody could simply walk up to it and remove the note from its leg and read it.

The carrier pigeon did not have any actual negative effects in terms of how it was done. It was safe and very easy to do. Almost anybody could train a pigeon to do it and millions of people were using this technology. But like all good things, the carrier pigeon came to an end. Technology evolved and it was left in the past due to such inventions like the newspaper and eventually telephone. Overall for one of the first ways humans would communicate from far apart it did its job and served its purpose.

Although I am sure some people may be using carrier pigeons to this day they basically went extinct. People started hunting them and would shoot them out of the sky as they flew by so eventually it became a risk sending a message on a carrier pigeon. As time went on less and less people used them and eventually it became a way of the past in terms of communication.

 

Sources 

“The Incredible Carrier Pigeons of the First World War.” Imperial War Museums, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-incredible-carrier-pigeons-of-the-first-world-war. 

Smithsonian Institution. “The Passenger Pigeon.” Smithsonian Institution, https://www.si.edu/spotlight/passenger-pigeon.

Blume, Mary, and International Herald Tribune. “The Hallowed History of the Carrier Pigeon.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Jan. 2004, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/30/style/the-hallowed-history-of-the-carrier-pigeon.html. 

Eight Values of Free Expression

 What I learned from the eight values of free expression blew my mind. Two of the eight values of free expression really stuck out to me over the others. Promotion of innovation (The seventh value) and Participation in self government (The second value) really stood out to me for good reasons. 

    Promotion of innovation really spoke to me because it promotes the common American to be innovative and change the world. The thought is having a community in which free speech is valued and protected thus creating a more creative, interesting and energized community. With this value the thought is that the citizens will actively fulfill themselves in many interesting and diverse ways. The promotion of innovation obviously directly correlates with freedom of speech. Innovation can come with free speech in many different ways. Just imagine if some of the world's greatest philosophers did not speak their minds because they were afraid of what the government might do if they expressed their true feelings. That is one of the few things that makes certain parts of America great in my opinion is the ability to speak freely. We see this value in action today throughout all of the world because people are constantly publishing articles that have to do with some form of innovation or making the world a better place whether that be innovation of technology, anthropology or agriculture just to name a few examples. We see these ideas throughout all of the web via twitter, blog posts, news articles and many more ways to publish new ideas. Overall from every single app I believe that this value most represents twitter because there is so much innovation being published on twitter almost every day whether that be from billionaires like Elon Musk or just your average Joe. 

    Promotion of innovation is everywhere today. We see it every single day whether that be in books, online or in person. A great source of it that I have seen my entire childhood growing up has to be TedTalks. TedTalk is a great way to promote innovation and just to think that if we did not have the first amendment and the second value of free expression that we may have missed out on so many great thoughts expressed to the world is crazy to me.

    Participation in self government really stood out to me because I never truly realized that the government gets power from the consent of the government. Growing up I always thought that the government got power from the people but this truly made me realize that every action the government signs off on to do is from somebody else in the government not the average American. I do understand why the government does things that way because it makes sense in terms of maybe the citizens would not make wise or the correct choices when it came time to make a decision. The important thing to make sure is that we "the common folk" elect smart politicians so they can make the correct choices that they are afraid we would make.