The Day The Universe Changed (1985)

Episode 4. A Matter of Fact: Printing Transforms Knowledge (2/5)

Prior to the 15th Century, all knowledge was transmitted aurally. People relied on their church or traveling poets for news of the outside world. The innovation of writing, and later, the printing press, revolutionized not only communication, but also commerce, industry and innovation. The medieval world which relied largely on memorized knowledge and the spoken word was transformed by Gutenberg's discovery of printing. This new knowledge is analysed and connections are drawn to subsequent revolutions in Western thought.

1. old people's memories
2. auditing
3. memory theater
4. traveling troubadours
5. expensive parchment and abbreviated scribbles
6. printing saves Gutenberg's financial hide
7. printing indulgencies and corruptions in Church
8. printing fuels protestant (Luther) movement
9. coming of the book
10. democratization of knowledge
11. cross-indexing explodes knowledge

The Day the Universe Changed (subtitled "A Personal View by James Burke") is a British documentary television series produced by and starring science historian James Burke, originally broadcast in 1985. It was released in DVD form in 2009. A companion book of the same title, also written by Burke, was published the same year, presenting the same general premise of the television series in expanded detail. A revised edition subsequently appeared in 1995.

The series' primary focus is on the effect of advances in science and technology on western philosophy. The title comes from the philosophical idea that the universe essentially only exists as you perceive it through what you know; therefore, if you change your perception of the universe with new knowledge, you have essentially changed the universe itself.

To illustrate this concept, James Burke tells the various stories of important scientific discoveries and technological advances and how they fundamentally altered how western civilization perceives the world. The series runs in roughly chronological order, from around the beginning of the Middle Ages to the present.

Episodes

1. The Way We Are: It Started with the Greeks
2. In the Light of the Above: Medieval Conflict - Faith & Reason
3. Point of View: Scientific Imagination in the Renaissance
4. A Matter of Fact: Printing Transforms Knowledge
5. Infinitely Reasonable: Science Revises the Heavens
6. Credit Where It's Due: The Factory & Marketplace Revolution
7. What the Doctor Ordered: Social Impacts of New Medical Knowledge
8. Fit to Rule: Darwin's Revolution
9. Making Waves: The New Physics - Newton Revised
10. Worlds Without End: Changing Knowledge, Changing Reality

Source: Wikipedia