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A HUMANISTIC, ECOLOGICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL WAKE-UP CALL – to carry its global appeal across geographical boundaries, this book is conceived as a reverse cover with the English and German texts contained in one volume.

Change today is happening faster than ever before. We are overwhelmed by new technologies and an excess of information, and we feel that we and what we used to think of as society are being suffocated. Those who drive this change pursue primarily two goals: profit and power. They lure us with clickbait and abuse us as a data pool, reducing our existence to one of human resource and consumer. In doing so they threaten our democracy, our diversity, even our humanity itself.

It doesn t have to be like this, thinks humanist and entrepreneur Christopher Peterka. Instead of basing our ambition on purely economic yield, he pleads for a radical new dialogue about being human: Who do we want to be? How do we want to live together as a society? What meaning is our ambition meant to have?

We have to consider these questions afresh, because if we don‘t do so, others will. But this means leaving behind short term solutions, and taking a stance against the current system to throw off the shackles that tie us down.

Your Choice is a call to action that encourages us to challenge the status quo and to bring lasting change as progressive optimists.

WHAT THIS IS ABOUT:

You have a say in what this world should look like: turbo-capitalism or sustainable economies? Edge computing or the Internet of Things? ›Just continue along the same old road‹, or: ›Find a new way, please?‹ It really amounts to the question: are you an Analogue Opportunist or a Progressive Optimist? To help you find out, this book contains a profile test with Orientation Statements at the end of each chapter. Because: IT IS #YOURCHOICE

Decide: For each Orientation Statement, mark how much or how little you agree with it at this moment. 0 means, ›I do not agree at all,‹ and 6 means, ›I totally agree.‹ Everything in between indicates where you tend towards, and of course there are no right or wrong answers.

Plot: For each Orientation Statement, plot your response on the coordinates of the octagon in the cover flap as indicated. This way you gradually build your profile. For example: if you entered 6 for a statement and it says plot this on axes A, C, and D, then you put a cross or a dot at 6 on each of these three axes.

Discover: Where do you have clusters and concentrations? Once you have answered all the questions, you can compare your profile to the sample profiles at the back and find out whether you are more of an Analogue Pragmatist, or a Progressive Optimist, or—most likely—where approximately you are in between.

And now: Post and debate! Take a picture of yourself with your profile and share it with us and your community. Do we need a system change? What part will you play in it?
#YourChoice @C_Peterka @MurmannVerlag

Of Exponential Growth and Hockey Sticks—Caught in Something We Can’t Imagine

Prologue
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

IT’S A HUG

»Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?«

This is what I read in 1998, approximately 15 metres below ground, at the end of an exhibition on the subject of energy. Built by Austrian media artist André Heller under commission from the German energy company RWE on the occasion of their 100^th anniversary, it had a budget of 17 million euros and the location was the company’s first coal mine, now disused.

Meteorit, as the huge walk-in cuboid planted in the earth at an angle was called, was an early place of fascination for me. Many international thinkers and artists had turned this alien object near Essen in the middle of the Ruhr region into a source of inspiration oozing power, and I spent hours in there on many occasions, just to let their wondrous perspectives on the subject of energy—so central to our human existence—work on me, and to explore.

The above quote was written in white letters, in three languages, on a matt black background in a space right at the bottom of the structure. It came from Marianne Deborah Williamson, who now, as a spiritual activist, author, teacher, and founder of the Peace Alliance not only leads a grassroots movement for the establishment of a US American Department for Peace, but is also a candidate for the Democratic Party in the 2020 US presidential election. This background, which only today is becoming clear to me, was at the time, I confess, not something I cared about. Much more important for me was the magic of the place, this pitch black chamber, hidden inside the ›meteorite‹. Williamson’s thought though never left me, and it has accompanied me ever since as a mantra.

From my first entrepreneurial steps from inside a school yard at the age of 16 and over the years of many startups and partnerships with new and interesting people, I have always been fascinated by the creative potential of the human being and of being human. As the child of two civil servants, growing up in a conservative, guarded environment, this was what gave me then, as it does now, the energy to set out afresh over and over again, to get up and start something new, to turn ideas into reality.

The greater therefore the pain I feel—right down to a physical sense of claustrophobia, clamming up, and sadness—when I see how many of the people I meet hold on to versions of themselves, to roles, and business models, that belong to the past, as if there were no alternatives. Alternatives which can light up a spark in the eyes and coax a smile from the lips of anyone the moment you start talking about them.

Over the years—about twenty now—that I’ve been travelling around the world, tracking future developments, I have discovered that this smile, this spark nourishes me. It motivates me to talk about these alternatives, about new possibilities, and about new avenues, and to do so in public, more and more. Which takes me right back to the sentiment expressed above from the ›meteorite‹.

Time and again I’ve been asked by friends, colleagues, and partners: why do you do this? Why do you fly to São Paulo for three days to meet the curator of the art Biennale and ask him why he is staging his ›exhibition‹ within empty exhibition halls? Why do you have to meet the mayor of Reykjavik or the developer of social housing in Johannesburg? Are you writing a thesis? Are you making a film? What’s the point of it all?

The answer lies in this book—at last. After two failed attempts that I made during the last three years, I now, since the summer of 2018, have found the accomplices, in a marvellously easy manner and right within my network, with whom I’ve been able to collate my observations, reflections, and ideas for a healthier life for us together on our planet.

Which leads me to express my thanks: to my ›thinking pen‹, Sebastian Michael, who after ten years of mutual radio silence suddenly—as it happens via Facebook Messenger—got in touch and who in a captivating manner understands to process thoughts and words, and seasons them with insight from his own wealth of experience. To Lars Zöllner, who immediately and with acute precision made a connection to Murmann Publishers. To Adrian Iselin who took Sebastian’s English text and translated it at enormous speed and with great personal identification with the subject matter into German.

And last but obviously not least to Johann and Josephine, my two wonderful children, who give me the discipline and determination to explore each day with new wonder at what it means to be a Progressive Optimist. Because if I look forward to one thing, it is the day when they will ask me: ›Dad, what did you do at that time, in 2020, when everything was at stake for planet Earth?‹ Unlike the many admirable activists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and engaged humans who contribute in much more effective ways towards a positive vision and—even more important—tangible models for our planet, I can say at least: ›I authored a book. I dared. I had the courage to speak of love, of humanity, of progress, and to invite everyone out there to talk about more than just the next hot business model‹.

So do think of this book as a hug, even if that sounds a little strange. After all, we mostly don’t know each other. Yet.

But we—and now I have to include in this Sebastian, because he put into words everything that follows from here on in—we love you. For being human. And we want to be able to say this without sounding corny or ›hippy‹ or giving off the vibe that we’ve swallowed a couple of tabs each half an hour ago. This book comes from a love of humanity. It comes with a sense of urgency, and we hope it comes as a friendly gesture. The Irish have a saying: »There are no strangers here, only friends you haven’t yet met.«

Which is also why we are trying to talk to you at eye level. Neither of us are ›experts‹. So you could also say it’s presumptuous of us to even sit down and write the book. But we do have a fair bit of knowledge and experience from all the work we’ve done with many people who are better qualified than us and whom we therefore consider our teachers. And so if at any one point while reading this book you get the impression that we might be fancying ourselves a bit as teachers, then let us qualify this with something Jack Ma said, the co-founder of Alibaba. Alibaba, if you don’t already know, is one of the ten most highly valued companies in the world and the world’s largest retailer and e-commerce corporation. We also quote him elsewhere in this book.

In a conversation at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos he said, »Being a teacher does not mean that I am better than you are. Everything I know better than you, I learnt from others. So a teacher should learn all the time. A teacher should share all the time. A teacher should always expect other people to be better than [they] are.« And in that sense, we are glad to be teachers and learners and sharers. And we are self-evidently your brothers and your friends. Can two people be all these things at the same time? Absolutely. That’s the beauty of the age we live in.

Intro
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes in 2 sections
First section: 9 minutes
Second section: 6 minutes

HOW LONG WE’LL BE HERE FOR IS UP TO US

HELLO

Seriously: even without recording yourself as you do a backflip through a hoop and getting the clip included in a YouTube compilation, you’re already an extraordinary creature. Your body is beautiful: it’s a finely tuned organism that is exceptionally adaptable to its environment; and long before you’ve put it to any use, your brain is the most complex thing known to humankind. You are genuinely amazing.

You’re a Dumb Fuck because you trust Mark Zuckerberg with your data. And it’s not us calling you a Dumb Fuck, it’s Mark Zuckerberg himself: he calls us all Dumb Fucks, and he’s right: we’re all Dumb Fucks for trusting him with our data.

If you’re one of the few people who don’t, and you don’t have a Facebook account, or you don’t use it, then congratulations. Just don’t celebrate too soon: if you trust any of the big digital players anywhere in the world with your data, you’re giving yourself away.

You’re giving away everything there is to know about you: you are ware. Disposable, exploitable, sellable. And they do sell you. To their advertisers, to each other, mostly though back to you: they get to know you so well that they can not only sell you the things you want, they can easily make you want the things they sell. They can make you believe things you never thought could be true, and they can make you doubt what you always took for granted. They own you.

And yet: don’t beat yourself up too much about this either. Because you may not have much choice. You’re living in a world where very soon there will be perhaps seven or eight digital ›superstates‹ that control every significant transaction any of us are ever likely to conduct.

Social media was just the start. China is on a trajectory where your social profile and public conduct is directly linked to your bank account and your ability to travel. Your physical life and your online existence are tightly meshed together. If you cross the street in Shenzhen when the red man is showing and the face recognition software captures you, you don’t even get sent a fine: the money is taken from your account automatically, and your social credit is docked. And while you still glance at the wallet on your smartphone in consternation, everybody around you is staring at the big roadside screen, which shows the world your face and shames you for having gone against the ›common good‹…

And don’t think for one moment that this isn’t happening or couldn’t happen elsewhere. ›Staying offline‹ or ›opting out of social media‹ are no longer going to be available as options. You may not be a Dumb Fuck and blindly trust big corporations, but the boundary between what is a corporation and what a nation, what an authoritarian state, and what a draconian commercial monolith has already disappeared: in order to function in any meaningful way at all, you will have to be part of the network. Try getting a mobile contract without a data package. Or booking a flight without an email address. Or buying a cup of coffee in Shanghai without a smartphone. In most cases it just isn’t possible any longer.

Being a Dumb Fuck is one thing. Not being able to do anything about it though is quite something else. No wonder we are overwhelmed. We feel powerless, and not just because the man who founded Facebook uses disparaging language about us. We are fed nonstop with stimuli and sensations, and much of it is bad news: the planet is overheating, the politics is broken, and there’s another fucking pop-up. And an ad forty seconds into the video clip. Who thinks this up? If anyone behaved like that in the same room with you, you’d want to whack them over the head.

We’re stressed out because we’re constantly distracted, permanently on edge, and yet we can’t seem to let go. And we sense that these new structures we find ourselves tied into may not only be exhausting in the short term, but in fact damaging to us in the long run, too. We feel that the well-established concepts we have of what a relationship or a professional career is, or what it means to be a member of a community, are now suffering or even falling apart.

This is what makes us so nervous, so restless; and it is paradoxically also what makes every distraction appear so welcome, at least superficially: for a few seconds we can forget about the fact that we’re stressed out, even though we’ve just been disturbed. Because even if we haven’t really thought it through yet, we are aware that some major foundations of our existence are being eroded. And let’s face it: who has the time or leisure to engage with this kind of phenomenon, when it seems impossible to even put a finger on it, let alone start to deal with its magnitude?

Which is why we wrote this book. Because the question clearly isn’t, »Are you a Dumb Fuck or are you awesome?« You’re obviously both. The question is, »How can you be awesome and not get so angry that you want to hit someone, or depressed to the point where you want to throw in the towel?« Or become a dystopian miserable git obsessed with conspiracy theories who thinks that others are to blame for your woes. Or simply turn into a passive lemming who, in the absence of any obvious viable alternatives, lets everything wash over you in the hope that with a few mindfulness exercises you can at least stay sane. Once you know that this is the question, you can start to answer it, and that means you can change things.

In the subtitle we call this book: »An invitation to participate in system change«. We think there is a choice to be made whether you become what we are going to call an Analogue Opportunist or a Progressive Optimist.

We also realise it’s not quite as simple as that. Or as black and white. Or, as the cover suggests, purely a question of taking the blue pill or the red one. But we also want to rattle you a bit, in the friendliest possible way. So you will find us making bold statements and drop in the odd provocation. That’s par for the course now, in the din of our world. And it, too, is a sign of our times.

The reality, as with so many other things, is that each of us is somewhere on a spectrum. Or on a grid. So we’ve included some statements at the end of each chapter which, if you answer them honestly, will yield an approximate profile of what you currently are: more of an Analogue Opportunist or more of a Progressive Optimist. And—again, as with so many other things—it’s a fluid thing this. Just because today you are really more at home in the world of yesterday, this does not mean that you need to be stuck there for all eternity. Unless, of course, to do so is your conviction, and that is what you really want: your choice. If it isn’t, then we can help you become a Progressive Optimist. In fact, we’d love it if this book were to have this effect on you.

So this big Choice that the book title offers is actually a simple one. It’s an ongoing choice that persists every day for the rest of your life: do you cave in, resign yourself, do nothing? Or do you inspire yourself, make a positive decision, change your world every day a little for the better.

We obviously have a preference. To us it makes sense: as long as you just panic, you’re paralysed and helpless. That serves the people who hold sway over you. If you’re angry, you’re emotionally charged and irrational. That serves many people who want to hold sway over you, because they find it easy to tap into this anger and make you do and say things that maybe aren’t really you. You start to see enemies where there are none, and instead of tapping into your near boundless capacity for love, you start hating things. And people. Especially ›other‹ people.

There are manipulators and agitators who want just that: for you to be angry, irrational, hateful, and violent. As long as that’s the situation, and we all fight each other, they can get away with murder. Literally.

So our contention is: yes, get angry, do panic. But once you’re through with panicking and being angry, get excited. Because you can change things. You can ›take back control‹. Of your life, of your wants and needs, of your outlook on the world, and of your relationships with your fellow humans. You can recalibrate yourself afresh. You can make the planet great again.

It may not be possible to control all the quintillions of factors that now impact on your life. You may not have the resources to fight battles left, right, and centre. But perhaps that isn’t necessary after all. Because part of taking control of your life is letting go. Accepting that our world has become fluid, uncertain, and unpredictable. You can learn to loosen your grip freely and gracefully, and find a new kind of stability in motion. If that sounds paradoxical, that’s because it is. Be the paradox! Flourish in the liquid state of the half digital, half human existence that we’re floating towards: as much ›virtual‹ as ›real‹. You can do so anywhere in the world. Without anger. Without violence. Without hate.

And it’s true: we live in angry, violent, hateful times. Not for the first time, obviously, and unlikely for the last. But still: we need to orientate ourselves in our era and find ways of being free together without hurting each other, of hearing opinions and arguing our own without feeling offended, of creating time and space for our minds to rest and to actually think. We need to find new ways of being human. Vulnerable, beautiful, flawed; but gracious, generous, respectful too. Appreciative. Of ourselves, of the people we share this planet with, of the planet we share our life with.

Some of you will nod sagely at this point, thinking, ›Obvs.‹ Others will be asking, ›What fresh hell is this? What, pray, is the Anthropocene?‹

THE ANTHROPOCENE

As with everything else, there’s a good deal of debate about what exactly the Anthropocene is. What people agree on is that it defines the period during which we humans have been making the most significant impact on earth and everything on it. That’s the most significant impact. More significant than any other. Not just a scratch on the surface with a bit of cleared forest for fields here and there, or the odd dead dodo because it was over-hunted, but an impact more powerful and lasting than all other impacts combined: the Anthropocene is the age of human consequence. The time when humans rule the world completely, and impact on it to the extent where we affect the weather.

What’s unclear is when this starts. Some people put it 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, when we developed agriculture and started cutting down woods on a very large scale, converting vast swathes of land for farming purposes and living in managed settlements.

Others place the beginning of the Anthropocene around the time of the Industrial Revolution. There are good arguments for this, too. From about 1760 to about 1840, the Industrial Revolution completely changes the way in which we use energy and human resources. We transform ourselves from a largely rural species to one that lives in cities.

We immensely accelerate our production methods and instead of mainly using what’s on the ground or grows from it for our energy needs, such as wood, we begin to dig deep into the earth and start exploiting coal reserves. We burn prehistoric fossils on a scale that we have never burnt anything before. And we thrive. Some of us live in abject poverty and in the most horrendous conditions, children go down mines where they clog up their lungs in the dust-filled hell that is their workplace for twelve hours a day, entire populations are enslaved, and people die of cholera and malnutrition, but as a species, we explode: we’re become a success.

One school of thought attaches an exact date to the start of the Anthropocene: 16^th July 1945. On that day the United States carried out its first nuclear bomb test, which marks the beginning of the nuclear age in earnest. Once we had nuclear bombs at our fingertips, we could destroy ourselves and our habitat multiple times: that’s a major impact, no question.

Yet another view dates the start of the Anthropocene in the year 1964. The Beatles arrived in the United States, and Beatlemania broke out all over. The US were deeply entangled in the Vietnam War, and Tokyo held the Summer Olympics. There were race riots in some American cities, and Martin Luther King Jr was the youngest person so far to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Kenya became a republic, and Pete Townshend of The Who smashed his first guitar at a concert in London. And one of the people writing this book was born. Yeay!

None of these events amount to a reason for naming 1964 the ›Start of the Anthropocene‹, though. What does is the accumulation of different human impacts that have been getting greater ever since the end of the Second World War in what’s known as the ›Great Acceleration‹: factors such as population growth, consumer goods produced, energy consumed, miles travelled, rubbish generated, and land converted across the globe.

It doesn’t really matter which of these you go for: they all have their merits. What’s interesting is that whichever way you look at it, we humans have been making our presence felt on planet Earth in ever more pronounced ways, and as we’ve been doing so, the point has been reached where we have become the defining element on it. The species that overpowers all others and therefore the planet as an ecological system. The living thing on whom all else depends.

We may still occasionally succumb to catastrophe, and there are lethal disasters that are not human made, but the greatest impact on the planet is us. So we have to deal with this. And how we deal with this is going to define who we are. Not just who we are now, but also who we are going to be, for the foreseeable future. Because our impact on the planet is not going to diminish, it’s going to increase. And our enmeshment with technology, which has given us this great advantage over all other species, is going to get stronger, not weaker. We are going to meld with our inventions, and we are going to be outpaced by our own creation, Artificial Intelligence. We are going to have to learn to live with this and handle it. Own it, define it, live it.

If you take, just for the sake of argument, the mid 1960s as the beginning of the Anthropocene, then this opens up a startling declension of timescales, and it goes like this:

Current thinking holds that what’s known as behavioural modernity—that is humans behaving in ways we still recognise as human, even though it would have been very different to how we behave today—started out about 50,000 years ago. The next big step, what we consider to be the early civilisations which are characterised by writing, the emergence of cities, and complex societies that have legal codes, began about 5,000 years ago. Modernity—the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment, the time when we began to put our trust in science—started very roughly 500 years ago. And yet the Anthropocene, the era during which our own impact surpasses the impact of everything else combined, is just over 50 years old.

You’ve probably seen the infographic depicting the history of our planet as a 24-hour clock, where zero hour is the formation of earth and midnight is now. On this metaphorical day, life—that is any kind of life—wakes up at about 4am. It then takes a good ten hours, till just after 2pm, to evolve into single-celled algae. Another four hours later: sexual reproduction. (At last!)

Dinosaurs roam the earth for about twenty minutes at around 11pm. Mammals take over at twenty to midnight, and we humans make our grand entrance at 23:58:43. Just over a minute ago. So wherever you set the beginning of the Anthropocene, it’s an incredibly short epoch. At the most, it takes up a minute of Earth time, more likely a fraction of a second.

Let that sink in, and enjoy the moment. Because it may not last. Some people think that we are lucky if, as humans, we have another fifty years on earth. The planet won’t mind: it will spin on for a good while, with or without us. But we think it’s worth pursuing the goal of hanging about for a little while longer. And that’s the point of this book: to churn over some ideas on how we can hang about on our planet Earth for a little while longer, and do so well.

ORIENTATION STATEMENTS

0.1

›A combination of surveillance data and behavioural code can bring about sustainable and civilised social conduct.‹

Plot this value on: A, C, D.

0.2

›Continuing the fainthearted discourse of today leads to personal isolation and depression.‹

Plot this value on: B, D, H.

0.3

›It is appropriate to get angry first, and then to think forward rather than backward.‹

Plot this value on: A, D, F.

0.4

›An extension of the Anthropocene is desirable.‹

Plot this value on: A, E, H.

EXERCISE FOR CHANGE

Get angry. Destroy something dispensable*.

*DISCLAIMER:
You’re a responsible adult: don’t, obviously, damage someone else or their property. Don’t hurt yourself or anyone else, and don’t break the law.

If you’re not an adult, or not responsible, find a responsible adult to supervise you before you do this exercise.

If you want to share your act of destruction, you can do so here: https://twitter.com/C_Peterka.

Chapter 1
Estimated reading time: 23 minutes in 3 sections
First section: 7 minutes
Second section: 10 minutes
Third section: 6 minutes

WE ARE SLAVES TO DIGITAL MONOPOLIES

FROM GUTENBERG TO ZUCKERBERG—LIBERATION TO INTOXICATION

LIBERATION

Imagine you’re a handsome dude with sensuous lips, nice hair, and a thoughtful frown on your face. Picture the selfie: you’re intelligent, you’re rad, you’re sexy.

The selfie is not so much of an option right now, because it’s 1517, but someone’s taken a fetching portrait of you: you’re all right.

You live in a pretty little town called Wittenberg in the middle of Germany, except it’s not yet called Germany, it’s called the Holy Roman Empire, and it isn’t strictly an empire, it’s not really Roman, and it certainly is not holy. At least not as far as you’re concerned, and you have a strong opinion on this, because you’re a friar: you spend most of your time praying and probing the nature of God. Sometimes you go on pilgrimages. You’re Martin Luther. The original.

Your biggest problem with the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Church is that the Catholic Church through the Holy Roman Empire has near absolute power and tells everyone including you what to think, what to say, what to do, when to worship, and who to believe in. You have no freedom of thought, nor of anything else. You are being told what’s what, and the risks you run if you disagree are enormous. They’re real: you may be excommunicated, which in practice means you have no standing in society at all; you may be executed, which in practice means you’re dead.

But there’s one thing that makes you angrier than anything else: ›indulgences‹. What the fuck are they?

Is exactly what you think, although you don’t say it like that. They’re essentially Get Out of Jail cards sold by the Church to the people, only for ›jail‹ read ›purgatory‹, and unlike those in Monopoly, these aren’t free: people pay real money for them.

You think they’re a racket. They’re an insidious revenue stream which funnels funds from the poor to the rich. The poor are the people in general, most of whom have no education and therefore believe whatever they’re told; the rich are the nobility and the Church. The Church is immensely wealthy, it’s dripping gold. And because everyone in the eyes of the Catholic Church is a sinner, everyone will land in purgatory. Purgatory is the forecourt of hell: it’s an unpleasant place. But for a small fee, an indulgence will spare you the horrible torture and excruciating pain that’s going to be inflicted on you there to atone for your sins. If your sins are particularly gross, the fee will have to be a bit larger, obviously.

You think this is all a whole load of nonsense. You’re a friar: you’ve studied the Scriptures extensively. Every day, for many years. That’s literally been your job: studying the Scriptures. And the way you understand the Scriptures, anyone can find Salvation and God’s forgiveness by simply believing in Christ. And you say so. The Catholic Church is not amused; as far as the Catholic Church is concerned, you’re a heretic, and extremely dangerous.

You have no internet, no smartphone, no old school phone either, no electricity at all. No trains, no planes, no automobiles. You have the Pope and his whole ›Holy Empire‹ breathing down your neck, and you’re a friar. You are sworn to a life of poverty and piety, you have nothing.

That’s your weapon, and it’s no longer secret: the book. You can go straight to your audience, you don’t need the Pope.

You write down your Ninety-Five Theses, you possibly nail them to the door of your church—we can’t be sure today whether this actually happened—and you print them. You disseminate your thinking, you publish. And you do the same thing with the Bible: you make it available, in German, so people who can read can read it and make up their own minds. And people who can’t read can learn to read. Because now, there are books.

The man who amplifies your voice and makes it possible for you to be heard across Europe has sadly shuffled off his mortal coil and is no more, but he won’t be forgotten any time soon: Johannes Gutenberg. Born in about 1400, he died around fifty years before this, in 1468.

He, too, was a bit of a dude, with an amazing beard that most hipsters can only dream of, and a fine line in headgear that wouldn’t look out of place in Shoreditch or Dashanzi today. His home town was Mainz, some 422 kilometres or 262 miles in a straight line south west of Wittenberg: about three weeks on horseback, or a month on foot, depending a bit on the time of year and how fit you are. Technology doesn’t travel very fast yet, because people don’t.

[THIS MAY WELL BE THE MOST IMPORTANT TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE SINCE THE WHEEL.]

In 1439, when he was about forty, Gutenberg did something that genuinely changed our world. He ›invented‹ the mechanical printing press. It’s impossible to claim that he was the first person to use mechanical print: printing presses of some type or other had been used in Asia as far back as the 7^th Century, but Gutenberg made some significant advances on all the techniques that had been tried before and introduced the technology to Europe. His greatest contribution: movable metal type.

This may well be the most important technological advance since the wheel. Movable metal type allowed the printer to set words, sentences, and paragraphs for a page and print from this large numbers of copies in a short time at comparatively low cost. Never before had a single invention had such a great impact in such a short time.