Notes from Stephen Fry documentary - 'Planet word'

-The ability to speak is an innate human opetartion that's been around for 50,000 years.
-Writing allows us to speak to the past and listen to the future.
-Reading and writing is an optional extra.
-There have been hundreds of societies in the past that haven't felt the need to write things down.
-Writing lets us learn about cultures far away.
-Writing most likely started as a way to record accountancy - a record of monies in & out.
-Writing used to be a source of power as only trained scholars could do it.
-Writing allowed Rabbis and other religious figures to preserve their beliefs.
-Religion is a key influence on language change - it used to be a good example of instrumental power, though now it requires mostly influential power (I personally think due to the progress of education).
-Printing was technically invented in China, but William Caxton revolutionised it with his printing press.
-Geoffrey Chaucer,the first British printed poet wanted standardization because the English language was too diverse.
-Standardization is, to some degree evolutionary.
-Caxton's printing press made the English language more stable.
-Everyone has the right to the voices of the past.
-Technology has a colossal impact on our ability to learn new language.
-Technology nowadays has enabled the writer some scope: less pressure to be correct because they go back and change it whenever they want.
-Amazon are the biggest publisher.
-More books are printed each year.
-More people write now due to technology and wikipedia.
-Technology allows us to have immediacy, i.e blogs give us cutting-edge information.