What if

[nutronjon]

What if paper as we know it today had never been invented? What the world be like today, if paper and then the printing press, had never been invented? What if there were no books to read, ever?

[HydrogenBond]

Ideas could only be shared through spoken word. We would have to depend on human memory to store information. The amount of information would be much lower. What that would mean is some idiot savants would be held in highest esteem. They have this super memory but are so gentle and naive to be considered an uncorrupt data source, without an ability to fudge the data by lying about it. The used horse and buggy salesman may have a good memory but his data may be corrupt. He won't be a town archive. To maintain good data on a broad scale, the character of the people would need to be made higher to help minimize data corruption.

 

Because the amount of data stored in the brain would still be limited, a more data dense language would be used to transfer information. It is called symbolism. To give an example, the symbol, devil, has a wide range of attributes that define its nature. That one data point or name essentially stores volumes of data that can be extracted as people discuss it. It is type of j-peg compression language. It is a small file size for easy storage. But it can then be decompressed as the group brain storms.

 

Without books there are no textbook or manuals for learning skills and crafts. It has to be taught hands on. It is like going to a lecture, with no notes, slides, or books. When you leave there is brain drain since there is no good way to study. There needs to be more apprenticeship where the master is constantly reenforcing the memory in place of studying. The result is the need for more one-on-one education and hands-on training.

 

Without paper and writing there is no warning labels on medications or warranty information on products, and no researching products. Let the consumer beware. Because there is no written word, law would have to simple enough for most people to remember in their head. About 10 commandments might do the trick.

[nutronjon]

I am really glad I asked that question. You thought of things that didn't enter my mind. Reading what you said made what I know of history more meaningful, and gave me an intriging picture of a different reality. Savants being valued kind of like rare computers. The need to teach people desirable character traits to keep information as uncorrupted as possible, is a motive for morality I never thought of. No sound medicine as we have today, but snake without labels, sounds really bad. I like thinking about this stuff and running it through my head, kind of like a movie, watching people acting out this different reality.

 

I hope others have some interesting answers.