> It’s remarkable to see a sentiment that’s so common in the internet era showing up in 1894.
There is a famous ancient Greek quote, that AFAIK nobody can agree on the author with basically the same sentiment. The written word surely destroyed our civilization.
Socrates on writing (verbally, as Socrates famously didn't write anything himself):
"For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise."
It's a lot like what people say now about the internet, Google etc.
The passage appears in the Phaedrus, and has Socrates quoting an earlier Egyptian, Thamus:
SOCRATES: … Among the ancient gods of Naucratis in Egypt there was one to whom the bird called the ibis is sacred. .... The story goes that Thamus said much to Theuth, both for and against each art, which it would take too long to repeat. But when they came to writing, Theuth said: “O King, here is something that, once learned, will make the Egyptians wiser and will improve their memory; I have discovered a potion for memory and for wisdom.” Thamus, however, replied: “O most expert Theuth, one man can give birth to the elements of an art, but only another can judge how they can benefit or harm those who will use them. And now, since you are the father of writing, your affection for it has made you describe its effects as the opposite of what they really are. In fact, it will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own. You have not discovered a potion for remembering, but for reminding; you provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not with its reality. Your invention will enable them to hear many things without being properly taught, and they will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they will know nothing. And they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise instead of really being so.”
Note that this is actually Plato writing what many philosophers consider more a literary than literal work (see, e.g., Peter Adamson of The History of Philosophy podcast and book series), through his character Socrates, who then quotes another, so three levels of nested narrative and storytelling.
And while we're noting, "Plato" is itself believed a nickname or pseudonym, with his birth name likely being "Aristocles".
The socrates parallel has a different meaning that what caught my eye. I was struck less by the ‘lots of writing = bad’ parallel and more by the ‘lots of writing needs good filtering to find the signal in the noise.’
But now I’m realizing that might be me just coming at it from a modern angle, while the original 1894 author might have just meant ‘lots of writing = bad.’
There is a famous ancient Greek quote, that AFAIK nobody can agree on the author with basically the same sentiment. The written word surely destroyed our civilization.