A brief history of the evolution of our media
Information is a precious commodity. It may not seem so in our digital age where most information is just a few clicks and a scroll away but information is what has kept the light of past empires alive. Our ancestors knew this fact, and they also understood that the power of word and memory could only stretch so far, which is were the first systems of writing came into place, the earliest of which we will be looking at today.
Ancient Media
Cuneiform is widely considered to be one of the earliest forms of information storage hailing from the Mesopotamian era. Some believe the earliest known cuneiform tablet came from 8000 B.C (Haahr Par. 1) These early tablets were made from clay, having been rolled out and carved with “marks” using a wedge stylus. These tablets were used to record laws, trade agreements, and other important government information. The Persians then took this art form and transferred it onto slabs of stone, buildings, and statues to similarly record important government info, historical events, and laws.
The papyrus plant (above) used by the Egyptians to make papyrus (below) which they then used to replace heavy stone tablets
This practice was used for thousands of years by many great empires, that is until the Egyptians got a hold of it. This is when the next big step of information storage was brought about. Now, while stone and clay tablets were very durable and could survive a number of natural disasters they were incredibly time consuming, costly, and labor intensive to make. Add on to this their weight and large size and suddenly they weren't as convenient as they once were, especially for an expanding empire. This is when the invention of papyrus, an early form of paper made by the roots of the papyrus plant, This invention completely revolutionized the writing game since documents were now lighter and took up much less space, making them easy to produce and transport. (Scmandt- Besserat, pg,24) Additionally when rolled up papyri can contain much more information. This ultimately made important information more accessible allowing better communication across continents and oceans.
The next major advancement came in the form of the codex at the turn of the first century AD (Haahr Par. 3) The codex was essentially the equivalent of todays book, with multiple pages laying flat, one on top of the other, and bound together. This was the first time humans were able to practice what's known as “non-linear reading” meaning that instead of navigating a long scroll to reach the information you wanted you could now simply open the book to whichever page you needed, skipping any amount of texts (Haar Par. 4).
Mechanical Media
Soon in 1439 Johanne Gutenberg came out with the printing press, an invention that many believed brought us into the new modern era. Codex’s were great and all, but much like their ancestors, the cuniform tablets, they were very costly, laborious, and time consuming to create. The printing press again made books more accessible to all by cutting down on costs and time. (Scmandt- Besserat, pg. 120).
But even with all of these incredible advancements one issue lingered among all of these methods. The lack of longevity. Over time, scrolls disintegrated, ink faded, and even stone eroded. On top of this, as the invention of the photograph and eventually audio recordings became more prevalent, academics and officials alike sought to find a way to keep all of these records in one place. Enter Herman Hollerith.
Digital Media
In the 1920’s inverter Herman Hollerith introduced a system of punch paper cards which could be “read” by tabulating machines. (Haar Par. 6) This system would later become IBM, introducing us to the age of computational data storage. With this we were rocketed into the digital era as IBM transformed into cassettes and VHS which soon turned into HDD (hard disk drives), and then to the floppy disk (Haar Par 8) The industry seemed to develop faster and faster as we developed CD’s, SSD’s, and USB flash drives (Haar Par.8). Finally we have what we know today as “The Cloud,” A fully digital space dedicated to organizing and storing any and all digital media. The cloud is integrated into most software systems and is used by individuals and major government and market agencies alike. So from simple clay, dug up from the depths of the earth, to satellites floating far above our atmosphere humans have left their mark in many, many different ways. All in an effort to share our knowledge with future generations for thousands of more years to come.
Sources
Haahr, Johs Krejberg. “From Clay to Cloud: A Short History of Information Storage.” 2K/STORIES, 12 Feb. 2015, stories.2kdenmark.com/from-clay-to-cloud-977126929af8.
Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. Routledge, 1982.
Schmandt-Besserat, Denise. How Writing Came About. University of Texas Press, 1996