Everything is written about

In decades gone by, I used to give presentations on the societal implications of the emerging information technologies. One of the points I made occasionally was that the most impactful technology that humans ever invented was the alphabet. The effect of making this observation was typically silent scepticism, at least among the tech-besotted, but at least some people pondered the point. The alphabet is a technology, because it can be used to make other things, and on its own it's pretty much useless: and the ramifications of those other things has been in all respects transformative across civilisations. And I’ve just come across an observation that augments the point — everything is written about:

“There are few events which don’t leave a written trace at least. At one time or another, almost everything passes through a sheet of paper, the page of a notebook, or of a diary, or some other chance support… on which, at varying speeds and by a different technique depending on the place, time and mood, one or another of the miscellaneous elements that comprise the everydayness of life comes to be inscribed” (Georges Perec, Species of spaces, trans John Sturrock, 1974 (1997), p12).