If you aren’t writing you aren’t thinking.
Variations on this theme, allegedly quoted from the usual suspects, are common in substack and other literary places.
It doesn’t make a lick of sense. Humans were thinking in constructive ways LONG before writing was established. They were thinking well enough to selectively breed plants and livestock, to build cities and sewer systems and roads, and to form complex governments. Despite writing more than ever, we’re doing the opposite of all those constructive activities. Rewilding plants and animals, tearing up cities and infrastructure, destroying governments.
By the current historical view, writing didn’t arise from thinking, it arose from business. Marks on stone or wood served to record debts and purchases, preventing both sides from cheating or forgetting. Tally sticks and similar splitting devices were the best use of marks. The physical nature of wood or paper formed a random and matching pattern on each side of the split.
Printing was the earliest mass production because a typeset record is equally hard to cheat. Printing evolved from simpler impressions like sealing rings or Chinese ‘chops’. Both sides of a transaction, or both sides of a religious or legal dispute, have to work with impressions made by the same wood blocks or lead blocks. Before printing, a scribe could easily write two different forms of a contract or bill or scripture, with no firm way of determining which one accurately recorded the transaction or the words of the author. Without wood or lead, the biggest army of lawyers or priests will always win the dispute.
Wedding rings originated as a form of tally stick. Two rings were made to match or interlock in various ways. During engagement each side wore one of the rings while they proved their credit. At the ceremony the husband redeemed the bond by placing his part on the wife’s finger. She then owned the physical symbol of biological conjugation.
Digital writing loses the sole advantage of writing.
When both sides are dealing with a record kept in Jeff’s cloud, there’s no PHYSICAL record of the original agreement or authority or law. The biggest army, led by Jeff or Elon or Sam, can alter all copies of the record and alter every conceivable form of ‘watermark’. Bitcoin claimed to form a digital tally stick, but it failed (intentionally or not) because it’s digital. You simply can’t get there without a PHYSICAL record.
Tally sticks and printed books are still the best form of verification. Sam can’t invisibly reach into your house and recut the notches or reprint the book or steal the ideas. He could send official burglars to break into your house and replace your books, but breakins leave a physical record as well.
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In short, writing is NOT necessary for thinking. PHYSICAL records, printing or notches or matching parts, are necessary for honest deals in business or court or relationships. The same rule works in other realms: Photographs are better than JPGs, vinyl LPs are better than MP3s, acetate films are better than MP4s. Forgery is possible in the physical versions, but it’s difficult, expensive, and detectable, especially when the physical version was mass-produced like printing. The forger has to find ALL existing copies and alter or steal them.
Polistra's Mill 