Enjoyed this episode, but... The Gutenberg anecdote is so vivid I repeated it to my wife - before checking the facts. I wish I hadn't.
A few things are wrong. The print run wasn't 300. Contemporary sources put it at 158 to 180 copies, and modern scholarly consensus lands around 160 to 185. The 300 figure isn't documented anywhere.
More importantly, the Bibles didn't sit unsold. The primary source is a letter from the future Pope Pius II, written in March 1455. He reports seeing pages on display in Frankfurt to promote the edition and notes that buyers had already been found before production was complete. The distribution-failure thesis is contradicted by the closest thing we have to a firsthand account.
The claim that only priests could legally read the Bible is also wrong. The Gutenberg Bible was the Latin Vulgate. Any educated layperson who read Latin could own and read it. What the Church restricted, regionally and inconsistently, were unauthorized vernacular translations. Not the text Gutenberg printed.
Gutenberg's ruin wasn't unsold inventory. His financier, Johann Fust, a goldsmith not a bank, sued him in 1455 for misappropriation of loan funds. The court found for Fust and awarded him the press and type. Fust then partnered with Schöffer and ran a successful printing business for another decade. He didn't go bankrupt. He won.
The broader point about distribution networks is worth taking seriously. But this specific story doesn't hold up.
I can’t believe you didn’t discuss her Too Like the Lightning books - I’d have loved to hear you two talk about what she thinks a good post scarcity society might look like, pitfalls to avoid, etc. as she’s clearly thought a lot about it!
Ah, the illusion of history. It all sounds so simple when you can synthetically create reality from intent. Yet, it’s still just a fairytale using “facts.”
@Venkatesh Rao have you listened to this yet? It touches on the Venice / Genoa book and also the printing press books from your club. It put some pieces together for me that I hadn’t gotten my head around previously.
Home run for interviewer "charisma" in ease and interest of responses - curious how you sourced her and avoid selecting for folks that achieve this through playing fast and loose with the facts (see comment on Gutenberg anecdote).
An all time favorite across podcast episodes, not just yours, for me though regardless.
Loved this episode. Ada's storytelling was vivid and I really liked the idea that even if things don't go your way when you start with an idea, things can turn out well for civilization in the long run, like with Petrarch. Might be my favorite guest along with Prof. Sarah Paine.
Petrarch's libraries were designed to transmit values. they failed at that and accidentally built the access infrastructure that let future generations ask their own questions.
we're encoding virtue into AI training right now. ada's history says the better bet is questioning infrastructure: interpretability, adversarial testing, verifiable claims. manifestos don't build institutions.
Enjoyed this episode, but... The Gutenberg anecdote is so vivid I repeated it to my wife - before checking the facts. I wish I hadn't.
A few things are wrong. The print run wasn't 300. Contemporary sources put it at 158 to 180 copies, and modern scholarly consensus lands around 160 to 185. The 300 figure isn't documented anywhere.
More importantly, the Bibles didn't sit unsold. The primary source is a letter from the future Pope Pius II, written in March 1455. He reports seeing pages on display in Frankfurt to promote the edition and notes that buyers had already been found before production was complete. The distribution-failure thesis is contradicted by the closest thing we have to a firsthand account.
The claim that only priests could legally read the Bible is also wrong. The Gutenberg Bible was the Latin Vulgate. Any educated layperson who read Latin could own and read it. What the Church restricted, regionally and inconsistently, were unauthorized vernacular translations. Not the text Gutenberg printed.
Gutenberg's ruin wasn't unsold inventory. His financier, Johann Fust, a goldsmith not a bank, sued him in 1455 for misappropriation of loan funds. The court found for Fust and awarded him the press and type. Fust then partnered with Schöffer and ran a successful printing business for another decade. He didn't go bankrupt. He won.
The broader point about distribution networks is worth taking seriously. But this specific story doesn't hold up.
I can’t believe you didn’t discuss her Too Like the Lightning books - I’d have loved to hear you two talk about what she thinks a good post scarcity society might look like, pitfalls to avoid, etc. as she’s clearly thought a lot about it!
Ah, the illusion of history. It all sounds so simple when you can synthetically create reality from intent. Yet, it’s still just a fairytale using “facts.”
Great interview! I hope she will be a recurring guest in the future 💚 🥃
Strictly speaking it's not peer review, it's replicating the authors' experiments.
(right?)
@Venkatesh Rao have you listened to this yet? It touches on the Venice / Genoa book and also the printing press books from your club. It put some pieces together for me that I hadn’t gotten my head around previously.
I can’t listen to podcasts
That’s a nice immunity to have. This one is more like a lecture than a podcast, and there’s a full transcript fwiw
Check Victoria Bateman : https://www.women-wealth-power.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio
Home run for interviewer "charisma" in ease and interest of responses - curious how you sourced her and avoid selecting for folks that achieve this through playing fast and loose with the facts (see comment on Gutenberg anecdote).
An all time favorite across podcast episodes, not just yours, for me though regardless.
Thanks for your breadth.
Absolutely loved this episode. What was Sub Sahara Africa writing on in the medieval era?
Loved this episode. Ada's storytelling was vivid and I really liked the idea that even if things don't go your way when you start with an idea, things can turn out well for civilization in the long run, like with Petrarch. Might be my favorite guest along with Prof. Sarah Paine.
Petrarch's libraries were designed to transmit values. they failed at that and accidentally built the access infrastructure that let future generations ask their own questions.
we're encoding virtue into AI training right now. ada's history says the better bet is questioning infrastructure: interpretability, adversarial testing, verifiable claims. manifestos don't build institutions.
Wow what a great interview!!! Loved it, thanks so much!