PEN, PRINT, AND PENTIUM

Development of the printing press was motivated by desire to-enhance p roductivity in a familiar and important task. The outcome was vastly m ore extensive than the financial rewards anticipated by its promoters, for print was an essential instrument in transforming the social stru cture of Europe and establishing the conceptual premises of government s throughout the modern world. Those premises are eroding under the im pact of the computerized communications revolution. Political conseque nces may be inferred from some parallels with Renaissance experience. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.