Dwarkesh Patel

Paper surges before the Gutenberg-movable type printing press.

So Gutenberg isn't a random genius out of nowhere.

It's at this point it was the moment that people needed more books.

We were going to get the invention.

What is the alternative world where... Well, I mean, Machiavelli, remember, is contemporary with Luther.

It's just that he circulates his stuff very briefly and very privately.

He doesn't want a pamphlet version of his ideas out there because he only wants Florence to have it.

Yeah.

Luther hits the...

when the pamphlet distribution network had just developed.

Hence, you know, when Savonarola printed pamphlets, they only circulated around Florence and its neighbors, Siena, Pisa.

It took months for them to get farther.

His movement was quickly crushed.

When Luther makes the 95 Theses public,

They're in print in London in 17 days after he releases them in Wittenberg because the pamphlet runners go vroom, vroom, vroom and get the news there and things are printed overnight and come out that fast.

Yeah, a new censorship regime responds.

The censorship regime is very effective at shaping what is printed in books but can never keep up with pamphlets.

Interesting.

In the same way that we can, you know, the government can pressure CNN.

The government can't pressure random people on a social media network.