13Ecological Analysis
In October of 1999, as a way of ushering in the new millennium, Biography, a television show on the Arts and Entertainment (A&E) cable channel, counted down the 100 most influential people of the past 1000 years. To create the remarkable list for the program’s 4‐hour world premiere, A&E polled 360 noted scholars, scientists, and artists. Their responses, along with individual ballots cast through Biography’s website, were evaluated by A&E’s editorial board, who eventually settled on a rank‐ordered list. Sitting atop the list as the single most influential person in the past 1000 years was Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of moveable‐type mechanical printing. Gutenberg, who edged out such legendary historical figures as Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, William Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Leonardo da Vinci, and Mahatma Gandhi, was awarded top honors because the printing press was felt to have more profoundly transformed the world than any other invention, discovery, or action by a world leader. The invention of the printing press was, after all, one of those pivotal events in history when, in the words of philosopher Mark Taylor, “technological innovation triggers massive social and cultural transformation.”1
With the advent of Gutenberg’s printing press, the flow of information was no longer limited ...
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