``To know how to write well is to know how to think well.''--Blaise PascalDear Blaise... welcome to the verge of the twenty-first century. You are reading text that is composed within and output from and electronic device. A device which could not have been invented before society learned how to write, and until writing changed the ways we think. (After all... what use would a Cro-Magnon have for dreaming up a Macintosh computer with a big hard drive?). What has led us from the spoken word to the word processor? This is a question I will address as I describe three related forms of communication: writing, printing, and electronic communication.
The root of these three technologies is writing. In an effort to widely and quickly disseminate written work, printing and electronic communication have evolved. With respect to Naisbitt's quote in Megatrends, writing is the new technology, and in following the path of least resistance, it has been enhanced by printing, which in turn helps lead to another technological innovation: electronic communication.