Baron Essay: "From Pencils to Pixels..."

Quotes:

1. "When we write with cutting- edge tools, it is easy to forget that whether it consists of energized particles on a screen or ink embedded in paper or lines gorged into clay tablets, writing itself is always first and foremost a technology." (71)

Writing is a technology in all forms. It doesn't really matter what that form is- from ancient to modern- every single type of writing requires some form of technology. I think this quote sums up the entire article, because Baron goes on to talk about all sorts of different technologies and writing.

2. "We cannot be exactly sure why writing was invented, but just as the gurus of today's technology are called computer geeks, it's possible that the first writers also seemed like a bunch of oddballs to the early Sumerians. who might have called them cuneiform geeks. Surely they walked around all day with a bunch of sharp styluses sticking out of their pocket protectors and talked of nothing but new ways of making marks on stones..."(74)

Just as we have people who contemplate technology now- geeks, if you will- we forget that they probably had some people who did the same thing in ancient times. The people back then weren't all that different from the people that are here today.

Response:
I really enjoyed this article. Baron writes with humor and in a way that I can understand. He really draws wonderful correlations between writing and technology. He also makes everything really relateable when talking about older things - like cuneiform, pencils, typewriters, etc...- in a way that someone in 'modern' times can understand. Writing is, indeed, a technology- and a very complicated one at that! Just as it's complicated with computers and word-processing now, Baron emphasizes that even simple things we might have taken for granted, like pencils and paper, are really complex tools of a technology. For example, look at this blog... it took me forever to get the hang of and figure out how to use. Now that I've become accustomed to this form of technology (blogging) I can utilize this for writing and communicating. :-)