The Most Important Invention (Journal 25)

This one is a no brainer for me.  The most important invention in all the world is, of course, the printing press.  Without the advent of Gutenberg's press, reading might still be available only to the upper classes or those affiliated with the church.  Middle and lower class individuals might be deprived the privilege of owning books or even reading.  Most families would not be able to afford books.  Most individuals would not be taught the joys of reading, let alone the skills associated with the past-time.  Information (and entertainment) garnered from reading would be much more limited.  Without the printing press, books would still be copied out by hand and story would be the sole purview of traveling scops or minstrels or troubadours.  It would be up to individuals to remember what they heard and hold onto it in the recesses of their minds and memories.  Writers would not exist today in the numbers they do without the printing press, either.  Writing itself might have remained an occupation for the wealthy instead of a past time that anyone could enjoy.  Without this vital invention, the human race would have missed out on some very important and entertaining tales.