The Importance of Paper

Let's say that a thousand years ago you wanted to buy a small notebook and keep a journal. If you lived in Europe, the first step would be to round up about 35 sheep and have their skins processed into parchment. And so on. Only the top 1% could afford a blank notebook.

In China, at the same time, your grandmother could buy a blank notebook at the corner store. The Chinese had invented cheap paper. They had also invented the brush (used to write with) and someone (perhaps a man named Pi Sheng) had invented moveable type made of porcelain. 

Several centuries later, word of paper and moveable type reached Europe, where Gutenberg used a relatively simple alphabet to produce a best seller in the Bible. Soon cheap books were everywhere. There was an information explosion. Science developed, and Europe was made great.