A time travelling choose your own adventure

**"What captures her is the experience of moving through the story on a trajectory partly determined by her own choices."** (Bolter, 2001) Hello and welcome to a time travelling adventure through text and time. As you move through this story you are going to be given choices. On each page there will be highlighted words that you can click on. Each time you click on a word you will be moved to a new path of the narrative. You cannot win or lose, instead you will reach different conclusions based on your decisions. Some may make you happy, some may not. Without further ado let us [[begin]].

**Without writing, the literate mind would not and could not think as it does, not only when engaged in writing but normally even when it is composing its thoughts in oral form. More than any other single invention, writing has transformed human consciousness. (Ong, 1982, p. 78)** With your decision to try a new method of recording you have moved beyond a purely oral understanding of the world around you. You have the ability to think abstractly, what a delight! You are enjoying the logographic style of text with its easy to understand symbols. Though you revel in being able to readily know how many cattle your neighbour owns, you are finding it difficult to describe more abstract thoughts. Each symbols can mean a variety of things. A foot could mean a literal foot or movement, you feel you are wasting time trying to find context. You have heard of a group of people from another clan who are experimenting with a new form of text where the symbols they use denote individual syllables and phonemes of speach. Do you [[join]] this new clan to learn this new style of writing, or [[stick]] with your current style of text delivery. Its working fine as far as you are concerned.

**"But even with a listener to stimulate and ground your thought, the bits and pieces of your thought cannot be preserved in jotted notes. How could you ever call back to mind what you had so laboriously worked out? The only answer is: Think memorable thoughts." (Ong, 1982, p. 35)** You have decided to stick to your guns and avoid taking on this new "fad" of writing. You are happy where you are. It doesn't bother you that if asked a question like: **All Men are human,** **Homer is a man,** **Is homer human?** You would likely state, "I have not met Homer, so I can't say whether he is a man or not". If you are completely content where you are, you have reached the [[end]] of this tale. If you decide you might in fact like to try this writing thing for a bit select [[recording information]].

**"Havelock (1976) believes that this crucial, more nearly total transformation of the word from sound to sight gave ancient Greek culture its intellectual ascendancy over other ancient cultures." (Ong, 1982, p. 88)** What a delight it is to use a set amount of symbols to recreate the all the sounds of speach. You are now able to store your thoughts for others to read. You begin to use this new system to aide in your oratory practices. You have noticed that you are spending more time reading alone. You do worry that you are becoming more insolated in your learning. This stands in contrast to your previous learning experiences. You miss the days when you would learn from your grandparents and the stories told all seemed so familiar. As you are absorbing the latest scroll in the agora you hear of a new religion that is spreading quickly. You have always toyed with the idea of becoming [[spiritual]]. However, you like where things are right now. Perhaps you will just [[stay at home]] and keep reading the latest treatise by Cicero.

**"Those who use writing will become forgetful, relying on an external resource for what they lack in internal resources. Writing weakens the mind." (Ong, 1982, p. 78)** Life for you remains primarily oral. It is a simple life. You don't have to spend hours reading to understand; you simply talk to those around you. Plato was right these written words are dead objects uttered and forgotten. You are happy where you are and it is here the you will [[end]] your story. However, one night whilst trying to remember which plant you heard was poisonous you decide to take a day trip to [[join]] the clan using its alphabetic system.

You have reached the end of this story. Hopefully you are happy with where in the history of text you travelled. There is no winning or losing here, merely different outcomes. I hope you enjoyed this narrative and learned something along the way. Click to view the [[reference]] list.

**"Without writing, the literate mind would not and could not think as it does, not only when engaged in writing but normally even when it is composing its thoughts in oral form. More than any other single invention, writing has transformed human consciousness." (Ong, 1982, p.78)** After joining the new religion called Christianity you jump in fully. You appreciate how the monastic habit you wear is flattering if somewhat itchy. The texts you read have become more systemized. The new religion needs its message to be spread to a variety of cultures, requiring texts that easy to recite while adhereing to the centralised story. You now spend your days like other monks of your order diligently copying ancient texts from one manuscript to one another. Word spacing has been added to help with decoding now that you have no memory of how to read the ancient languages. Reading has become a rather religious experience with the majority of texts being produced and read coming from the church. Occasionally you wish there was someway to speed up the tiresome process of copying in your dimly lit scriptorium. It used to be louder however with this new skill called "silent reading" it is alarmingly quiet. You hope someday someone will [[invent a machine]] or apparatus that will allow books to be produced quicker. This would allow control to leave the church and enter the hands of the common person. However such flights of fancy are temporary and you [[return to work]] in your scriptorium.

**"For Plato expresses serious reservations in the Phaedrus and his Seventh Letter about writing, as a mechanical, inhuman way of processing knowledge, unresponsive to questions and destructive of memory." (Ong, 1982, p. 25)** You don't join this push towards monotheism. You are happy where you are and enjoy reading the way you do. At times you wish the texts you read had word spacing or a formalised system of punctuation, but those moments pass. You plan on sp[[end]]ing your last days in the contemplation of ancient texts. After a night out at a symposium with some friends you hear again of this new monotheistic religion...perhaps it is time you became more [[spiritual]].

**"For Gutenberg inaugurated the new age of print, rather than the late age of the manuscript. At its invention, the printed book seemed familiar and yet was in many ways new" (Bolter, 2001)** You have left the silence of the scriptorium and entered the bustle of a small workshop housing a wooden machine. This single apparatus is changing everything. With his simple machine the common man is able to create books that are cheap and easily produced. More people are reading now, new thoughts are being rapidly shared. You are excited by the possibilities and predict great things. It looks like text based information has reached its zenith. Though the machines you use to print the books change, becoming cheaper and more efficient. You see no need to change the format of what they print. people are experimenting and the printed book has permeated the world. It isn't until you hear of the coming of a new technology that you begin to think that things might change. This new technology allows people to share and store information immediately. Information is being added to a growing knowledge base that can be accessed and interperated by individuals at their leisure. You begin to wonder what this [[new digital technology]] will do to the historic methods of accessing information. You fear this change though. You have grown fond of your books. You like the linearity of their format, you enjoy the tactile experience of reading. You have decided to [[avoid this interloper.]]

**"The priest remarked "Ceci tuera cela": this book will destroy that building. He meant not only that printing and literacy would undermine the authority of the church but also that human thought …would change its mode of expression." (Bolter, 2001)** You enjoy the periods of quiet reflection the scriptorium affords. You do not wish to join the fast passed lifestyle that those who work with these new printing presses inhabit. You fear this technology will bring an end to the power of the church. You continue to ponder these things as you slowly lose your eyesight due to hours spent scribing in poor lighting. For you this story [[end]]s. Before you go completely blind you decide to switch professions. Maybe you could [[invent a machine]] to use in a new printing business.

**"Human beings in primary oral cultures, those untouched by writing in any form, learn a great deal and possess and practice great wisdom, but they do not study." (Ong, 1982, p. 8)** Hello traveller. Welcome to the wonderful world of prehistory! In this time frame you spend your days sharing knowledge through a system of stories and experiences. The stories you share are often built using easy to follow narrative devices. You have learned most of what you know either through direct experience or instruction. As time has passed you have noticed some of your clansmen are experimenting with keeping track of their posessions through a series of marks. These marks are kept on the outside of containers or whatever material will retain a mark for long enough. Do you decide to try this new fangled way of [[recording information]]. Or do you [[avoid]] such triviality. You have no need to use devices to remember.

**"Now, however, the distinction between lasting texts and pragmatic communication has broken down, and all kinds of communication are being digitized." (Bolter, 2001)** The move to computers has been a jarring experience. People are defensive as the new technology comes across so different to the old. Debates spring up around the benefits of this technology vs. the previous methods. Regardless of the opinions of those for, or against this new digital world, it is growing. More texts are being digitized and more pages of content are being produced for consumption on the internet. The future is unknown as the pace of technological advancement seemingly quickens everyday. It is difficult, if not impossible to predict how we will be interacting with information 20 years from now. Though as a time traveller you know you will adapt. The means through which you learned and thought in the past will seem archaic when you gain familiarity with the new methods. The story is not done however this trip has reached it present [[end]].

**"Technology, properly interiorized, does not degrade human life but on the contrary enhances it." (Ong, 1982, p. 81)** The new technology is too foreign and strange for you to embrace. You have grown used to reading books the way they have been read for hundreds of years. It is bothersome that those around you seem ready to discard the past to embrace the new. You plan on holding out against the computer till the [[end]]. You have managed to hold out for years however as more people around you switch to the [[new digital technology]] you feel a pressure to start trying it out.

Bolter, J.D. (2011) Writing Space, Computers, Hypertext and the Remediation of Print (2nd ed) Routledge, London. Clement, R. W. (1997). The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies. Ong, Walter. (1982.) Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen. Punctuation. (2015). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/topic/punctuation/punctuation-in-english-since-1600