I Can't believe It Took until 1454 for Anyone to Invent the Printing Press

This is truly a sad sign about the human race. The technology necessary to make a printing press existed in Roman times! Maybe even before!

I mean, sure, at the time they saw books as property of the elite. The commoners were illiterate, so there was little need to mass produce texts. But really, it only took one person to come up with this idea. Think of the endless hours that innumerable scribes spent painstakingly copying books over the centuries. Not one of them thought: "man, there has to be an easier way!" I refuse to believe it. That is lunacy. Lunacy which I (contrary to my history) will not celebrate.

Was there not even some visionary who saw the potential of the press. The invention of movable type brought about a revolution in information dissemination rivaled only by the recent advent of the internet (as an aside, I think Celebrate Lunacy would have made a great monthly almanac). Could no one see this potential?

Or it could have spread information so efficiently for any specific cause. It would have spread the gospel, the propaganda of any particular ruler.

Well, suffice to say I am very disappointed in you, humanity. Come up with a goddamn new idea from time to time. It might make your life easier.