Until then, the collective tower of knowledge was stored only in the network of people's memories

Until then, the collective tower of knowledge was stored only in the network of people's memories and was transmitted exclusively by word of mouth. This system worked in small tribes, but when there was a much larger amount of knowledge shared by large groups of people, memories alone could not support all of this, and most of them disappeared. If the language allows people to send thoughts from one brain to another, writing allows them to put thoughts on physical objects such as a stone where they can live forever. When people began to write on thin sheets of parchment or paper, huge areas of knowledge that would take weeks to pass from mouth to mouth could be compressed into a book or scroll and taken in hand. The tower of collective knowledge of people now lived in physical form, neatly organized on the shelves of city libraries and universities. These regiments have become a great instruction of mankind for everything. They conducted humanity to new inventions and discoveries, and they, in turn, turned out to be new books on the shelves, as if the great instruction were finishing themselves.

https://thecontingent.microsoftcrmportals.com/forums/support-forum/faef6657-a1f8-ee11-a73d-6045bd01c1cc