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🌊 Ripple · counterfactual

What if Paper is invented in Han China had gone differently?

105 · china

Cai Lun standardises a cheap writing surface from pulped fibre.

If it had gone differently: The world writes on skin, silk and bark for another thousand years; the written word stays a luxury.

What it set up
  1. 1040Movable type in Song China, Printing stays a woodblock craft for the rare classic; no template for cheap mass text reaches anyone.
  2. 1440Gutenberg's printing press, Books stay hand-copied and rare; literacy spreads at a crawl for another century.

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