Imagine the stretch of time humans have had speech as a year-long calendar.

For 364 days, every story, myth, recipe, and scrap of knowledge worth remembering can only be held in our brains and our bodies.

At the end of December 31st, 11:45 PM, a very tiny number of humans devise a mark-making system to record grain harvests and account for livestock.

At thirty seconds before midnight, 11:59:30, the printing press appears. Even after a few seconds (which amount to centuries), less than 10% of the global human population is able to read and write.

And at