Geek Speak: The History of Writing: from Pictograms to Emoji

Please join Dr. Andrey Reznikov for "The History of Writing: from Pictograms to Emoji"

The ability to speak arose hundreds of thousands of years ago as part of our intellectual development during evolution, but writing was invented quite recently. Humans have been able to represent language in written form for a mere 5000 or 6000 years. Although language underlies both spoken and written communication, the two modes are fundamentally different in nature. Speaking developed in human beings naturally, but writing had to be invented. In every society, every typically healthy human being knows how to speak. By contrast, writing is an advanced skill, and it is not possessed by everyone.

Location: Jonas 110