Johannes Gutenberg and the Shadow of Bi Sheng - How Language Developed. Why Writing Developed in China - and Printing in Europe. And Whether That Can Tell Us Anything for the Future.

Without language, not much else would exist: no writing, no computer - as a matter of fact, no technical or medical progress that make our lives less painful, and easier indeed; but also not some horrors that characterize our world. In fact, language is what defines humans and distinguishes them from other living beings - and is the basis of all other developments. How is it possible that something as complex and fascinating as 'language' has come into being at all? How does language 'work'? And how did it develop? What is common to all languages - and why are there so many? Further questions are how man began to write, and how printing developed - in which languages? Why not in any language? And does this teach us anything for further developments? In trying to answer these and other questions, we experience an exciting history of scientific research.

Hans Giessen is a double habilitated professor and affiliated with the University of Helsinki (Finland), Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce (Poland), and Saarland University in Saarbrücken (Germany). He was knighted, as a Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite, by the French president. His works have been translated into several languages.