~850 AD -
AL-KINDI DEVELOPS FREQUENCY ANALYSIS
Al-Kindi of Baghdad describes a method for breaking substitution ciphers by analyzing letter frequency. Every encryption system currently in use across the network is theoretically compromised.
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~868 AD -
FIRST PRINTED DOCUMENT
The Diamond Sutra is produced in China using woodblock printing and becomes the oldest surviving dated printed book known today. A single carved block can reproduce an identical transaction record indefinitely.
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~1040 AD -
MOVABLE TYPE INVENTED IN CHINA
Bi Sheng develops movable type using baked clay characters, allowing text to be rearranged and reused without carving an entirely new block for each page.
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~1150 AD -
FIRST EUROPEAN PAPER MILLS
Paper production expands across Islamic Iberia and later northern Italy, gradually displacing parchment for many administrative and commercial uses.
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~1450 AD -
GUTENBERG PRESS
Johannes Gutenberg introduces the movable-type printing press in Mainz. A document that previously required a trained scribe and several hours can now be reproduced in minutes, identically, at volume.
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