While Johannes Gutenberg was far from the first person to automate the book-printing process as woodblock printing in China dated back to the 9th century and Korean bookmakers were printing with moveable metal type a century before Gutenberg's printing press, most historians believe that Gutenberg's adaptation was the key to unlocking the modern age.
One of the ways in which the printing press unlocked the modern age was the launch of a global news network. With the invention of the printing press, people were able to put breaking news onto paper, which they would sell to sailors and riders. While literacy rates were very low during the 15th century, there would still be people who gathered around pubs to hear a paid reader recite the latest news, which was everything from scandals to war reports.
Another way in which the printing press unlocked the modern age was the kicking of the Renaissance into high gear. One of the chief projects of the early Renaissance was to find long-lost works by figures like Plato and Aristotle and republish them by using Gutenberg's printing press. Retrieving classic texts had been in action way before the printing press was invented, but the time it originally took to publish the texts was excruciatingly slow and prohibitively expensive for anyone other than the richest of the rich.
I honestly think that it's pretty cool to see how the innovations of the printing press have improved over the years. We're at a point in time where we can print 3D objects! Some examples of these objects are guitars, medical models, iPhone cases and cardholders, and even kaleidoscope clock.
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