How Writing Shaped Civilization — Lex Fridman Podcast (Irving Finkel, #487)
Update: 2025-12-12
Description
Discover how fixing sound to surface transformed human thought in minutes: Lex Fridman talks with British Museum curator Irving Finkel about cuneiform, ancient libraries, and flood myths. Original duration: 2 hours — New condensed version: 5 minutes. Learn how early writing evolved from pictographs to phonetic signs, how scribal schools preserved knowledge across millennia, and why a Babylonian tablet with a round-boat blueprint reshapes our view of flood narratives and the Gilgamesh tradition. Hosts and guest: Lex Fridman with Irving Finkel. Takeaways include the mechanics of decipherment, the cultural reach of the Royal Game of Ur, the role of temples and libraries, and why language expands the limits of thought. Keywords: cuneiform, ancient civilizations, Flood myth, Gilgamesh, writing systems. Listen now to get the key ideas in minutes.
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