A random thought

[forsyth]

I can't help but wonder if, all else aside, the reason computers were invented and took off in the "West" first is the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets are a lot easier to have a computer display than Arabic or Chinese or Japanese or similar languages.

Comments

[frustratedpilot]

Actually, as I recall the Koreans or the Chinese invented the printing press...centuries before Gutenberg. Just that there was so little contact between East and West in those times, and the technology wasn't exploited by the Asians the way that the Europeans had later on.