How the Alphabet Changed Everything

Reading this now seems effortless. But this power—the ability to turn a sound into a shape,

a shape into a word—wasn't a brilliant, planned invention. It was a workaround. A hack. <break time="2.5s" />

For thousands of years, writing was art, reserved for kings and gods.

Then, a group of clever workers in the desert made it simple, stealable,

and democratic. This is the story of the alphabet: the greatest information revolution in history,

born from a simple shortcut. <break time="12.0s" /> Our story begins not with scholars, but with laborers.

Canaanite workers in Egyptian mines saw the powerful, but incredibly complex, hieroglyphic script.

To communicate with their Egyptian overseers, they needed a simpler system. <break time="2.5s" /> In a stroke of genius,