"OK. The printing press implies access to education and the technology to make metal type. It implies the existence of social relationships that desire to spread their ideas in books and on paper. The printing press implies a system of trade, perhaps the existence of a religion and the existence of miners. This technology implies that there are people who aren't happy with the status quo of people communicating orally or writing stuff down on odd scraps of paper. The printing press enabled lots of good books to be printed, but the primary purpose of the eraly printing press was to publish Christian bibles. Never mind the fact that at the time most of the human population got along OK without having access to moveable type."
A great example of the good the bad and the ugly -- and the non-neutrality of technology. You leave out its momentous impact on the standardization of language, normalization of spelling, AND on science and our notions of "truth," "method," "discrete elements" etc. This is the focus of Walter J Ong's work, particularly "Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialog" -- a great book.
Joanna