Technology as the Uncarved Block

Pu, the uncarved block, represents simplicity in its deepest sense—not crude but unadorned, not crude but multi-potential. The printing press itself was Pu: a simple mechanism that didn't dictate content, didn't impose ideology, didn't require expertise to understand its purpose. It was neutral technology waiting for human intention. Unlike manuscript copying, which required specialized scribes and embedded their choices, the press treated all texts equally. This neutrality is profound: it enabled printing of both religious and scientific texts, monarchist and democratic treatises, without the technology itself favoring one. Modern platforms lose this simplicity through algorithms, recommendations, and hidden selection. A return to Pu doesn't mean rejecting tools but questioning whether tools serve the many or the few. The uncarved block principle suggests that the most democratizing technologies are those that step back from judgment, that multiply voices rather than curate them, that enable rather than direct.