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Inspired by this, what is the earliest a voice recorder (--not a music recorder, mind you, so it can be of very low fidelity) could have been invented? What would be the consequence of an early modern or a renaissance voice recorder have been? What other discoveries will the quest to improve such a device have led to? Earlier discovery of electricity and faster advances in mathematics?

Consider a society where voice recording precedes the movable type, would the butterflies from this turn communications into a multimedia-wank?
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