Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
As you can see, McLuhan describes the internet with incredible clarity for 1968. He describes it later on as what will be a "Global Village." The only thing he couldn't put his finger on, says Doug, was the interface. "The interface is very hard, even for very smart people." So, for example, McLuhan seemingly knew that people would be interconnected from their homes in every way, he just didn't quite know how. "As you go through the book you can notice, 'That's Paypal!' or 'That's eBay!' or 'That's the New York Times online!' You can actually go through every successful media company in the world one by one. But because he didn't know the interface, he'd try to describe it poetically or metaphorically, and that's what made him sound like an idiot."Electric circuitry has overthrown the regime of "time" and "space" and pours upon us instantly and continuously the concerns of all other men. It has reconstituted dialogue on a global scale. Its message is Total Change, ending psychic, social, economic, and political parochialism. The old civic state and national groupings have become unworkable. Nothing can be further from the spirit of the new technology than "a place for everything and everything in its place." You can't go home again.
Advertisement
Advertisement