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imomus"During the mechanical age," says Marshall McLuhan at the beginning of his book Understanding Media, "we extended our bodies in space. Today, after more than a century of electric technology, we have extended our nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned. Rapidly, we approach the final phase of the extensions of man -- the technological simulation of consciousness, when the creative process of knowing will be collectively and corporately extended to the whole of human society, much as we have already extended our senses and our nerves by the various media."
For the last few days I've been immersing myself in McLuhan, not by reading his books but instead -- appropriately -- letting a National Film Board of Canada DVD called McLuhan's Wake wash over me. It's not just a film but a whole series of audio interviews, music, visual metaphors, essays, and didactic sections.
In one of these the concept of tetrads is explained. Tetrads were the "laws of media" which McLuhan and his son Eric developed in the book "Laws of Media". The basic idea of the tetrad is that every new technology:
enhances something / reverses into something
retrieves something / obsolesces something
Now, it isn't always quite clear what these things enhance, reverse into, retrieve and obsolesce. For instance, does the cell phone obsolesce the landline, or the need to be present when talking to someone? It's your call.
The concept I find most interesting in the tetrad is reversal. This basically says that, pushed far enough, the benefits of a new technology will reverse and turn into disadvantages. And so the liberty offered by the car reverses, when everyone has one, into gridlock and stasis. This relates to McLuhan's idea about technology being an extension of the senses; when the ratio of the senses gets out of balance, he believed, chaos ensues. It's the same with reversal; taken too far, pushed out of balance, an enabling technology becomes disabling. One sense, over-emphasized, loses its harmonious relationship with the other senses; one sense-enhancing technology numbs the others.
I find the notion of reverse interesting because I've been thinking a lot about uncontrolled growth. While it's certainly true -- even a truism -- that we live now in the world McLuhan predicted, a tribal global village in which we share an electronic nervous system, we also live in the world of his lesser-known prediction of reversal -- a world in which many enabling technologies have reversed into disabling technologies.
Because the downside of once-promising technologies is something I write about a lot in my Wired column, I recently compiled a list of things that are growing, things it's almost impossible to imagine shrinking:
global human population
speed of edits in ads or pop videos
air travel
number of cars on the road
urbanization of formerly rural populations
levels of personal debt
obesity amongst populations in the UK and US
gap between the wealthiest and poorest 10% of the population in advanced nations
surveillance and information collection by governments and corporations
extinctions amongst species other than human
We'd be very surprised to see headlines announcing the opposite of any of these trends; even 9/11, for instance, only put people off flying for a year or so. Even such a spectacular rebuff to the aviation industry couldn't stop a strongly incremental trend towards the discounting and democratization of jet travel. Similarly, it seems unlikely that eco-breakdown will stop people flying either.
Now, it may seem that the only thing powerful enough to buck and break these trends is a kind of enlightened authoritarian government with massive power; the Chinese government's one-child policy, for instance. But McLuhan's idea of reversal gives us another solution. These trends will reverse themselves eventually, in a sort of self-adjusting ecology, because all the advantages they present will turn into disadvantages. Let's look at the list again, and look at how these things might reverse:
global human population
populations are already declining in advanced nations, and the global population will start decreasing after peaking at nine billion mid-century.
speed of edits in ads or pop videos
the development of pull-media are already calming the frantic pace of desperate, aggressive push-media techniques like high-impact editing.
air travel
i flew to thailand only to find the kaosan road in bangkok felt like manchester. when we all fly, there's nowhere to fly to which isn't basically like anywhere else. so we search for difference elsewhere. inside ourselves, maybe.
number of cars on the road
gridlock, stress, enviro-guilt, eco-taxes and congestion charging will make people give up their cars eventually.
urbanization of formerly rural populations
this is hard to reverse, but i'd say that as these urban populations become knowledge workers they'll drift away from cities -- and commutes. in fact, mcluhan predicted telecommuting, saying that stockbrokers could do all their business by telephone, and soon we all would.
levels of personal debt
debt is supposed to free you, but it actually enslaves you. this becomes apparent, presumably.
obesity amongst populations in the UK and US
obesity literally disables, and kills. it makes you less likely to find a partner and reproduce. it has reversal built in.
gap between the wealthiest and poorest 10% of the population in advanced nations
extremely high gini societies are prone to sudden reversals of fortune in the shape of crime and wild casino-style speculation.
surveillance and information collection by governments and corporations
a small amount of information might be useful, but with bigger and bigger quantities you lose pattern recognition; you can't see the wood for the trees.
extinctions amongst species other than human
extinctions amongst species other than human will lead to human extinction too, because we're part of an eco-system.
For the last few days I've been immersing myself in McLuhan, not by reading his books but instead -- appropriately -- letting a National Film Board of Canada DVD called McLuhan's Wake wash over me. It's not just a film but a whole series of audio interviews, music, visual metaphors, essays, and didactic sections.
In one of these the concept of tetrads is explained. Tetrads were the "laws of media" which McLuhan and his son Eric developed in the book "Laws of Media". The basic idea of the tetrad is that every new technology:
enhances something / reverses into something
retrieves something / obsolesces something
Now, it isn't always quite clear what these things enhance, reverse into, retrieve and obsolesce. For instance, does the cell phone obsolesce the landline, or the need to be present when talking to someone? It's your call.
The concept I find most interesting in the tetrad is reversal. This basically says that, pushed far enough, the benefits of a new technology will reverse and turn into disadvantages. And so the liberty offered by the car reverses, when everyone has one, into gridlock and stasis. This relates to McLuhan's idea about technology being an extension of the senses; when the ratio of the senses gets out of balance, he believed, chaos ensues. It's the same with reversal; taken too far, pushed out of balance, an enabling technology becomes disabling. One sense, over-emphasized, loses its harmonious relationship with the other senses; one sense-enhancing technology numbs the others.I find the notion of reverse interesting because I've been thinking a lot about uncontrolled growth. While it's certainly true -- even a truism -- that we live now in the world McLuhan predicted, a tribal global village in which we share an electronic nervous system, we also live in the world of his lesser-known prediction of reversal -- a world in which many enabling technologies have reversed into disabling technologies.
Because the downside of once-promising technologies is something I write about a lot in my Wired column, I recently compiled a list of things that are growing, things it's almost impossible to imagine shrinking:
global human population
speed of edits in ads or pop videos
air travel
number of cars on the road
urbanization of formerly rural populations
levels of personal debt
obesity amongst populations in the UK and US
gap between the wealthiest and poorest 10% of the population in advanced nations
surveillance and information collection by governments and corporations
extinctions amongst species other than human
We'd be very surprised to see headlines announcing the opposite of any of these trends; even 9/11, for instance, only put people off flying for a year or so. Even such a spectacular rebuff to the aviation industry couldn't stop a strongly incremental trend towards the discounting and democratization of jet travel. Similarly, it seems unlikely that eco-breakdown will stop people flying either.
Now, it may seem that the only thing powerful enough to buck and break these trends is a kind of enlightened authoritarian government with massive power; the Chinese government's one-child policy, for instance. But McLuhan's idea of reversal gives us another solution. These trends will reverse themselves eventually, in a sort of self-adjusting ecology, because all the advantages they present will turn into disadvantages. Let's look at the list again, and look at how these things might reverse:
global human population
populations are already declining in advanced nations, and the global population will start decreasing after peaking at nine billion mid-century.
speed of edits in ads or pop videos
the development of pull-media are already calming the frantic pace of desperate, aggressive push-media techniques like high-impact editing.
air travel
i flew to thailand only to find the kaosan road in bangkok felt like manchester. when we all fly, there's nowhere to fly to which isn't basically like anywhere else. so we search for difference elsewhere. inside ourselves, maybe.
number of cars on the road
gridlock, stress, enviro-guilt, eco-taxes and congestion charging will make people give up their cars eventually.
urbanization of formerly rural populations
this is hard to reverse, but i'd say that as these urban populations become knowledge workers they'll drift away from cities -- and commutes. in fact, mcluhan predicted telecommuting, saying that stockbrokers could do all their business by telephone, and soon we all would.
levels of personal debt
debt is supposed to free you, but it actually enslaves you. this becomes apparent, presumably.
obesity amongst populations in the UK and US
obesity literally disables, and kills. it makes you less likely to find a partner and reproduce. it has reversal built in.
gap between the wealthiest and poorest 10% of the population in advanced nations
extremely high gini societies are prone to sudden reversals of fortune in the shape of crime and wild casino-style speculation.
surveillance and information collection by governments and corporations
a small amount of information might be useful, but with bigger and bigger quantities you lose pattern recognition; you can't see the wood for the trees.
extinctions amongst species other than human
extinctions amongst species other than human will lead to human extinction too, because we're part of an eco-system.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-03 11:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-03 11:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-04 01:25 am (UTC)http://www.ubu.com/sound/mcluhan.html
weeeeee
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-04 07:24 am (UTC)It came out in 1967, the same year as the book.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-04 03:04 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-04 04:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-04 04:30 am (UTC)technology = medium
Date: 2006-11-05 12:37 am (UTC)Glad you are enjoying MM, sir. Look forward to seeing how it further fits into your worldview.
May I direct you to:
http://www.utoronto.ca/mcluhan/
and to give you a "social network daisy chain":
McLuhan Program -[founded and chaired by McLuhan's translator]-> Derrick DeKerkhove -[friend of]-> Joi Ito -[cousin of]-> Keigo Oyamada ... hehehe :)
B.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-04 04:33 am (UTC)i flew to thailand only to find the kaosan road in bangkok felt like manchester. when we all fly, there's nowhere to fly to which isn't basically like anywhere else. so we search for difference elsewhere. inside ourselves, maybe."
It takes time to find the treasures. And ultimately, it's the people, not the place, that makes the difference.
"global village" reverses as well
Date: 2006-11-06 06:43 am (UTC)When we all have experienced everything from everywhere and of everyone... when it's all available to us at the click of a mouse (or a flick of our eyeball), from the comfort of the 5 block radius around our desks... What is new then? What is left to experience? What is left to learn? What is left... to communicate?
Reversal can be a slow process, unevenly distributed. Like "the future". ;)
B.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-04 06:04 am (UTC)However far you may travel in this world,you will still occupy the same volume of space. Better to be a Des Esseintes,of J.K. Huysmans' novel,or adhere to J.G. Ballard's opinion about the future:" Assuming that the one certain thing about the future is that it will be boring-much of Europe already seems to be taking on the aspect of a huge housing state- the role of imaginative fiction becomes more and more important for survival.Above all,it seems to be our only means of discovering a benevolent and morally free psychopathology." --- The New Review, Summer 1978 ---
big balls
Date: 2006-11-04 04:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-04 05:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-05 12:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-05 01:07 pm (UTC)I attended the protest in Trafalgar Square (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/04112006/325/protesters-urge-climate-action-kenya-meet.html) yesterday. I was encouraged to see so many people clearly concerned about what is happening to the planet. I'm not entriely optomistic. I think people tend to be hugely lazy and apathetic. However, seeing people in such numbers does make a difference. And it also makes one realise that the media does not really convey how many people are concerned. In short, I think there is a backlash to the moral wrongness that is built into our technologies and markets, and that the backlash will snowball.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-05 05:54 pm (UTC)Hurrah for this prediction! And for mixed metaphors, even!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-05 09:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-05 05:47 pm (UTC)I can't believe I am calmly writing this.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-05 11:00 pm (UTC)obesity literally disables, and kills. it makes you less likely to find a partner and reproduce. it has reversal built in.
Are you implying that obesity is genetic?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-07 07:56 pm (UTC)And how does that food arrive? By plane. The joys of consumerism are the Zimbabwean mange-tout, Japanese wasabi, Chinese clothes that litter our shelves and make our lives bearable. McLuhan is interesting but do is Gaia theory. Cities breed humans, but only recently. Disease kept a constant check on humans until the beginning of the last century but if we have learned one thing it is that disease never sleeps and that cheek-by-jowl living will bring pandemics. And aeroplanes will spread the disease faster than ever before.
But beyond that how do you bring your food to the top of a thirty floored building with no electricity to power the lift? High density living is a luxury.
No-one imagined that Rome would fall. But it did. And the Anglo-Saxon writers of Beowulf and The Dream of the Rood wandered in a landscape filled by decaying buildings built by a civilisation that they knew nothing of and whose writing they could not read.