To say that "the camera cannot lie" is merely to underline the multiple deceits that are now practised in its name.
Marshall McluhanRead
With the arrival of electric technology, man extended, or set outside himself, a live model of the central nervous system itself. To the degree that this is so, it is a development that suggests a desperate and suicidal autoamputation, as if the central nervous system could no longer depend on the physical organs to be protective buffers against the slings and arrows of outrageous mechanism.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on how electric technology has disconnected humanity from its physical roots, leading to a potential self-destructive reliance on machines.
Marshall McLuhan discusses the profound impact of electric technology on human existence, suggesting that it acts as an external model of our central nervous system. He warns that this transformation may be akin to a self-destructive severing from our biological foundations, where technology diminishes our reliance on physical organs that traditionally safeguard us from the challenges of life.
Themes
TechnologyNervous SystemElectricHumanityDisconnection
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the effects of technology on society, one might use this quote to illustrate the depth of our dependence on machines.
More from Marshall Mcluhan
All quotes βA point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.
Marshall McluhanRead
In big industry new ideas are invited to rear their heads so they can be clobbered at once. The idea department of a big firm is a sort of lab for isolating dangerous viruses.
Marshall McluhanRead
The news automatically becomes the real world for the TV user and is not a substitute for reality, but is itself an immediate reality.
Marshall McluhanRead
Faced with information overload, we have no alternative but pattern-recognition.
Marshall McluhanRead
The poet, the artist, the sleuth, whoever sharpens our perception tends to antisocial; rarely 'well adjusted,' he cannot go along with currents and trends.
Marshall McluhanRead
Similar quotes
We are now living in a completely digitalized world and a completely globalized world, so we have to find some new mechanisms and values to deal with this post-digitalized and post-globalized world.
Klaus SchwabRead
Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering.
Bill GatesRead
My dream was actually just to have a computer some day. If I'd imagined that it meant starting a company to sell them, I probably would have avoided the whole thing.
Steve WozniakRead
The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.
Bill GatesRead
There's a popular saying that the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. Desire and innovation will trump policy, the argument goes, as clever programmers circumvent controls.
Virginia PostrelRead
Allowing a handful of broadband carriers to determine what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the features that have made the Internet such a success, and could permanently compromise the Internet as a platform for the free exchange of information, commerce, and ideas.
Vint CerfRead