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Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Marshall McLuhan Quotes

“If men were able to be convinced that art is a precise advance knowledge of how to cope with the psychic and social consequences of the next technology, would they all become artist? Or would they begin a careful translation of new art forms into social navigation charts? I am curious to know what would happem if art were suddenly seen for what it is, namely, exact information of how to rearrange one's psyche in order to anticipate the next blow from our own extended faculties.”

IfsKnowsMenArtAbleFormArtistOrderNextSocialTechnologyInformationArt IsConsequenceBlowCarefulConvincedCuriousFacultyPrecisePsychicsTranslationsAnticipateNavigation
Book:Understanding media: the extensions of man
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“The world of visual perspective is one of unified and homogeneous space. Such a world is alien to the resonating diversity of spoken words. So language was the last art to accept the visual logic of Gutenberg technology, and the first to rebound in the electric age.”

WorldFirstsArtAgeLastsLanguageSpaceAcceptingTechnologyPerspectiveDiversityLogicAliensVisualsElectricUnifiedSpoken WordReboundHomogeneousResonatingGutenberg
Book:The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man
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“My main theme is the extension of the nervous system in the electric age, and thus, the complete break with five thousand years of mechanical technology. This I state over and over again. I do not say whether it is a good or bad thing. To do so would be meaningless and arrogant.”

YearsStatesWould BeAgeBreakTechnologyFiveThousandNervousThings To DoThemeBad ThingsMeaninglessArrogantElectricThousand YearsExtensionsNervous System
Book:Letters of Marshall McLuhan
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“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.”

IfsMenTechnologyDependsDevelopmentDegreesModelsNervousDesperateMechanismOrgansElectricSuicidalArrowsProtectiveOutrageousArrivalsNervous SystemCentral Nervous SystemSlings And Arrows
Author:Marshall McLuhan
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“Persons grouped around a fire or candle for warmth or light are less able to pursue independent thoughts, or even tasks, than people supplied with electric light. In the same way, the social and educational patterns latent in automation are those of self-employment and artistic autonomy.”

PeopleWayPersonsWarSelfLightAbleSocialTechnologyFireTasksIndependentPatternsEducationalPursueEmploymentArtisticWarmthCandleElectricAutonomyLatentIndependent ThoughtAutomationElectric Light
Author:Marshall McLuhan
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“The medium, or process, of our time - electric technology is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social interdependence and every aspect of our personal life. It is forcing us to reconsider and re-evaluate practically every thought, every action.”

ActionSocialProcessTechnologyAspectPatternsMediumsOur TimeElectricPersonal LifeEvaluateInterdependenceRestructuring
Book:The medium is the massage: an inventory of effects
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“Physiologically, man in the normal use of technology (or his variously extended body) is perpetually modified by it and in turn finds ever new ways of modifying his technology. Man becomes, as it were, the sex organs of the machine world, as the bee of the plant world, enabling it to fecundate and to evolve ever new forms. The machine world reciprocates man's love by expediting his wishes and desires, namely, in providing him with wealth.”

MenWorldWayUseBodyFormDesireTurnsWishSexWealthTechnologyNormalMachinesPlantEvolveOrgansBeesProvidingNew WaysEnablingReciprocateModifyingUse Of Technology
Author:Marshall McLuhan
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