A quarter century ago, media guru McLuhan (d. 1980) wrote his
famous Understanding Media. Now, in a posthumous volume cowritten
by McLuhan's friend Powers (Communications Studies/Niagara U.), the
premises of that work are updated. This collaboration stems from
research undertaken by the authors at the Centre for Culture and
Technology in Toronto. Their analysis of the worldwide impact of
video-related technologies takes the myth of Narcissus (central to
Understanding Media) a step further. McLuhan was struck by the fact
that when men first went to the moon, we expected photographs of
craters but, instead, the quintessential symbol of that adventure
was the dramatic picture of earth - ourselves: "All of us who were
watching had an enormous reflexive response. We 'outered' and
'innered' at the same time. We were on earth and the moon
simultaneously." The authors refer to this kind of moment as a
"resonating interval" - "the true action in the event was not on
earth or on the moon, but rather in the airless void between. . ."
In their analysis, this resonating interval represents an invisible
borderline between visual and acoustic space. The distinction
between the two "spaces" marks the major premise here, with visual
space representing the old traditions of Western Civilization -
left-brain-oriented, linear, quantitative reasoning - and acoustic
space representing right-brain, pattern-producing, qualitative
reasoning. Because of electronic communications, the authors
believe, these two mind-sets are "slamming into each other at the
speed of light." While most societies view themselves through the
past, usually a century behind, present-day changes occur so
rapidly that this "rearview mirror" doesn't work anymore. By use of
what they call the "tetrad," the authors contend that they can
postulate four stages in any invention or trend to determine what
the final result will be - what it will "flip over" into (e.g.,
money flipped over to credit cards; the telephone to
"ominpresence." as in teleconferencing; cable TV should flip over
to home broadcasting; electronic-funds transfer should flip over to
"an intense state of credit-worthiness as pure status"). Dense,
heavily technological writing - but with the occasional insight
that reminds us of what once brought such renown to McLuhan.
(Kirkus Reviews)
The Global Village extends the visionary work of Marshall McLuhan to today's worldwide, integrated electronic network. It sets out a detailed conceptual framework through which the technological advances of the past two decades may be understood.
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