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 monitor many frequencies. We listen always. Came a voice, out of the babel of tongues, speaking to us. It played us a mighty dub.
William GibsonRead
We don't need to reject or disparage technology. We need to put it in its place.
Sherry TurkleRead
Digital media are biased toward replication and storage. Our digital photos practically upload and post themselves on Facebook, and our most deleted e-mails tend to resurface when we least expect it. Yes, everything you do in the digital realm may as well be broadcast on prime-time television and chiseled on the side of the Parthenon.
Douglas RushkoffRead
People have to be able to make money off their brains and their hearts. Or else we're all going to starve, and it's the machines that'll get good.
Jaron LanierRead
It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.
Bruce SchneierRead
There are big lines between those who play video games and those who do not. For those who don't, video games are irrelevant. They think all video games must be too difficult.
Shigeru MiyamotoRead