To say that "the camera cannot lie" is merely to underline the multiple deceits that are now practised in its name.
The electric age ... established a global network that has much the character of our central nervous system.
Interpretation
What this quote means
McLuhan compares the global network of the electric age to our nervous system, indicating its integral role in communication and connectivity.
Marshall McLuhan's quote emphasizes the transformative impact of the electric age on human society, illustrating how the global network, akin to the central nervous system, connects individuals and disseminates information at unprecedented speeds. This metaphor highlights the profound changes in communication patterns and social structures brought about by technological advancements, suggesting that just as our nervous system coordinates and facilitates bodily functions, the global network shapes and influences human interactions and behaviors.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the influence of technology on society, one might say, 'Marshall McLuhan once said that the electric age established a global network resembling our central nervous system, reminding us how interconnected we are today.'
More from Marshall Mcluhan
All quotes βA point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.
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.
The news automatically becomes the real world for the TV user and is not a substitute for reality, but is itself an immediate reality.
Faced with information overload, we have no alternative but pattern-recognition.
The poet, the artist, the sleuth, whoever sharpens our perception tends to antisocial; rarely 'well adjusted,' he cannot go along with currents and trends.
Similar quotes
Historically, privacy was almost implicit, because it was hard to find and gather information. But in the digital world, whether it's digital cameras or satellites or just what you click on, we need to have more explicit rules - not just for governments but for private companies.
Musicians and journalists are the canaries in the coalmine, but, eventually, as computers get more and more powerful, it will kill off all middle-class professions.
Animal factories are one more sign of the extent to which our technological capacities have advanced faster than our ethics.
Our civilization depends critically on software, and we have a dangerously low degree of professionalism in the computer fields
Since the rise of Homo sapiens, human beings have been the smartest minds around. But very shortly - on a historical scale, that is - we can expect technology to break the upper bound on intelligence that has held for the last few tens of thousands of years.
To be a programmer is to develop a carefully managed relationship with error. There's no getting around it. You either make your accommodations with failure, or the work will become intolerable.