McLuhan Predicts Cellphone: New Yorker magazine, May 5, 1965

Marshall McLuhan’s prominence in the Sixties and early Seventies cannot easily be conceived from the remove of the present day.  The New Yorker magazine issue, May 5, 1965 features “The McLuhan Metaphor,” in the “The Talk of the Town” section. The piece was composed at the same time as the  the New York World’s Fair. 

The New Yorker journalist suggests Marshall McLuhan might be better employed as the Time Capsule for the era rather than using “cultural and technological mementos of twentieth-century man.” McLuhan actually taught us more about what was about to happen in the 21^stcentury.

My family visited the World’s Fair that year. I recall Ford and General Motors lavish futuristic exhibits. The two giant car manufacturers reflect the the mechanical age. —The exhibits imagined an automotive future with Jetsons-esque highways flying in every direction. The dioramas didn't portray gridlock, but you don't focus on the negative at a World's Fair exhibit. But McLuhan envisioned something different, an information age—and a massive change in consciousness.

The New Yorkerauthor describes McLuhan’s lecture at Spencer Memorial Church in Brooklyn and quotes several startling prophecies included in his remarks: 

“(He) predicted a happy day when everyone will have his own portable computer to cope with the dreary business of digesting information” and

“Dr. McLuhan next suggested the possibility of a new technology that would extend consciousness itself into the environment. ‘A kind of computerized ESP,’ he called it, envisioning ‘consciousness as the corporate content of the environment—and eventually maybe even a small portable computer, about the size of a hearing aid, that would process our private experience through the corporate experience, the way dreams do now.’”

McLuhan’s accurately prediction computers the size of cellphones or smaller. Marshall gets points for the accuracy of that alone, but the second insight--consciousness as the new environment-- cuts to the very essence of the present digital era.  McLuhan’s hearing aid- size device anticipates the iPhone pretty closely. Individuals study the phone and share experiences as a corporate entity creating a group consciousness. The posts are exactly as McLuhan described, personal, random thoughts offered in a dreamlike manner. McLuhan perceived the new electronic environment as consciousness— and no better description exists of the modern social network. 

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The 1965 The New Yorkerwriter notes McLuhan entered the scene as an author, “by three startling books on Western civilization-- The Mechanical Bride, The Gutenberg Galaxy, and most recently Understanding Media, in which he joyfully explores the tribal virtues of popular culture, casts a cynical eye on the ‘classification traditions’ that came in with print and sees near-mythic possibilities in our computer age.” (The New Yorker 1965)

Mcluhan’sUnderstanding Media  examines a different medium in every chapter and chapter 31, titled “Television,” commented on television’s highly participatory nature as a “cool medium.” Television’s language contrasted to “hot media” like print or movies with their tendency for “’spelling out’ of meanings.” (UM 319) Television’s message, conveyed in low density, left much room for participation of the viewer. 

He identified participation as a key differentiating factor between the print media and the electronic media. Print media, based on the visual sense, allowed for detachment and objectivity. Television shifted the audience to a multi-sensory experience, emphasizing the tactile and acoustic, and lead to in-depth engagement.

“Because the low definition of TV insures a high degree of audience involvement, the most effective programs are those that present situations which consist of some process to be completed.” (UM 319)

McLuhan’s predictions for deepened audience engagement following the shift from print media to electronic media cannot be overstated as essential to understanding the electronic environment. The inability of individuals to separate from the social network becomes more apparent by the day. As McLuhan somehow knew-- we have become enslaved.  FOMO or “fear of missing out” is society's most prevalent psychological addiction in 2018.

McLuhan’s notion of new technology working as extensions of the human body had achieved new levels of traction in the electronic era, for if clothing extended the skin, and the wheel extended the legs’ ability to achieve movement, “the computer achieved not merely an extension of our eyes, like print, but an extension of our whole nervous system.”  (New Yorker1965)

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Income Inequality-- real or imagined?

Listened to Sirius radio today as I drove around my hometown of Austin, Texas. Caught a public radio discussion from New York City on the election of Bill de Blasio, the new mayor of New York.  Mr. de Blasio wants to get free pre-school education for all New Yorkers in an effort to level the playing field as regards income and opportunity inequality. He's concerned about affordable housing. Only the rich can afford to live in Manhattan these days. But he's careful not to hurl invective at Wall Street, the place oozing money and wealth and a big source of the city's economy.

Income inequality has been with us forever. Is it really that different than it has ever been before? Everybody will scream in response-- yes, the numbers indicate clearly all the gains in wealth have been made at the top of the pyramid, the "top 1%," a group nobody claims to be part of. The oft-repeated truism states all societal gains have fallen into the laps of the very rich. But, as my hero Marshall McLuhan, the media philosph, states-- "it is wealth that creates poverty."  That's not a direct quote despite the quotation marks. The level of wealth has become more visible thanks to the power of modern communications and we do not like seeing how poor we are by comparison!

The perspective of a 19th or 20th century analysis does not suffice. The digital revolution has changed the world. The Arab Spring occurred because the Middle East could see their plight more clearly and didn't like what appeared before their eyes. The dictators shivered as the citizens tweeted out their feelings and societies went up in flames. The situation is messy and painful, no doubt, but the revolution has begun. Not only is the revolution being televised... it's being streamed or tweeted or whatever.

Meanwhile back in the United States... every kid has a cellphone and doesn't want to lose that connectivity. Hence, crime rates are way down because nobody can abide by the thought of going without a cellphone in a prison cell-- no matter how great the police departments think they are doing.

The next chapter is mysterious no doubt. One expert on employment stated there are two distinct economies and employment pictures--1)  the high tech economy, where things are humming and companies need more workers, and 2) the rest of the economy, with high unemployment and people looking for work.

New York City may or may not reflect an American reality or even a global reality. Wealth will follow on the heels of knowledge and education and eventually get distributed more evenly. The extreme productivity and wealth of our society has to go somewhere. Nature abhors a vacuum. Dealing with wild amounts of accumulated riches is a problem we can solve. Other, very real problems like climate change threaten all of humanity. The climate problems demands unprecedented levels of global cooperation-- a challenge posing risks more precipitous than anything previously experienced in human history.