he was my friend and he stimulated me. He gave me 
joy and he gave me insights so I called him a 
genius. But you know, a couple of weeks ago, I 
read, re-read the last paragraph of Understanding  
Media . I was just completing my book called 
Learning A Living  and I was concerned with what 
the impact of information technology on work and 
education, and what the new relationship between 
work and education was going to be. So I looked 
through McLuhan. I scoured him, to find what he 
wrote on automation. The last chapter of 
Understanding Media —I read in fourteen pages, all 
of the “brand new” ideas that I read in the last five 
years, by authors such as Toffler, Drucker,