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Understanding McLuhan
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Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso
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06534_Field_TCUM T99.txt
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1996-04-10
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901b
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16 lines
for dental use in the device known as audiac . The patient puts
on headphones and turns a dial raising the noise level to the
point that he feels no pain from the drill. The selection of a
single sense for intense stimulus, or of a single extended,
isolated, or “amputated” sense in technology, is in part the
reason for the numbing effect that technology as such has on
its makers and users. For the central nervous system rallies a
response of general numbness to the challenge of specialized
irritation.
The person who falls suddenly experiences immunity to all
pain or sensory stimuli because the central nervous system has
to be protected from any intense thrust of sensation. Only
gradually does he regain normal sensitivity to sights and
sounds, at which time he may begin to tremble and perspire
and to react as he would have done if the central nervous