home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Understanding McLuhan
/
Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso
/
pc
/
mcluhan.dxr
/
06541_Field_TCUM T106.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-04-10
|
915b
|
16 lines
irritations that prompt invention and innovation as counter-
irritants. War and the fear of war have always been considered
the main incentives to technological extension of our bodies.
Indeed, Lewis Mumford, in his The City in History , considers the
walled city itself an extension of our skins, as much as housing
and clothing.
More even than the preparation for war, the aftermath of
invasion is a rich technological period; because the subject
culture has to adjust all its sense ratios to accommodate the
impact of the invading culture. It is from such intensive hybrid
exchange and strife of ideas and forms that the greatest social
energies are released, and from which arise the greatest
technologies. Buckminster Fuller estimates that since 1910 the
governments of the world have spent 3 1/2 trillion dollars on
airplanes. That is 62 times the existing gold supply of the