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Understanding McLuhan
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Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso
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06697_Field_TCUM T262.txt
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1996-04-10
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translate any kind of tricky space into the straight, the flat, the
uniform, and the “rational.” This concept of infinity was not
imposed upon us by logic. It was the gift of Gutenberg. So,
also, later on, was the industrial assembly line. The power to
translate knowledge into mechanical production by the
breaking up of any process into fragmented aspects to be
placed in a lineal sequence of movable, yet uniform, parts was
the formal essence of the printing press. This amazing
technique of spatial analysis duplicating itself at once, by a
kind of echo, invaded the world of number and touch.
Here, then, is merely one familiar, if unrecognized,
instance of the power of one medium to translate itself into
another medium. Since all media are extensions of our own
bodies and senses, and since we habitually translate one sense
into another in our own experience, it need not surprise us that