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06750_Field_TCUM T315.txt
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1996-04-10
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translator or exchanger of skills and tasks.
The classic curse of Midas, his power of translating all he
touched into gold, is in some degree the character of any
medium, including language. This myth draws attention to a
magic aspect of all extensions of human sense and body; that
is, to all technology whatever. All technology has the Midas
touch. When a community develops some extension of itself, it
tends to allow all other functions to be altered to
accommodate that form.
Language, like currency, acts as a store of perception and
as a transmitter of the perceptions and experience of one
person or of one generation to another. As both a translator
and storehouse of experience, language is, in addition, a
reducer and a distorter of experience. The very great advantage