Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/07257_Field_TCUM T822.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 1KB | 16 lines

electric automation. In the case of electricity, as energy for
production becomes independent of the work operation, there
is not only the speed that makes for total and organic
interplay, but there is, also, the fact that electricity is sheer
information that, in actual practice, illuminates all it touches.
Any process that approaches instant interrelation of a total
field tends to raise itself to the level of conscious awareness, so
that computers seem to “think.” In fact, they are highly
specialized at present, and quite lacking in the full process of
interrelation that makes for consciousness. Obviously, they can
be made to simulate the process of consciousness, just as our
electric global networks now begin to simulate the condition of
our central nervous system. But a conscious computer would
still be one that was an extension of our consciousness, as a
telescope is an extension of our eyes, or as a ventriloquist’s
dummy is an extension of the ventriloquist.