home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Understanding McLuhan
/
Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso
/
pc
/
mcluhan.dxr
/
09057_Field_TCGG T822.txt
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-04-10
|
928b
|
16 lines
The Gutenberg galaxy was theoretically dissolved in 1905 with
the discovery of curved space, but in practice it had been
invaded by the telegraph two generations before that.
* Whittaker notes (p. 98) that the space of Newton and
Gassendi was so far as geometry was concerned, the space of
Euclid: “it was infinite, homogeneous, and completely
featureless, one point being just like another . . .” Much earlier
our concern had been to explain why this fiction of
homogeneity and uniform continuity had derived from phonetic
writing, especially in print form. Whittaker says that from a
physics point of view the Newtonian space was “mere
emptiness into which things could be put.” But even for
Newton, the gravitational field seemed incompatible with this
neutral space. “As a matter of fact, the successors of Newton
felt this difficulty; and, having started with a space that was in