<nettime> automated digest [x2: griffis, gurstein]

[nettime's_lifelong_learner <nettime@kein.org>]

RE: Automation: Learning a Living (Marshall McLuhan, 1964)

     ryan griffis <ryan.griffis@gmail.com>
     "michael gurstein" <gurstein@gmail.com>

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Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 11:49:14 -0500
From: ryan griffis <ryan.griffis@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Automation: Learning a Living (Marshall McLuhan,,	1964)

On 7/22/14, 10:44 AM, Newmedia@aol.com wrote:

> This is a logic that appears plainly enough
> in the difference between firelight and electric light, for example.
> Persons grouped around a fire or a candle for warmth or light are
> less able to pursue independent thoughts, or even tasks, than people
> supplied with electric light. In the same way, the social and
> educational patterns latent in automation are those of self-employment
> and artistic autonomy. Panic about automation as a threat to
> uniformity on a world scale is the projection into the future of
> mechanical standardization and specialism, which are now past.

I'd love to see McLuhan's empirical research that shows that "fire
people" have less independent thoughts than "tv people". Although,
personally, I do feel a little less "independent" when I'm camping.

Do you think McLuhan was eating a ham sandwich when he wrote this?
Someone should tell these folks to stop panicking over automation...
their fears (and illnesses) are obviously anachronistic.
http://www.motherjones.com/print/115121

Best,
Ryan

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From: "michael gurstein" <gurstein@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Automation: Learning a Living (Marshall McLuhan, 1964)
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 07:55:35 +0530

Very, very prescient of McLuhan but his otherwise extremely insightful
analysis missed one element--the political economic context into which these
technology induced changes would be introduced and which would both
influence and be influenced by.

To point to only one element of this--``debt`` and it`s various
manifestations in the form of student debt, mortgages, and other forms of
indenture--as means for ensuring the triumph of the quotidian over the
numinous.

M

-----Original Message-----

     From: nettime-l-bounces@mail.kein.org
     [mailto:nettime-l-bounces@mail.kein.org] On Behalf Of Newmedia@aol.com
     Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 12:14 AM
     To: nettime-l@kein.org
     Subject: <nettime> Automation: Learning a Living (Marshall McLuhan, 1964)


     [Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Marshall McLuhan, 1964, pp.
     357-59, final chapter, the last four paragraphs]

     Automation: Learning a Living

<...>

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