Media extends human beings and humanity in general by allowing us to connect with each other through social networks even though we are miles away. When were across the world it makes it easy for us to connect within seconds. In the understanding of McLuhan and how technology along with media has become the “extensions of man,” it revolves around being innovative. In the reading, McLuhan quotes Shakespeare stating “Shakespeare states his awareness that true social and political navigation depends upon anticipating the consequences of innovation. How a lot of the times the innovation is the message within that product that will change and impact humanity.
Some Hazardous technological progress that brings individuals and society in the “electrical age” or within the current age are guns. Guns have been around for a while and for many centuries have caused nothing but violence. Guns have no other form of usage but to kill or cause harm. Guns have had a strong impact on our society. Within the reading and In accepting an honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame a few years ago, General David Sarnoff made this statement: “We are too prone to make technological instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them. The products of modern science are not in themselves good or bad; it is the way they are used that determines their value.” This statement caused controversy because people couldn’t see a way around it. Guns are made to kill and there’s nothing else we could really do with them. That is like saying “Apple pie is in itself neither good nor bad; it is the way it is used that determines its value.” Or, “The smallpox virus is in itself neither good nor bad; it is the way it is used that determines its value.”
If “the medium is the message” a role that artists and designers can play in terms of creating ideas is the way they send out their messages within their objectives. I think it is important to have an objective when it comes to design and whatever form of creation. An objective determines the way your message plays out and how your audience will receive it. In many instances, its been the content and the idea behind the medium of art but still lacks in other forms like what is the meaning behind a house or something like a chair. In the passage, McLuhan speaks on how in the electric age a lot of the message intertwines and follows the lines of force in the field of numbers.
