"The spoken word was the first technology by which man was able to let go of his environment in order to grasp it in a new way"
- Marshall McLuhan
About this Quote
This quote by Marshall McLuhan speaks to the power of language and communication. By using language, human beings are able to express their ideas and sensations in a manner that transcends the physical world. Through language, people can create new ideas and principles that can be shown others. This permits us to acquire a new perspective on our environment and the world around us. By using language, we can release our instant environment and gain a brand-new understanding of it. Language is an effective tool that permits us to check out and understand the world in a brand-new method. It is the first innovation that has actually enabled us to break free from our physical environment and get a new perspective.
"It's not just the effect of technology on the environment, on religion, on the economic structure, on society, on politics, etc. It's that everything now exists in technology to the point where technology is the new and comprehensive host of nature of life"
"I have an almost religious zeal... not for technology per se, but for the Internet which is for me, the nervous system of mother Earth, which I see as a living creature, linking up"
