Decision Makingwith McLuhan’s Tetrad

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McLuhan’s Tetrad (or “laws of media”)

The tetrad is a heuristic (thinking/learning) device that can be very useful in analyzing, and ultimately graphically representing the four laws (or law-like effects) of any medium or technology. According to the tetrad, every medium:

-Enhances (extends or intensifies) something/s;

-Reverses (or transcends itself), “flips into” something new;

-Retrieves (or brings something back from the past); and

-Obsolesces (or renders something less useful).

RETRIEVESCalls back experiences,patterns and media from the past.

See McLuhan and McLuhan (1988) Laws of Media

OBSOLESCESMakes an oldermedium, processor pattern obsolete

REVERSESWhen pushed to extremes, flips into opposite intention.Long-Term, global consequence.

ENHANCESExtends, amplifies,focuses some human capacity or proclivity –body part, previous medium, emotion…

"What does the artifact ENHANCE or intensify or make possible or accelerate? This can be asked concerning a wastebasket, a painting, a steamroller, or a zipper, as well as about a proposition in Euclid or a law of physics. It can be asked about any word or phrase in any language."

"When pushed to the limits of its potential (another complementary action), the new form will tend to reverse what had been its original characteristics. What is the REVERSALpotential of the new form?"

"What recurrence or RETRIEVAL of earlier actions and services is brought into play simultaneously by the new form? What older, previously obsolesced ground is brought back and inheres in the new form?"

"If some aspect of a situation is enlarged or enhanced, simultaneously the old condition or unenhanced situation is displaced thereby. What is pushed aside or OBSOLESCED by the new 'organ'?"

(from McLuhan's Laws of Media: The New Science, 1988)

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VCR

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ENH

RET

REV

OBS

The PersonalDigitalMusicDevice

privacy

autonomy, libertarianism,

and ego

solipsism

Privacy reverses into civic

“free rider” scenario. Individual

becomes “social minimizer.”

the “Agora”

civic sphere dissolves

out of public space

world reverses into virtual reality:

“toy domain”

The physical space the PDMD user moves through

reverses into a kind of “toy domain” or custom-

made un-reality (ego-centrism).

aesthetic experience

“All art [life], aspires toward the

condition of music”

the citizen

Feelings of privacy, individual autonomy and control

(over: sound, space, emotion, time, etc) enhanced

by near instantaneous programmability of soundscape.

Life can now have context-specific theme songs

(began with Walkman, enhanced with discman).

“ planned spontanteity: ”

social displacement: “all alone together” but

nowhere in particular. People disappear as

interacting subjects. “I am not „there‟.”

random/shuffle feature and massive memory

capacities in PDMDs allow for controlled

de-control of the emotions.

part of tribal ecological sense

(spontaneous emotional response):

elation, anger, calm, trauma, paranoia

“it really makes me feel alive”social interaction

Autonomy reverses into

Automatony. “I‟m an

emotional mannequin”)

anthropomorphism:

“my iPod proved that it is the smartest person

I know, and that it has a sick sense of humor

and impeccable taste in women.”

… the album

hearing, listening to, talking with strangers

polity collapses

democracy

ENH

RET

REV

OBS

access to entire planet:

everybody,

everywhere*

via hotlinks:

„diffusion‟ broadcasting:

the multilocational

tribal ecological sensibility:

trauma, paranoia*

text-based information

(the rational, the lineal):

Euclidean space,

Western time-space*

Global Village Story-Time~*:

World reverses into script: audience as

story-tellers participating in their own audience participation

perfect memory,

intellect:

always accessible,

in full

control anarchy and fundamentalism via the

overlay of hidden bureaucracy**

precision,

editing, grammar, spelling,

accountability,

formal vetting process

The News Blog(technological level)

via permalinks,

reverse-time

sequence:

“the latest is

the greatest”

History is what We make it.

Blog as tribal memory

bank***

Top-down, corporate, centralized news

hierarchy (and its apparatus‟) may implode,

invert, and ultimately scatter.

“Orality” (secondary):

pamphleteers:

not pamphlets themselves,

but the people and the act

of pamphleteering

Anarchism (since the Net is non-hierarchical) and

Fundamentalism (as counter-reactions against the

chaotic surplus of information on the Net), flips into

anarchy/decentralized democracy or a surveillance/

police state: the technology itself provides the

possibility for both options.

textual information reverses into imagery:

Internet tends toward representations that exploit the

widest-bandwidth capacity (i.e. audio-visual, motion,

interactive multi-media).

Network News

ENH

RET

REV

OBS

old modernist theory

(new myth) of stable

Identities/Selves

(consistent, coherent behavior)

Oral-tribal awareness

(“nosey neighbor”?) communal

awareness as “point of view”

self-consciousness,

individualism (feeling of), the ego:

“this is about me,” rigid distinction between

private, inner life and public persona;

reifies Cartesian split.

Community (via Feedback mechanism) flips into

“Panoptic Prison” individual users become security nodes

eBay

modernity, rationality

Fluid Identity (of the “Post-Modern”)

(being human)

“Machiavellian machinations” S.O.P.

(formalizes [im]morality of the marketplace)

Primacy of Word

language as

aesthetic

object

“They”

detachment,

objectivity*

Community/Small Town Civility

“We believe people are basically good”

role of text:

self-representation

“legible body”

task-orientation in

communication (from I-thou

to I-it; other as means to end).

sincerity (connection between thought and action).

Happy Hegemony (“escape from freedom”)

Hyper-pseudo-civility via

patronizing double-speak

(“can be liberal on condition though”)

Holistic or ”Analogic” interaction

dickering

virtual “third place”

civility

digital dissimulation

reputation management as

socio-pathy

subjectivity

customer Service

practical function of Niceties

( “social lubricant” becomes Content)

a reputation

“We”

“campaign mode”

ENH

RET

REV

OBS

the Village* playing/working in groups

“Sesame Street” (school is fun)

Small Town Rep., “Publicy”(achievements, leader boards, badges)

Positive Affect&Effect of Knowledge Differential

(from Geeks to Gods)

Tribal sense,* emotional response knowin’ what’s goin’ on,

gossip, paranoia*

“Tom Sawyer Effect”“an eye for an ear”

Skinner BeastsHappy Hour *See McLuhan and McLuhan (1988) tetrads for:

radio, computer, credit card, etc…

privacy, security

attention spans (lectures)

The Word: books, libraries, bookstores,traditional literacy (Left Hemisphere)

“Mid-terms” & “Finals” (importance of)

Point of View,sense of place,

schools and universities

Process Orientation

Gamification (in education)

Computer Work:

carpal tunnel, eye strain,

back trouble…

Transactions… Business:Gold Mining (extrinsic motive)

Cheat Codes, Cheats (means to end)

Military-Industrial Recruitment Mechanism, Content for The Commodity Complex

Control via hidden bureaucracy embedded in interface (Skinner Beasts)

Multi-media …Imagery (limited Pattern Recog. -Right Hemi)

Learning as Game (Infantilization of the Academy)

FLOW,Interest,

Incentive,Intrinsic motive,

End in itself

“school is cool”Education (access to)

Practical Effectiveness (output)of the Academy

Intentionality*

Self-expression, funLearning as Game

Multi-modality,role of computers, Feedback