McLuhan on Media as the Extension of Humanity

McLuhan felt that all media are extensions of the various human senses and faculties, hence the title of his seminal work Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. He felt that the global electronic networks were an extension of our central nervous system. As our central nervous system is a single unified field of experience so, he felt, were the global networks. This relates to his concept of the Global Village and retribalization, for tribal village life, in many ways, presents a single unified field of experience.

Viewing the WEB as an extension of the central nervous system is an excellent strategy for comprehending its structure, and its psychological implications. Certainly it presents a single unified field of experience in the form of a global Docuverse. In many ways the WEB allows us to approach, process, and store information in a way that is more natural for our brain.

WEB Paradigm	Why.	Media Theory.	History and Prehistory	Print Paradigm.
Multimedia Paradigm.	Hypertext Paradigm.	Docuverse Paradigm.	Interactive Paradigm.	Conclusions