“With the arrival of electric technology, man has extended, or set outside himself, a live model of the central nervous system itself. To the degree that this is so, it is a development that suggests a desperate suicidal autoamputation, as if the central nervous system could no longer depend on the physical organs to be protective buffers against the slings and arrows of outrageous mechanism.”

Canadian philosopher

Herbert Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian philosopher and scholar, 1911 to 1980, whose work became central to media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, he studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge, then taught English at universities in the United States and Canada before joining the University of Toronto in 1946. He remained there for the rest of his life and became widely known as the father of media studies. His writing and teaching focused on media, communication, and the way new forms of technology shape human thought and social life.