Month: June 2020
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The Lightbulb Conspiracy
A Tale of Lumens and Lucrative Larceny The Illuminati of Lumens: “A light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence.” Marshal Mcluhan Deep in the Californian night, a lone bulb pulsed with an unnatural defiance. Byron, they called him – an incandescent anomaly, a deviant filament flickering long past his assigned expiration. In the…
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Understanding Media: The Great Lightbulb Conspiracy
Episode 48 “A light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence.” Marshal Mcluhan An immortal lightbulb named Byron runs afoul of a secret international industrial alliance known as the Phoebus cartel in Thomas Pynchon’s cult classic Gravity’s Rainbow. When the cartel detects that Byron has exceeded his programmed life span, the Incandescent Anomalies Committee…
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Eureka Moments
Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher and communication theorist, introduced the concept of media ecology, which examines the relationship between media, technology, and society. He proposed that the media through which people communicate have a significant impact on the way they perceive and understand the world around them. McLuhan identified three significant revolutions or eureka moments…
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Media as Extensions of Our Central Nervous System: Ratios of sensation
MEDIUM CHANGES YOUR RELATION TO SOCIETY “The electric light is pure information” Though Mcluhan books are written in a difficult style — at once enigmatic, epigrammatic and overgrown with arcane literary, historic allusions and flamboyantly undecipherable aphorisms he put out a few concepts that I find useful for our purposes. McLuhan suggests that the world…
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AC/DC: Alternative Current vs Direct Current
Tesla and Edison Everybody knows the light bulb‘s father was Thomas Edison. We read about him all the time and he is often remembered as the greatest inventor in American history. The truth is light bulbs had already been invented; what he did was buy the patent and refine the product. The incandescent light bulb…
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The Great LightBulb Conspiracy
“A light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence.” Marshal Mcluhan An immortal lightbulb named Byron runs afoul of a secret international industrial alliance known as the Phoebus cartel in Thomas Pynchon’s cult classic Gravity’s Rainbow. When the cartel detects that Byron has exceeded his programmed life span, the Incandescent Anomalies Committee dispatches a…
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You Tell Me it’s the Institution
The vulnerability of institutions arises from the inelastic supply of jobs in society. There are always more aspirants than jobs to occupy, which creates intense competition for available positions. This competition can lead to the rise of rival power networks, which subvert the rules to get ahead, having a nonlinear effect on social function. This…
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Anti-Woke
In recent years, there has been a growing phenomenon of reactionary anti-woke astro-turfing and orchestrated campaigns, aimed at discrediting and silencing progressive voices. These campaigns often take the form of psyops, using sophisticated techniques to manipulate public opinion and sow confusion and division. In this essay, I will explore the nature of these campaigns and…
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The Decline of the Heavy-Armored Knight
Lynn White’s book, “Medieval Technology and Social Change,” highlights the role of technology in shaping society. One such example is the stirrup and heavy-armored knight, which led to the emergence of the feudal system. The stirrup enabled the knight to mount his horse and ride in full armor, making him a formidable force in battle.…
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Collaborations
Introduction: The adage, “If an idea is fully formed, it’s probably someone else’s,” challenges the notion of originality and highlights the interconnected nature of human creativity. This essay delves into the concept that ideas and thoughts are shaped by collective influences, emphasizing the importance of inspiration and collaboration in the process of intellectual development. While…