Mcluhan, Energy exploitation and the overextensions of man | Mcluhan , Explotación energía y ampliaciones en exceso los de hombre

Resumen

We make use of McLuhan’s Laws of Media and his notion that our technologies are “the extensions of man” to understand ecological issues in general and global warming in particular. We examine the evolution of humankind’s exploitation of energy that have increased human wealth and well being. We identify the benefits and costs of tool making, the control of fire, agriculture, steam engines, internal combustion engines, electricity generation and nuclear power plants. Using McLuhan’s Laws of Media we show that an energy exploitation technology or medium, and hence an extension of man, when pushed to its extreme can flip into it opposite an ‘overextension of man.’ This is certainly the case with the environmental challenges facing our planet and the survival of the human race today. These include the storage of nuclear waste and the depletion of natural resources. It is the burning of fossil fuels giving rise to pollution and the greenhouse effect, which is most troubling as the build up of greenhouse gases could devolve into a runaway effect threatening the very existence of human habitation on this planet.