The man who discovered media codes and how to resist them

That’s why McLuhan said that every time a new medium comes along—a new way for humans to communicate—it has buried in it a message. It is gently guiding us to see the world according to a new set of codes. The way information gets to you, McLuhan argued, is more important than the information itself.

a world defined not by production but by communication, not by objects but by images, representations of things take precedence over the things themselves. Everything is mediated. We become, whether we realize it or not, simulated beings experiencing simulated events in a simulated environment.

The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes, to blind you from the truth…. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison… for your mind.’

Since your brain and your “self” are part of the matrix, to escape the matrix you must escape your self. That, however, is a possibility worth exploring. Escaping the narrow definition of self might well become a necessary survival skill in the twenty-first century.

Cyberspace is a black hole. It absorbs energy and personality. And then represents it as an emotional spectacle. It is done by businesses that commodify human interaction and emotion. And we are getting lost in the spectacle.

— an