The messages of media machines: Man-machine symbiosis

Abstract

McLuhan's famous dictum, the medium is the message, guides this chapter and its content. The statement, when paraphrased, may be understood as-it is the nature of a medium that decides what messages can be transmitted. This underlines the view that the form of the technology, its nature and characteristics, dictates the content. The focus here is to understand the computer as a medium-its form, supporting the greater ambition of defining its messages-its content.