Book: Speaking of McLuhan in the Era of AI

What would Marshall McLuhan say about AI?

Speaking of McLuhan in the Era of AI explores that question through interviews and essays that connect McLuhan’s legacy with our digital future.

With its variety of voices and genres, the book is an insightful and entertaining almanac of all things McLuhan, past and present. It combines personal stories to enjoy and in-depth media analysis to think with.

At the heart of the book are conversations with prominent media ecologists who studied or worked with McLuhan: Derrick de Kerckhove, B. W. Powe, Robert K. Logan, and Paul Levinson. Over their careers, these scholars have not only interpreted and extended McLuhan’s ideas but also developed distinctive theories and styles of their own. The interviews are complemented by essays applying McLuhan’s thinking to digital media and AI, including two essays by Carlos A. Scolari.

Alongside firsthand accounts, lovely anecdotes, and applications of McLuhan’s insights, the almanac contains unique documents, including a previously unpublished letter from McLuhan to Levinson. The book also lists key McLuhanist organizations and resources and features many of the leading McLuhanists.

The book’s central intellectual thread is McLuhan’s four Laws of Media and their working tool, the tetrad—a foundational framework he developed with his son Eric.
McLuhan invented the Laws toward the end of his life, after the peak of his fame had passed. That’s why his four Laws—enhancement, obsolescence, retrieval, and reversal—never received popular acclaim on a par with “the medium is the message” or “media as human extensions.” Yet the Laws of Media became his most profound and, atypically for McLuhan, most systematic discovery, indispensable for analyzing media as environments, especially now, as digital media are becoming the environment in which we live.

Speaking of McLuhan brings together people who were close to McLuhan in his last years, when he was preoccupied with the Laws of Media. They and other leading McLuhanists discuss how the Laws work and how to apply them, from past media to AI.

As an almanac of all things McLuhan and a guide to his Laws of Media, Speaking of McLuhan puts McLuhan’s thinking to work in today’s media reality. By the end of this book, you won’t just wonder what McLuhan would say about AI—you’ll know his thinking well enough to venture an answer.

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