Electric Universe and Electrical Media...

Many Internet forums have carried discussion of the Electric Universe hypothesis. Much of that discussion has added more confusion than clarity, due to common misunderstandings of the electrical principles. Here we invite participants to discuss their experiences and to summarise questions that have yet to be answered.
Demosophist
Posts: 54
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2022 10:09 pm

Electric Universe and Electrical Media...

Unread post by Demosophist » Thu Jul 21, 2022 2:50 am

One of the most interesting insights of Marshall McLuhan was that the dominant media ground of one era isn't perceived until we've graduated to a new ground. It's ironic that in his book The Gutenberg Galaxy published in 1962 he makes the case that the typographical age which began in the mid-15th century should be regarded as a galaxy that is "colliding" with the electrical galaxy that began in the mid-19th century. The electrical era was dominant and established the primary ground for perception by operating on the subconscious, while the concepts and opinions that had dominated the previous mechanical print era became the conscious standard by which knowledge was judged. The conscious standard always tends to lag the perceptual ground.

His basic thesis was that the ground of an era establishes the perceptual limits of humans living under its spell, and thus can't, itself, be directly perceived. The analogy was his joke: "I don't know who first discovered water, but I know it wasn't a fish." He grappled with this problem first in an essay about "anti-environments" which was before he came up with the oft-misunderstood cliché "the medium is the message". The idea was that we can't consciously perceive the reality of an environment that we are in until it becomes possible to leave it. This suggests several things about the Electric Universe Theory:
  • The dominance of the Standard Model of Physics is a manifestation of the mechanical era that preceded the electrical era, and at most exhibits only subconscious influences of the electrical era in which it actually resides. Any percepts that "leak" remain in the downmarket; and
  • The mere fact that the Electric Universe Model is now perceptible enough to challenge the old standard implies that there is already an anti-environment to it, and that we are in transition to this new environment, the parameters of which we will only be able to perceive through great effort and indirect evidence, and which will probably not become mainstream but will remain downmarket; and finally
  • Electric Universe Theory will become the dominant conscious scientific and cultural paradigm for this era. This will become the foundation as the construction of the next foundation is undertaken as a precessional effect.

Demosophist
Posts: 54
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2022 10:09 pm

Re: Electric Universe and Electrical Media...

Unread post by Demosophist » Mon Jul 25, 2022 4:59 am

Hmmm... no one interested in commenting on this? That's interesting in itself.

jacmac
Posts: 890
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:36 pm

Re: Electric Universe and Electrical Media...

Unread post by jacmac » Mon Jul 25, 2022 6:33 pm

The levels of idea discussion on this forum have diminished in recent years. IMO
Many people I have looked forward to reading no longer participate.
So, the lack of response might have little to do with what you might think it to be.
I have experienced a lack of response myself in recent months when I have
presented my thoughts on the EU perspective or ideas.

The material from M. McLuhan you present is somewhat similar to the ideas presented
by Mel Acheson in his current series on this site home page.
"Sixth episode in a seven-arc series on the art of critical thinking."
Similar in that they are not EU ideas directly, but are discussion about perceptions
and acceptance of new ideas or paradigms; and how that generally proceeds.

There are many parts to what we might call The ELECTRIC UNIVERSE. And under that banner
there are many details or parts where people have conflicting views.

This forum, with its separated categories, and within each its further separated topics, is the best place to discuss
ideas related to the Electric Universe that I know of. (a general lack of participants, hopefully, not withstanding :( )
Jack

Demosophist
Posts: 54
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2022 10:09 pm

Re: Electric Universe and Electrical Media...

Unread post by Demosophist » Sat Aug 06, 2022 7:53 pm

jacmac wrote: Mon Jul 25, 2022 6:33 pm The material from M. McLuhan you present is somewhat similar to the ideas presented
by Mel Acheson in his current series on this site home page.
"Sixth episode in a seven-arc series on the art of critical thinking."
....
This forum, with its separated categories, and within each its further separated topics, is the best place to discuss
ideas related to the Electric Universe that I know of. (a general lack of participants, hopefully, not withstanding :( )
Jack
Thanks. I've watched Acheson's series. They seem more in line with complexity theory. I really find very little that reflects McLuhan's insights, which are about the effects of the medium itself rather than the content of that medium. Fitting it within the EU set of insights is a challenge, but it appears that both EU and McLuhan are focused on the characteristics of electricity so it should be a natural fit. McLuhan even describes the work of James Joyce, especially in Finnegans Wake as the interplay of anode and cathode. The key to understanding this interplay, according to McLuhan, is the "resonant interval," which he also calls "tactility" and "sensus communis" which is "the interplay of all the senses." However, the focus has always been from transmitter to receiver in most of the electrical media and has only recently become interactive... and therein lies the real paradigm shift. (The telephone was probably the exception to that rule, but if you recall a long distance telephone conversation was extremely expensive until quite recently.)

Cargo
Posts: 698
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:02 am

Re: Electric Universe and Electrical Media...

Unread post by Cargo » Mon Aug 08, 2022 4:16 am

the dominant media ground of one era isn't perceived until we've graduated to a new ground
Here's my thing. As soon as you said this I already knew the series mentioned by jacmac. And I would have stopped right there. And then you started going off to some spell tangent and it got rater boring. Not that it wasn't interesting in itself of course, but I felt like I already knew it.
interstellar filaments conducted electricity having currents as high as 10 thousand billion amperes
"You know not what. .. Perhaps you no longer trust your feelings,." Michael Clarage
"Charge separation prevents the collapse of stars." Wal Thornhill

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