On Circuits and Design

Marshall McLuhan – Nov. 20th, 1964 – Symposium on Cybernetics and Society

“In moving from the neolithic age to the electronic age, we move from the mode of the wheel to the mode of the circuit, from the lineal single-plane organization of experience to the pattern of feedback and circuitry and involvement.
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In the age of circuitry, the consequences of any action occur at the same time as the action. Thus we now experience a growing need to build the very consequences of our programs into the original design and to put the consumer into the production process. By awakening to the significance of electronic feedback, we have become intensely aware of the meaning and effects of our actions after centuries of comparative heedlessness and non-involvement.”