- Both Marshack and Franklin are concerned about the correlation between what is true and what is useful. What is the difference? Or is there one?
- Does the distinction between time-biased media and space-biased media help us understand how societies organize knowledge and societies? How do certain “biases” of technologies affect the way in which we think about and organize society today?
- What connections does Havelock make among alphabetic literacy, rational thought, and democracy? Do you agree with him?
- What is the relationship between Innis’s space-biased technologies and Franklin’s prescriptive technologies? How does Franklin connect prescriptive technologies with a culture of compliance?
- Explain technological determinism and its relationship to reification (define reification). Was Innis, or any other writer discussed in this unit, a determinist? Do you detect determinist thinking about technologies in news and discussions today?
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