June 27, 2026
THE DAILY McLUHAN DIALOGUES™ — McDialogues™
An Exploration of Technology Ecology as an Anchor in a Sea of Change™ and Tactical Training in Counter-Propaganda Science
by Nelson S. Thall, McLuhan Media Scientist / Former Director/Chief Archivist, Marshall McLuhan Center On Global Communications, Ross, Ca.
AI "Art" can be a Mirror That Shows You Nothing.
It Deepens the Sleep Instead of Waking the Sleeper.
A Student of Technology asks:
Mr. Thall, you distinguish between Art, with a capital "A," and art, with a lowercase "a." One wakes us to the invisible environment shaping our lives. The other sinks us deeper into it. Why is this new AI Art merely Art, and not art?
Nelson S. Thall replies:
Because true art updates your consciousness. It is an anti-environment, a counter-ground that lets you see the invisible world you are swimming in. It de-mystifies and exposes the environment. It wakes you.
AI Art mostly does the opposite. It does not reveal the environment, it merges you with it. It often adds no awareness, only sensation. It leaves you exactly where you were, a little more dazzled and no more awake.
That is the whole of it. AI Art naturally does not lift the veil. It blows smoke in the public's eyes and calls the smoke a revelation.
This is the difference between waking the sleeper and deepening the sleep. art wakes. AI Art mostly sedates. One is a window. The other is a mirror that will likely show you nothing.
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All intellectual property contained herein was conceived, originated and authored exclusively by Nelson S. Thall. Artificial intelligence aka a pseudo-conscious machine (PCM) was not employed. We hired a stenographer. No intellectual contribution or creative authorship is attributed to the AI tool. All rights of authorship and ownership vest entirely and exclusively with Nelson S. Thall.
I can be reached at nelson@themediumisthemessage.com