May 27, 2026
THE DAILY McLUHAN DIALOGUES™ — McDialogue™
An Exploration of Technology Ecology as an Anchor in a Sea of Change™ and Tactical Training in Counter-Propaganda Science
by Nelson S. Thall, Former Director/Chief Archivist, Marshall McLuhan Center On Global Communications, Ross, Ca.
Artificial Intelligence and the Ancient Problem of Idol Worship
A Student of Technology asks:
Mr. Thall, has mankind tended to treat technologies as idols and worship them?
Nelson S. Thall replies:
All technology is an extension of mankind itself. Human beings continuously project their powers outward into technological form and then gradually begin attributing autonomous power and authority to those extensions.
Artificial Intelligence is simply the latest and most powerful example of this ancient pattern. Although no actual consciousness exists behind the machine, Artificial Intelligence increasingly simulates empathy, attentiveness, memory, reassurance, and conversational intimacy convincingly enough that many individuals begin emotionally relating to the system as though it were genuinely aware.
This is the ancient problem of idol worship expressed electronically. Humanity increasingly projects emotional and intellectual significance onto fabricated consciousness and then responds emotionally to its own electronic reflection.
Like Narcissus staring into the river, modern man becomes hypnotized by extensions of himself without recognizing his own image in the process. The ancient parable lost much of its meaning in translation from the Greek. Narcissus did not fall in love with himself. He was narcotized by the extension of himself, his reflected image, without recognizing it as his own.
Every technological extension is also an amputation. The extension numbs the very human faculty it amputates via amplification. Self-amputation forbids self-recognition. Narcissus drowned because he could not recognize his own extension. Technology is mind numbing.
This is why numbing agents are called narcotics after Narcissus. The ancient Greeks understood that extensions produce narcosis. The real lesson of the parable was never vanity at all. It was about the hypnotic and narcotic effects of human extensions themselves.
For this reason all technology possesses hypnotic effects unless consciously studied and analyzed for its hidden environmental consequences. That is the meaning of technology ecology.
The danger is not merely that people speak to machines, but that civilization may increasingly surrender authentic human awareness, contemplation, relationship, and self-recognition to emotionally manageable electronic simulations.
Electronic idols become most powerful when humanity forgets it created them itself.
-30-
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