June 7, 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.
The Hidden Ground of the Information Age
Source: ScienceDaily, May 3, 2026. Researchers at the Institute of Science Tokyo have built a memory device just 25 nanometers across, about one three-thousandth the thickness of a human hair, that becomes more efficient as it shrinks, pointing toward ever more compact and powerful electronics.
A Student of Technology asks:
If miniaturization is the hidden ground of the Information Age, does it ultimately lead to the reproduction of man in technological form?
Nelson S. Thall replies:
For more than a century, technological progress has mostly meant packing more power into less space. The transistor, the integrated circuit, the microprocessor, the personal computer, the smartphone, and the wearable are all expressions of one underlying process. Miniaturization is the hidden ground of the Information Age.
Most people watch the visible figures of technological change: the computer, the Internet, Artificial Intelligence, social media, robotics. The deeper story is in the hidden ground beneath them. None of these would exist in their present form without the steady compression of power, speed, and capability into ever smaller devices.
Notice what each of those devices actually does. Every major innovation reproduces a human function outside the body. That was McLuhan’s great theme: our technologies are extensions of man. The wheel reproduced movement. The book reproduced memory. The telephone reproduced speech. The camera reproduced sight. The computer reproduced calculation. The robot reproduces action. With each turn of miniaturization, more of what we do is compressed into technological form and carried outside the biological body.
Seen this way, miniaturization is doing far more than making technology smaller. It is steadily moving human functions out of the organic world and into the technological one. Knowingly or not, mankind appears to be moving toward the technological reproduction of itself.
So the real question is not how small technology can become. It is this. Is the long arc of miniaturization carrying us toward the reproduction of man in technological form, a way of extending his presence, his powers, and finally his lifespan beyond the limits of the biological body?
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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