August 26, 2026
THE DAILY McLUHAN DIALOGUES™ • McDialogues™
Understanding the Grammars of Electric Culture and Propaganda Science™
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. and McLuhan Media Scientist, Former President/Director, Marshall McLuhan Centre On Global Communications, Toronto, Canada.
THE TYPEWRITER IS NOT THE AUTHOR
From the Typewriter to AI, We Keep Mistaking the Tool for the Mind.
A Graduate Student of Technology asks:
Mr. Thall, The Wall Street Journal published an opinion article that Stanley Druckenmiller prepared with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence. He says he rejected many of the machine’s suggestions and insists, “My name is on the piece. It’s my message.” Yet some publications and institutions prohibit Artificial Intelligence in the writing process. Does using the machine mean that he is no longer really the writer?
Nelson S. Thall replies:
I remember when I was a high school student and could not bring even a simple arithmetic calculator into an examination. There was no trigonometry hidden in it. It merely added, subtracted, multiplied and divided. I was also not permitted to submit an essay typewritten. Both restrictions seem almost comical today because we eventually learned to distinguish between the instrument used to assist the work and the intelligence responsible for the work. The calculator did not become the mathematician because it performed the arithmetic, and the typewriter did not become the author because it manufactured the letters. We are drawing that same frightened boundary around Artificial Intelligence now.
The deeper question is what we mean by authorship. Artificial Intelligence can assist in articulation, organization, revision and the construction of sentences. There may therefore be some of the machine in the expression. But forethought, originating perception, conception, purpose, discrimination and judgment come from the human mind. The machine has no conscious perception it is trying to communicate, no intention of its own and no idea it wishes to express. McLuhan taught us that a new technology changes the meaning of the activity into which it enters. Artificial Intelligence is separating things print culture had fused together: having the thought, composing the sentence, editing the language and signing the finished work. It can assist creative expression. It cannot be the conscious source from which creativity originates.
We have never had difficulty understanding this distinction with other technologies. The telescope is not the astronomer. The microscope is not the scientist. The camera is not the photographer. The scalpel is not the surgeon. The paintbrush is not the painter. The piano is not the pianist. The calculator is not the mathematician. The typewriter is not the author. Each instrument may extend, assist or participate in the human act, but none is the conscious source of the act. There may be some of the machine in the expression. There is nothing of the machine in the consciousness from which the expression originates. Artificial Intelligence is not the mind. Institutions once tried to protect human competence by banning the calculator and the typewriter. We should not confuse yesterday’s mistake with tomorrow’s standard.
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Sources: Jeff Stein, “Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller’s WSJ Op-Ed Criticizing Bessent Was Written With AI,” NOTUS, August 25, 2026; Gregory Zuckerman, Melissa Korn and Sam Goldfarb, “Druckenmiller’s Surprising Critique of Bessent Was Delivered With the Help of AI,” The Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2026; Nelson S. Thall, McDialogue: AI, Technology and the Fear of the New, Living Project Blueprint, August 26, 2026.
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. All rights of authorship and ownership vest entirely and exclusively with Nelson S. Thall.
© 2026 Nelson S. Thall. All Rights Reserved.
I can be reached at: nelson@themediumisthemessage.com