Skip to content
1981
Volume 23, Issue 4
  • ISSN: 1539-7785
  • E-ISSN: 2048-0717

Abstract

This article contends that the field of media ecology offers the most insightful, historical and comprehensive way of understanding the broad implications of artificial intelligence (AI). With the release of AI into the world, we do not have the same world plus AI; we have a new, rapidly changing, hyper sort of world fraught with concern regarding the unpredictability of this latest modern-tech marvel. Technological advancement and societal change are inseparable dynamics within an ever-evolving ecology of media. That is, they are . ‘Eye of Media Ecology on AI’ sets forth the premise that an ecological approach to understanding media offers the most inclusive, prescient and humane way of assessing the sweeping cultural and generative rise of Marshall McLuhan’s famous aphorism – holds true, even in our risky age of AI. The axiom acts as a kind of indisputable law etched in techno-modernity. Yet, AI presents a ponderous twist to McLuhan’s oft-quoted principle. In truth, AI is both medium and message, a medium that carries messages but also a medium that messages. That is new; that is different; that is unnerving. Nevertheless, this dual reality does not wash away McLuhan’s tenet. On the contrary, McLuhan’s concept extends and embraces AI’s twofold wizardry. In McLuhan parlance, one can rightly say that !

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/eme_00222_1
2025-03-11
2025-03-21
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Anton, Corey (2011), Communication Uncovered: General Semantics and Media Ecology, Fort Worth, TX: The New Non-Aristotelian Library-Institute of General Semantics.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Asimov, Isaac and Shulman, Jason A. (eds) (1988), Isaac Asimov’s book of science and nature quotations, New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Carey, James (1999), ‘Time, space and the telegraph’, in P. Heyer and D. Crowley (eds), Communication in History: Technology, Culture Society, 3rd ed., New York: Addison Wesley Longman.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Carr, Nicholas (2014), The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brain, New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Ellul, Jaques (1964), The Technological Society, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Vintage Book, A Division of Random House.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Ellul, Jacques (1985), The Humiliation of the Word, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Erdmann’s Publishing Company.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Future of Life Institute (2023), ‘Pause giant AI experiments: An open letter’, https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/. Accessed 12 January 2024.
  8. Harris, Tristen (2022), ‘Can we close the gap between humans and technology?’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RlhhRfREa0&t=32s. Accessed 12 January 2024.
  9. Harris, T. (2023), ‘The A.I. dilemma’, 9 March, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoVJKj8lcNQ. Accessed 12 January 2024.
  10. Hendrycks, D., Mazeika, M. and Woodside, T. (2023), ‘An overview of catastrophic AI risks’, Cornell University, 9 October, https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.12001. Accessed 12 January 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Jalonick, Mary Clare and Matt, O’Brien (2023), ‘Tech industry leaders endorse regulating artificial intelligence at rare Summit in Washington’, AP News, 13 September, https://apnews.com/article/schumer-artificial-intelligence-elon-musk-senateefcfb1067d68ad2f595db7e92167943c.3. Accessed 12 January 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Logan, Robert (1999), Communication in History, Technology, Culture Heyer, Society, 3rd ed., New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Marcellino, William, Beauchamp-Mustafaga, Nathan, Kerrigan, Amanda, Navarre Chao, Lev and Smith, Jackson (2023), The Rise of Generative AI and the Coming Era of Social Media Manipulation 3.0: Next-generation Chinese Astroturfing and Coping with Ubiquitous AI, Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PEA2679-1.html. Accessed 12 January 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. McLuhan, Marshall (1964), Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Corte Madera, CA: Gingko Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Meyrowitz, Joshua (1985), No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Mumford, Lewis (1934), Technics and Civilization, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Ong, Walter J. (1967), The Presence of the Word, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Postman, Neil (1988), Conscientious Objections, New York: Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, Inc.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Postman, Neil (2001), ‘Composing an academic life: A symposium’, The Speech Communication Annual, 15, pp. 11436.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Rushkoff, Douglas (2019), Team Human, New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Sontag, Susan (1973), Susan Sontag on Photography, New York: Picardo Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Soukup, Paul A. (2022), A Media Ecology of Theology: Communicating Faith throughout the Christian Tradition, Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Strate, Lance (2017), Media Ecology: An Approach to Understanding the Human Condition, New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Suleyman, Mustafa (2023), The Coming Wave, New York: Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin, Random House LLC.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Trainer, S. (2016), ‘What the digital age owes to the inventor of Morse code’, Time, 9 January 2024, https://time.com/4307892/samuel-morse-telegraph-history/. Accessed 12 January 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Wilson, E. O. (2009), ‘A conversation with James D. Watson and E. O. Wilson’, 14 October, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8_W2cBAO7s.
/content/journals/10.1386/eme_00222_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test