The laws of the media, which are like the Medes and the Persians, are quite simply that
every medium exaggerates some function. Spectacles exaggerate or enlarge or enhance the visual function. They obsolesce another function; they retrieve a much older function; and they flip into the opposite form. The simplest form I know to illustrate this principle, which works for all media whether it’s a teaspoon, a corset or a motorcar, is money. Money increases transactions; it obsolesces barter; it retrieves potlatch or conspicuous waste; and it flips into credit cards, which are not money at all.