A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

This is where William Burroughs comes in with his Naked Lunch. When we invent a new technology, we become cannibals. We eat ourselves alive since these technologies are merely extensions of ourselves. The new environment shaped by electric technology is a cannibalistic one that eats people. To survive one must study the habits of cannibals.
“The Hot and Cool Interview”, in Media Research (1997), p 67
Year: 1997
↪ Also at #2381, #6874, #7007
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan