A dictionary of Marshall McLuhan’s quotations

“It is not matching—which visual man would do—but making. Now, visual man was hung up on the idea of matching as a criterion of Truth. Under electric conditions, at the speed of light, there can never be matching, only making. The scientists discovered this forty, fifty years ago when they developed the "uncertainty principle," saying that no experiment could ever be repeated. You can't step into the same river once. This is now seen to be literally true. It had always been true, but electric speed made it obvious.”
“Technology and the Human Dimension”, interview with Louis Forsdale (1974), reprinted in MM: The Man and His Message, 1989, p 12
Year: 1974
↪ Also at #3776, #3796
Compiled by William Kuhns
© 2026, The Estate of Marshall McLuhan