Eric Scheske

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Technology

Why I Don't Stay Informed

Why I Don't Stay Informed

I'm glad the Establishment didn't succeed in destroying JRE during COVID. It’s pretty much the only way I stay informed to the extent I want to be informed. I agree with Nassim Taleb’s observation that there’s no reason to read the daily news,

Is the Netflix Documentary a Paean to Catholic Convert and Daily Communicant Marshall McLuhan?

Is the Netflix Documentary a Paean to Catholic Convert and Daily Communicant Marshall McLuhan?

The Social Dilemma uses the intellectual framework built by McLuhan, but the similarities stop there The Social Dilemma documentary has broken records. According to its main star, Tristan Harris, 38 million households in the first 28 days saw it on Netflix. That’s incredible. What’s even more incredible? The

Did Video Bring Us BLM, Riots, and COVID Hysteria?

Did Video Bring Us BLM, Riots, and COVID Hysteria?

A new essay about the Marshall McLuhan disciple, Neil Postman You like dead white guys? How about a dead white guy who was the disciple of a dead white guy? I do. I also like DWG Marshall McLuhan and his disciple, DWG Neil Postman, whose Amusing Ourselves to Death is

Listening to Podcasts at Oxford in 1374 and Kansas in 1974

Listening to Podcasts at Oxford in 1374 and Kansas in 1974

Why do we love those conversational podcasts? If you were a student at a medieval university, you listened to lectures. And listened and listened and listened to lectures, often more than ten hours a day. But they weren’t like lectures at today’s universities, where hundreds of students sit

The Technology Paradox

The Technology Paradox

The more efficient technology makes us, the less efficient we become. Of course, information technology saves time by doing things quickly. Or does it? Bosses save wages, but we become their new, unwilling wage slaves. Meanwhile, with the automation of more and more processes that used to take a five-minute

A Charming Suggestion: Bring Back the Tickets

A Charming Suggestion: Bring Back the Tickets

Bailey Sincox at Public Books

Ben Franklin and the Mouse

Ben Franklin and the Mouse

How I finally accepted multi-tasking It had been there for years, but I had never noticed it. Until one morning when I found myself with a telephone receiver tucked under my neck while I talked with an acquaintance, a computer mouse in my hand while I surfed the Internet, and

Cell Phones, Radio, and the Philosophy of Marshall McLuhan

Cell Phones, Radio, and the Philosophy of Marshall McLuhan

Breaking down a 21st-century matter by bringing back a 1960s icon. My first cell phone was the Motorola RAZR V3. That was in 2005. I didn’t use it a lot at first, but it made me more accessible to my clients. I would often use it to return calls