A lot of the enjoyment of reading McLuhan is the same enjoyment that comes from reading a science fiction novel in that readers get to experience the guesses of the author regarding future technology.
With McLuhan, some of those predictions are yet to be seen but others have already come to pass and sometimes not as McLuhan would have predicted (particularly our supposed freedom from cars that use gas)
One thing I'd like to talk briefly about that isn't necessarily a prediction of McLuhan's but fits his theories nicely is the way that video games play into his ideas about games. McLuhan seems to cover a number of now very modern topics about games including their function as a stress reliever and as an extension of people and their desires. McLuhan states
Like our vernacular tongues, all games are media of interpersonal communicationI'm particularly fond of this idea of games being a release from the machine, especially because in the instance of video games, we have a release from the metaphorical machine that controls our lives in favor of an actual machine that allows us to extend ourselves through our nervous system into what in some ways is both a cool and hot media. It's difficult for me to imagine how McLuhan might react to the current state of video games and whether or not he'd agree with some of Bogost's claims about the value of persuasive games, but I would be most interested to see if he still thinks that through this medium we still extend our immediate inner lives. I'm sure he could see some metaphorical level to which we live vicariously through the characters that represent us or that we fill some sort of needed fantasy. Perhaps he may even see the relation as more direct where the dragons we slay are our immediate life obstacles and the points we earn are symbolic of real life achievements. It would either be that, or McLuhan would acknowledge video games much the same way that he shows some level of distaste towards MAD magazine.
and they could have neither existence nor meaning except as extensions of our immediate inner lives. . .
Do not our favorite games provide a release from the monopolistic tyranny of the social machine?
What do the rest of you think. Are video games the ultimate realization of McLuhan's ideas or are they somewhere on their own?