My Innis idea file
My attempt at using Innis as an idea file:
"In the Reformation print was used to overwhelm sculpture and architecture as interpreters of the scriptures." (128)
Particular forms built up around print: magazines, epics, treatises, essays, novels, pamphlets, comics. Looking at this quote, I think Innis would say that the Internet's unique forms are still beginning. We see blogs, podcasts, video sharing, but I think the defining character of the Internet will come later. I have a hard time backing it up, but I think Innis would agree.
"The capacity to concentrate on intense cultural activity during a short period of time and to mobilize intellectual resources over a vast territory assumes to a large extent the development of armed force to a high state of efficiency." (133)
"Under the influence of the state, communication among themselves has become more difficult for scientists with the same political background and practically impossible for those with a difficult political background, because of the importance attached to war." (193)
The "over a vast territory" caught my eye. Has the Internet changed this? Do you still need a strong, efficient army to mobilize intellectual resources? As he points out many times, Innis could not help the strong effect WWII had on his views of science. I think this sentence comes from that experience. In the next major war, the Internet may make military control of information much more difficult than in 1943.
"The post office became an object of intense political interest and after 1825 a federal postal department was separated from the revenue system and made independent." (162)
The battle over net neutrality rings out in this comment.
"Western newspapers were at a disadvantage in time since news tended to spread from east to west" (175)
Information flow in time was a distinct characteristic of all pre-electronic media. The Internet has all but dissolved that relationship. Innis would say that we are the bottleneck in the flow now; our human information processing abilities are the slow point in the chain. (Or, maybe that's just me channeling Innis to say what I want.)