Chapter 1 Flashcards
(45 cards)
oracular,
mysterious, enigmatic, little weird”_____, gnomic, and mind-bending, the book was a perfect product of the sixties, …”
gnomic,
short catchy phrase/statements”Oracular, _____, and mind-bending, the book was a perfect product of the sixties, …”
prophecy,
a prediction, magical look in the future, “Understanding Media was at heart a ___, and what it ___ed was the dissolution of the linear mind.”
decry,
express strong disapproval of”Enthusiasts celebrate it: skeptics ___ it.”
relic,
an antiquity that has survived from the distant past”Today it (Understanding Media) has become a cultural ___.”
aphorism,
a short pithy instructive saying”What’s been forgotten in our repetition of this enigmatic ____ is that..”
oblivious,
lacking conscious awareness of”He was also sounding a warning about the threat the power poses - and the risk of being ____ to that threat.”
skeptics,
someone who habitually doubts accepted beliefs”Enthusiasts celebrate it: ___ decry it.”
torrent,
overwhelming number/amount, heavy rain”Enthusiasts, with good reason, praise the ___ of new content that the technology uncorks,…”
crassness,
(of persons) so unrefined as to be lacking in discrimination and sensibility”Skeptics, with equally good reason, condemn the ___ of the content…signalling a ‘dumbing down’ of culture.”
hubris
overbearing pride, excess of confidence”The implication, comforting in its ___, is that we’re in control”
bemoan,
regret strongly,”golden age of access and participation and the latter ___ a new dark age of mediocrity and narcissism.”
mediocrity,
quality of being average/ordinary, not outstanding”golden age of access and participation and the latter bemoaning a new dark age of ___ and narcissism.”
Luddite,
opponent of technological progress, one of the 19th century English workmen who destroyed laborsaving machinery that they thought would cause unemployment
Philistine,
a person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits / a member of an Aegean people who settled ancient Philistia around the 12th century BC,
Cassandra,
(Greek mythology) a prophetess in Troy during the Trojan War whose predictions were true but were never believed
Pollyanna,
an excessively cheerful or optimistic person
inert,
unable to move or resist motion”The technology is just a tool, ___ until we pick it up and ___ again when we set it aside.”
prone,
having a tendency to / lying face downDavid Sarnoff: “‘We are too ___ to make technological instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them.”
scoff,
To laugh at someone with scorn”McLuhan ___ at the idea, chiding Sarnoff for speaking with ‘the voice of the current somnambulism’”
chide,
to ride them or get on their case, without really getting in their face.”McLuhan scoffed at the idea, _____ Sarnoff for speaking with ‘the voice of the current somnambulism’”
bulldozes
flatten with or as if with a bulldozer”The computer screen ___ our doubts”
implacable,
just can’t be appeased”HAL pleads with the ___ astronaut Dave Bowman in a famous scene”
