Author Paul Levinson Discusses Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media

In the following keynote address given at Baylor University, author Paul Levinson discusses Canadian philosopher and academic Marshall McLuhan's seminal book, "Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man," which proposed that the media--not the content that they carry-- affects the society in which it plays a role and, thus, should be the focus of study. Levinson, a colleague of McLuhan’s, lays out, how in the decades since its 1964 publication, McLuhan’s study of media theory and the concept that "the medium is the message," still holds true.Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor at Fordham University. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (winner of the Locus Award for Best First Science Fiction Novel of 1999), The Consciousness Plague (winner of the 2003 Mary Shelley Award for outstanding fictional work), The Pixel Eye, Borrowed Tides, The Plot to Save Socrates, Unburning Alexandria, Chronica, and It's Real Life. His novelette “The Chronology Protection Case” was made into a short film and is on Amazon Prime Video. His novelette, “Robinson Calculator,” was published in the Robots Through the Ages anthology in July 2023. He was President of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) 1998-2001. His nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge, Digital McLuhan, and New New Media, have been translated into 15 languages. His 1972 album, Twice Upon A Rhyme, was re-issued in Japan and Korea in 2008, and in the U. K. in 2010. His first new album since 1972, Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time, was released by Old Bear Records and Light in the Attic Records in 2020.