Marshall McLuhan (1911–80) was an unlikely prophet of the information age. One of those who first saw the truth in the vatic pronouncements of this obscure academic was a talented young journalist named Tom Wolfe, who helped champion McLuhan’s ideas in the 1960s. Here, Wolfe reflects on the unexpected sources and continuing impact of McLuhan’s vision.
Come with me back to the 1990s::::::and the Silicon Valley::::::and the Internet euphoria::::::and the two www.saintly-souls who first prophesied the coming of the World Wide Web::::::
It was November of 1999, and I was in Palo Alto, California, the Silicon Valley’s de facto capital. Right here in the Valley the computer industry had produced 14 new billionaires in the preceding 12 months. I saw billionaires every morning at breakfast. Every morning; the Valley’s power breakfast scene was a restaurant called Il Fornaio, which happened to be on the ground floor of my hotel, the Garden Court. I loved the show. You couldn’t have kept me away.