Abstract Numbers Close at Hand: The Tactile, Numbers and Money in McLuhan’s Works

Abstract

McLuhan’s idea of media as extensions of our physical senses has drawn considerable interest among communication scholars. In this article we present two media he addresses as representing extensions of human touch, or what he deems tactility, namely numbers and money. We discuss how the Canadian thinker positioned these media as extensions of the sense of touch, and what he meant by it, and how that conceptualization strikes us as both fascinating and practical because it allows us to grasp our current love of numbers and quantitative information. Our proposal seeks to enliven the debate around the abstract value of numbers and money, and provides a line of argument for expanding our understanding of media as extensions of our senses. Finally, we offer a discussion about our current times, how debt has gone beyond our grasp, and how the financial market becomes the oracle of the unfathomable numbers that rule our economy.