The Resonating Interval:
Exploring the Process of the Tetrad
By Anthony Hempell
Tetrads: Present
Computer

The computer is the transitional technology which, by most accounts, will shape a transformation from a manufacturing consumer society to an information-based knowledge society. The computer may also be the great divider of the Western world, carving a socio-economic cleft between those who have access and understanding of information technology and those who do not (the "information haves and have-nots").

Far more than just a collection of microchips and transistors accelerating the task of data processing, the macro-environment of computers both reduces human experience to discrete bits of "on" and "off," while at the same time allowing the rebirth of metaphor and communication as a prime factor in the negotiation of everyday life (the graphical user interface, for example).

Table 10: Tetrad of "Computer" (McLuhan & Powers, pp.176-7)

(A) Enhancement
Accelerates logical sequential calculations to speed of light
Retrieves quantitative power of numbers
(C) Retrieval
[tetrad diagram]
(D) Reversal
Flips into the simultaneous from the sequential; produces pattern recognition
Erodes or bypasses mechanical processes
(B) Obsolescence

Accelerates logical sequential calculations to speed of light:
Like the telegraph, which accelerated communication to light speed, the computer compresses the time required to process data. Once valuable enough to be considered a public resource (libraries), information now becomes a processed, packaged commodity.
Back to diagram
Erodes or bypasses mechanical processes and human logic in all sequential operations:
The decline of the machine age, of mechanical industrialization; the so-called "information society" takes its place. The dissolution of hierarchies, monopolies of knowledge, and the federal state. Also, the decline of the traditional mass media, in favour of micro-media (fragmentation of audience markets) and meta-media (navigational tools for the roving cyberconsultant: Wired, etc).
Back to diagram
Retrieves quantitative power of numbers; highlights "numbers is all" philosophy, and reduces numbering to body count by touch:
Mystical reverence for numbers; the return of mythology and non-hierarchical spirituality/consciousness; search for content and reference points for stabilizing culture within the data stream.