The Human Equation: The Constant in Human Development and Culture from Pre-Literacy to Post-Literacy -- Book 1, The Human Equation Toolkit

By Wayne Constantineau and Eric McLuhan

The first of five books in the groundbreaking new series The Human Equation Toolkit.

Mime Wayne Constantineau and scholar Eric McLuhan explore the four possible positions of humans -- standing, lying down, sitting, and kneeling -- as the basis of all developments in culture, science, activity, and media. As they write, "Man is the microcosm of the universe. Media are the extensions of man. The Human Equation is the doorway into all three ... The Human Equation deals with the relation between humans and our media, technologies, languages, theories, and ideas."

• Language: English
• Publisher: BPS Books
• Release date: Oct 21, 2010
• ISBN: 9781926645445

Wayne Constantineau

The late Wayne Constantineau was a mime and scholar who left behind him, at his death in 2006, his studies on mime and the insights of Marshall McLuhan. Eric McLuhan, who is bringing these studies to fruition in The Human Equation Toolkit, is also the author of Laws of Media (written with Marshall McLuhan), Electric Language, and The Role of Thunder in Finnegans Wake. He is also the editor of several collections of his father's work.

Book preview

THE HUMAN EQUATION

The Human Equation is Book 1 in The Human Equation Toolkit, a series of books and other materials flowing from the life and work of mime and scholar Wayne Constantineau, and the work of Eric McLuhan. (Please see Publisher’s Note at the end of this book.)

THE HUMAN EQUATION

The Constant in Human

Development and Culture

From Pre-Literacy

To Post-Literacy

Book 1

The Human Equation Toolkit

Wayne Constantineau

and

Eric McLuhan

Illustrations by Heidi Overhill

The Human Equation Toolkit Project Team:

Text © 2010 by Eric McLuhan and Heidi Overhill.

Illustrations pp. 85-91 © author unknown.

All rights reserved. No translation or reproduction in any form is permitted without the written consent of the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-926645-34-6

Cataloguing-in-Publication Data available from Library and Archives Canada.

Published in 2010 by

BPS Books

Toronto and New York

bpsbooks.com

A division of

Bastian Publishing Services Ltd.

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to express their gratitude to Henry Rodrigues and Ned Insurance for the generous financial assistance which made it possible to publish this book.

Dedication

Scholar and mime Wayne Constantineau faced his imminent death with grace and fortitude in the summer of 2006, with a small team of supporters gathered around him. Many were close friends of many years, past collaborators in his varied adventures. Dennis and Dianne Hayes provided the central care and comfort that made it possible for Wayne to stay out of hospital in his last months. Others brought cameras, or computers, to help bring his life’s work to fruition in the form of this series of small books and other media. Others gave of their time and skills. This task, which remained only partly finished at his death, is now finding expression through this creation of The Human Equation Toolkit. This work represents, I feel, an important development of the living legacy of media studies left by my father, Marshall McLuhan. I am proud to have been able to complete the writing of this book and the rest of the series.

Eric McLuhan

Prince Edward County, Ontario

Table of Contents

Introduction: Posture and Action

1 /  The Human Equation

2 /  Proto-Technological Development: Our First Tools

3 /  The Equation’s Purpose

4 /  The Equation in Planning and Design

5 /  The Minimum and Maximum of Universal Wisdom

6 /  System Dynamics

7 /  Human Language and Communication

8 /  From Our Origins to the Electric Age

9 /  The Building Blocks of Global Culture

Publisher’s Note

Index of Equations

When the evolutionary process shifts from biology to software technology, the body becomes the old hardware environment. The human body is now a probe, a lab for experiments.

—Marshall McLuhan

The aspects of things that are most important