This commercial illustrates very clearly the Lewis Mumford quotation from the original post: “Glass helped put the world in a frame: it made it possible to see certain elements of reality more clearly; and it focussed attention on a sharply defined field – namely, that which was bounded by the frame.” The little girl literally sees a field which is labelled “field,” and a house which is labelled “house,” etc. She hones in on aspects of the field and enlarges it, focusing her attention on it. I’m sure the glass people see this as a great technological advance, but it could be that this kind of glass mediating our connection to the world will isolate us even further from that world. I guess that’s your point, Nick, but I’m just struck by how well this commercial underscores it.
This commercial illustrates very clearly the Lewis Mumford quotation from the original post: “Glass helped put the world in a frame: it made it possible to see certain elements of reality more clearly; and it focussed attention on a sharply defined field – namely, that which was bounded by the frame.” The little girl literally sees a field which is labelled “field,” and a house which is labelled “house,” etc. She hones in on aspects of the field and enlarges it, focusing her attention on it. I’m sure the glass people see this as a great technological advance, but it could be that this kind of glass mediating our connection to the world will isolate us even further from that world. I guess that’s your point, Nick, but I’m just struck by how well this commercial underscores it.