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COOL

McCluhan, in "Understanding
Media" provided a unique
definition for "Coolness"...

A cool media is personally engaging.
A hot media is one that encourages                   CLOUDY
passivity.

   To my eye, he conflates two
   different characteristics in
   this one scale: "High Definition"
   media is definitely "Hot",
   but he also talks about what                          Virtual Reality:
   we would call "interactivity"                         Hot or Cold?
   at the same time.

      He calls Radio a "Hot" medium
      in comparision to the "Cool"
      Telephone.

        But if a cool media is one
        that bombards you with a          But obviously, "definition"
        relatively small amount of        (which we often call "bandwidth"
        bits per second, then TV is       these days) is a continuum, and
        Hot.  Radio is Cool.              in comparision to TV, Radio is
                                          at least cooler.

   Cool people then, like radio
   because it is a cool medium,                And what if we compare
   perhaps because it requires                 television to the even
   (or at least allows) a greater              higher definition
   use of your imagination than                movies-shown-in-theaters?
   Hot media like TV, which just
   hands everything to you and                    Arguably, the theater
   requires only passive                          environment is more
   reception of the information.                  engaging than television,
                                                  but for still a third
   On the other hand, people                      sort of reason: the
   driving cars like cool media,                  relative absence of
   because the main part of their                 distraction and
   attention is taken up by what                  interruption.
   they're doing.  They can't
   afford the total engagement a                     And possibly...
   "hot" media requires.                             because it's *less*
                                                     interactive?  You
                                                     don't have the option
        There's an older, almost                     of channel flipping,
        forgotten definition of "cool",              and so you don't go
        as in "playing it cool", which               without making a
        means keeping a low profile so               commitment to focus.
        the authorities will leave you
        alone.  Painting your car in
        psychedelic day-glo colors would
        therefore not be "cool".



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