Increasing Returns and Red Queens

Igbokwe, Module 6 Assignment EDUC 8846 Increasing Returns and Red Queens - Blog Posting

According to McLuhan, every technology does the following four things:
• Extends some human trait or experience
• Obsolesces an established way of doing things
• Retrieves a long-lost method or experience
• Reverses into its opposite, if pushed far enough

When I decided to obtain a DVD for my science fiction assignment in Module 4, I went to Block Busters to rent the movies. I think that the competition between DVDs and video on demand is an excellent example of Red Queens. I already find DVDs very convenient, easy to use and the introduction of video on demand is an attempt to provide an additional convenience for movie viewer so that they do not have to leave home to get what they need. Obviously movie on demand is cutting greatly and rapidly into the market of movie distributors. Now, producers of movies can easily cut off the middle man (the distributors) and deal directly with consumers.
When this trend is considered with McLuhan’s tetrad, one can easily conclude that DVD is heading towards obsolesce while the technology of “movie on demand” is emerging to replace DVDs. One can state that movie on demand serves as if one is simply tuning the TV which in away retrieves the system we are most used to.


References:
Thornburg, D. (2008c). Red Queens, butterflies, and strange attractors: Imperfect lenses into emergent technologies. Lake Barrington, IL: Thornburg Center for Space Exploration.
Joel Pearce's laws for DVD reviews http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/mcluhanswake.php