The world-renowned communications theorist and cultural critic often called the “Oracle of the Electronic Age,” Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) was born on this day in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Known for seeing what others missed, McLuhan made the invisible visible.

He once observed, “A moral point of view too often serves as a substitute for understanding in technological matters.” His brilliance lay in naming the things no one else thought to question.

An English professor at the University of Toronto, McLuhan is best remembered for teaching that “the medium is the message.” He examined how television and electronic media weren’t just tools—but forces that were transforming consciousness, culture, and connection. He coined the concept of a “global electronic village.”

A lover of aphorisms and paradox, McLuhan wasn’t shy about controversy. Celebrating the creative force of advertising, he once quipped: “The ads are by far the best part of any magazine or newspaper... Ads are news. What is wrong with them is that they are always good news.”

Inspired by the spiritual philosophy of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, McLuhan categorized media into “hot” and “cool” types. His groundbreaking works—The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) and Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964)—explored how mass media reshaped modern life and the way we perceive reality.

Part prophet, part pop icon, McLuhan’s “massage” and message still ripple through every tweet, text, and broadcast. His insight remains timeless: media is not neutral.

“The artist,” he said, “is the person in any field, scientific or humanistic, who grasps the implications of their actions and new knowledge in their own time. They are the ones with integral awareness.”