But he is far more than that. A cha­ris­matic figure, whose remarkable per­ception propelled him onto the inter­national stage, McLuhan became the prophet of the new information age.

In his own time he drew both ac­col­ades and criticism for his intuitive vision, his steady stream of thought-provoking metaphors, and fast-for­ward glimpses into a world where software would eclipse hardware and the power of mass media would eclipse the power of government. The information superhighway fulfilled his perceptive observation that the world would ultimately become a "global village."