In his book Understanding Media, McLuhan quoted a fable told by Zhuangzi. In this fable, Zhuangzi borrowed a farmer's words: "I heard that my teacher, if there is a machine, there must be organic things, and if there is an organic thing, there must be an organic heart. If the machine is in the chest, it will be unprepared, and if it is not prepared, it will be uncertain; God is uncertain, and Tao does not contain it. ..... Please explain what argument McLuhan used Zhuangzi's fable to illustrate.

The answer is as follows:

1) This ancient prose means:

I heard this from my teacher. With such things as machinery, such things as cleverness are bound to happen, and with such things as cleverness, such things as machine transformation are bound to happen. The mind changes, so the pure state of mind that is not polluted by the world is incomplete; If the pure state of mind is incomplete, then the spirit will not be single-minded and stable; A person whose spirit is not single-minded and stable will not enrich his mind. ...

2) McLuhan quoted Zhuangzi to explain that technological change not only changes living habits, but also changes the way of thinking and evaluation, which has a great and profound impact on people's thinking. Mcluhan believes that, first of all, the influence of the media is more profound than the information conveyed by the media. Only when human beings have certain media can they engage in communication and other social activities related to it. The truly meaningful and valuable information is the nature of the communication tools used in this era, the possibility of its creation, and the social changes it brings. Secondly, any media is just the expansion or extension of human feelings and senses. Different media affect people's sensory center and way of thinking by acting on different senses. This is McLuhan's view that "media is information" and "media is an extension of human beings".