A 1995 chart by Bob Dobbs synthesizing his two 1985 charts (bottom-up and top-down) into a single integrated media history . Available at ionandbob.com under "Bob Dobbs' Charts," at the bottom of the page. The chart that the Tiny Note Chart (see dialogue 9 and following) was pulled from.
Structure
The chart maps media history from 1750 to 2020 using the Finnegans Wake family as the structural framework:
- Left half-stage (ALP / bottom-up ground): "effects preceding causes" — the environmental, emergent media ground
- Right half-stage (HCE / top-down bureaucratic ground): "causes (in quotes) merging with effects" — the managerial, bureaucratic response
- Figures (Shem, Shaun, Issy / actors): the previous anti-environments, retrievals, interior landscape — labelled "Anthropomorphic Physical, sociological, psychological, mask, or leg"
Top formula line
Co-evolutionary anticipatory mimesis = how the media archetypes fit the Battle of Jericho in American politics
Drawing on McLuhan's Explorations essay "The Media Fit the Battle of Jericho" (c. 1955, issue ~5) and "The Media as Political Art Form." The phrase "anticipatory" invokes McLuhan's early 1970s "anticipatory democracy" vs. "participatory democracy."
Media eras and political figures
| Media ground (ALP) | Dates (HCE) | HCE lockdown | Political figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telegraph | 1750–1800 | Industrial government | Washington (1776) |
| Movies | 1800–1840 | Electrical government | Jefferson (1810) |
| Radio | 1840–1900 | Lockdown half world gov't | Lincoln (1860) |
| Television | 1900–1918 | Lockdown half world gov't | Roosevelt (1932) |
| Computer / Atom Bomb | 1918–1945 | Lockdown other half | Kennedy |
| Satellite / Laser Beam | 1945–1960 | Lockdown solar government | Nixon (1968) |
| Holeopathic Cliché Probes | 1960–1980s | Universal government | Reagan (1980) |
| Anthropomorphic Physical | 1980s–2020 | Mythic government | Perot / "Bob Rule" |
Key concepts embedded in the chart
- Effects preceding causes: Each media era's effects are felt 50–100 years before the technology officially appears (e.g., Franklin's kite experiments 1750 predate the telegraph by 90 years; Romantic poetry has cinematic effects 60 years before film).
- Kuhn (Bob Dobbs neologism): cartoon + quark — signaling the miniaturization of media and people in the computer/atom bomb era. Murray Gell-Mann named quarks from Finnegans Wake in 1963.
- Holeopathic (Bob Dobbs coinage): hologram + homeopathy. The hologram people live in gets smaller (digital miniaturization) while retaining its full imprint. This is the phase where "ground as technology is swallowed by ground as image."
- ALP/HCE flip: In the holeopathic phase, HCE becomes ground (virtual image world) and ALP becomes figure (women taking over top-down industrial roles, second-wave feminism, women in intelligence/security bureaucracies).
Across the dialogues
Previewed — the 1995 synthesis of the two 1985 charts, organized around the Joyce family
The chart is organized around the characters of Finnegans Wake — the Joyce family supplies its structure.
"it's organized around the characters of Finnegans Wake."
The 1995 formula chart synthesizes Bob's two 1985 charts (bottom-up and top-down) into one.
"So I put the two charts together… the formula chart is the two charts from 10 years before, 1985, together."
Walked through with Cameron — more sequential than the tiny note chart, and judged a recreation of McLuhan rather than a replay
The formula chart is more sequential, where the Tiny Note Chart pulled from it is meant to be simultaneous.
"this chart is more sequential, but the tiny note chart is meant to be simultaneous."
Cameron's assessment — conceiving a chart built on McLuhan is itself a contribution, a recreation rather than a mere replay.
"to conceive of this kind of chart built on McLuhan is itself a contribution… It's not just a replay of McLuhan. It's a recreation."
Read down to its flatline bottom — its top levels, seven and eight, pulled up into the Tiny Note Chart
The chart's bottom register is where ground gives out entirely — Cameron's clinical image reads it as a terminal diagnosis, the culture's vital signal gone flat at the end of the descent.
"Flatline like a heart monitor in the hospital."
The holeopathic Cliché Probes line reads memes as the cultural enemy, with satellite and laser beam as the weaponry.
"holopathic cliche probes are memes. So you've got memes as the enemy"
Levels seven and eight of the chart become the Tiny Note Chart; the flatline sits at the bottom.
"seven and eight become the tiny note chart. The flat line is at the bottom of the chart."
Left behind and superseded by the Tiny Note Chart — its unfinished business now the question of time
Cameron reads the chart's flatline as both the collapse of earlier answers and the clue Bob carries into the Tiny Note Chart.
"the flat line represents both a disintegration of previous answers and previous attempts at unriddling and the clue."
The chart's chief problem is time — causes that "run before themselves," so the effect shows before the cause.
"the formula chart is illustrative of how one of the chief problems that you're shuffling all the time is the question of time."
The chart's "Bob Rule" must be read as a chemical-body person — "not some sort of Weltgeist" — who in fact ruled nothing.
"the lockdown Bob rule did not actually rule anything. Everything was chaotic and got out of hand."
The merged chart behind "anybody" — Bob traces his anonymous narrator to the chart’s five bodies having "merged," so "any-body" with a hyphen is the chart read as a single indeterminate body
The chart behind "anybody" — Bob traces his anonymous narrator to the chart’s Five Bodies having "merged," so the hyphenated "any-body" is the chart read as a single indeterminate body.
"that my five-body model, the bodies had merged."
Connections
1995 chart synthesizing Bob's two 1985 charts into one integrated media history.
Organized around the characters of Finnegans Wake — the Joyce family as structural framework.
The top formula line draws on McLuhan's Explorations essay "The Media Fit the Battle of Jericho."
Its holeopathic phase — "ground as technology swallowed by ground as image" — anticipates the Android Meme.