As an intensification and extension of the visual function, the phonetic alphabet diminishes the role of the other senses of sound and touch and taste in any literate culture. The fact that this does not happen in cultures such as the Chinese, which use nonphonetic scripts, enables them to retain a rich store of inclusive perception in depth of experience that tends to become eroded in civilized cultures of the phonetic alphabet. For the ideogram is an inclusive gestalt, not an analytic dissociation of senses and functions like phonetic writing. A hot medium is low in participation, requiring little except passive acceptance of information. A cool medium is high in participation, requiring work, because information is acquired by filling in the blanks.
High definition is the state of being well filled with data.
Telephone is a cool medium, or one of low definition, because the ear is given a meager amount of information. And speech is a cool medium by low definition, because so little is given and so much has to be filled in by the listener. On the other hand, hot media do not leave so much to be filled in or completed by the audience. Hot media are, therefore, low in participation, and cool media are high in participation or completion by the audience. The Extensions of Man Using this labeling system, computer interactivity is so cool, it borders on the cold.