What’s
your probe?

Marshall McLuhan used the word probe to describe his way of approaching problems. “Most of my work is like that of a safecracker,” he said. “In the beginning I don't know what's inside. I just set myself down in front of the problem and begin to work. I grope, I listen, I test, I accept and discard; I try out different sequences—until the tumblers fall and the doors spring open.”

Like the unmanned probes we send into deep space, a probe lands in unfamiliar territory and returns something of value. Not an answer—an opening. They make us think: there is more there.

In 1970, McLuhan remarked: “The problem of private identity vs. tribal involvement has become one of the crosses of our time.” He named a tension but didn't resolve it. A perfect probe.