Technology Impact

A structured framework for analyzing technology impacts using McLuhan's four-effect tetrad: what a technology enhances, obsoletes, retrieves from the past, and reverses into when pushed to extremes. You get systematic prompts across economic, social, political, educational, healthcare, and environmental domains, plus stakeholder analysis templates and temporal projections. The anti-patterns section is genuinely useful, calling out stuff like only analyzing benefits or treating all users as homogeneous. Use this when you need to think through second and third-order consequences of tech adoption, whether for product planning, policy work, or just understanding why your communication tool somehow made everyone lonelier. The smartphone example shows how it works in practice.

skills.sh installs: 385
GitHub stars: 182
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add jwynia/agent-skills --skill technology-impact --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Technology Impact Analysis (McLuhan Tetrad)

Purpose

Systematically analyze the societal impacts of technologies using McLuhan's Tetrad of Media Effects. Examines what technology enhances, obsoletes, retrieves, and reverses to reveal non-obvious consequences.

Core Framework: The Tetrad

Every technology simultaneously has four effects:

Effect	Question	What It Reveals
Enhancement	What does it amplify?	Primary capabilities increased
Obsolescence	What does it displace?	What becomes less relevant
Retrieval	What does it bring back?	Historical patterns revived
Reversal	What does it become when pushed to extreme?	Paradoxical consequences