Paul Virilio - Professor of Philosophy - Quotes

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PAUL VIRILIO - QUOTES

"I do not at all believe in what I call automatic democracy. I believe in reflection, not reflex." Virilio, Paul. "The virtual city is the city of all cities. It is each important city (Singapore. Rotterdam, Paris, Milan, etc.) becoming the borough of a hypercity, while ordinary cities become in some sense suburbs.This metropolization of cities leads us to conceive of a hypercenter, a real-time city, and thousands of cities left to their own devices. If I am correct, this would lead to a pauperization, not of continents but of cities, in all regions of the world." Virilio, Paul. "For thirty years now, the phenomenon of History accelerating has been negated, together with the fact that this acceleration has been the prime cause of the proliferation of major accidents. Freud said it, speaking of death: "accumulation snuffs out the perception of contingency". Contingency is the key word here. These accidents are not contingent occurrences. For the time being, the prevalent opinion is that researching the crash of the stock exchange as a political and economic issue and in terms of its social consequences is adequate enough. But it is impossible to understand what is going on if one does not implement a (policy based on the) political economy of speed, the speed that technological progress engenders, and if one does not link (this policy) to the 'accidental' character of History..." Virilio, Paul. "We have moved from the stage of the acceleration of History to that of the acceleration of the Real. This is what 'the progress' is: a consensual sacrifice." Virilio, Paul. "The speed of light does not merely trans!form the world. It be!comes the world. Glob!al!i!sa!tion is the speed of light." Virilio, Paul. "War was my uni!ver!sity. Every!thing has pro!ceeded from there." Virilio, Paul. "The first de!ter!rence, nu!clear de!ter!rence, is presently being su!per!seded by the sec!ond de!ter!rence: a type of de!ter!rence based on what I call 'the in!for!ma!tion bomb' as!so!ci!ated with the new weaponry of in!for!ma!tion and com!mu!ni!ca!tions tech!nolo!gies. Thus, in the very near fu!ture, and I stress this im!por!tant point, it will no longer be war that is the con!tin!u!a!tion of pol!i!tics by other means, it will be what I have dubbed 'the in!te!gral accident' that is the con!tin!u!a!tion of pol!i!tics by other means." Virilio, Paul. "Each time a wall is reached, there is a retreat. And history has just struck the wall of worldwide time. With live transmission, local time no longer creates history. Worldwide time does. In other words, real time conquers real space, space-time. We must reflect on this paradoxical situation which places us in a kind of outside-time. Faced as we are with this time accident, an accident with no equal." Virilio, Paul. "But now the travelers are traveled. Dreamers are dreamed. They are no longer free to move about, they are traveled by the program. They are no longer free to dream, they are dreamed by the program." Virilio, Paul. "Cybersex is really the civil war of sex, since people are divided by it." Virilio, Paul. "Two attitudes are possible with respect to these new technologies: one declares them a miracle; the othermine recognizes that they are interesting while maintaining a critical attitude." Virilio, Paul and Jerome Sans (Interviewer)."Game of Love and Chance: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "There are two ways of understanding the notion of play: playing cards, dominos, checkers; or the play of a mechanical part when it is loose in its housing. I think, in fact, that the second is the angle from which we should envision play today. Play is not something that brings pleasure; on the contrary, it expresses a shift in reality, an unaccustomed mobility with respect to reality. To play today, in a certain sense, means to choose between two realities."
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Virilio, Paul and Jerome Sans (Interviewer)."Game of Love and Chance: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "A concrete factual reality: meet someone, love that person, make love to that person. Or, the game reality: use the technologies of cybersex to meet that person from a distance, without touching or risk of contamination, contact without contact." Virilio, Paul and Jerome Sans (Interviewer)."Game of Love and Chance: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "Gamblers cant do without chancethey are addicted to it and cant break the habit. I believe that alongside those addicted to chance, to roulette, to cards, or to any game, a new kind of addict is forming: the addict of the virtual. People who cant do without virtuality will become hooked on virtuality and will find themselves in an awkward position, torn between these two realities. We can see it on Wall Street and in the stock markets, already casinos where the "traders" or "golden boys" play with the virtuality of international markets which are increasingly disconnected from the economic reality of the world." Virilio, Paul and Jerome Sans (Interviewer)."Game of Love and Chance: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "Now video games or the more sophisticated games of tomorrow's virtual reality will induce this same desire for death. A desire to cross the boundary." Virilio, Paul and Jerome Sans (Interviewer)."Game of Love and Chance: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "What interests me today in the state of play is cybersex, because it seems to be the most extraordinary aspect of social deregulation." Virilio, Paul and Jerome Sans (Interviewer)."Game of Love and Chance: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "As I said in my book LInertie Polaire, what's on its way is the planet man, the self-sufficient man who, with the help of technology, no longer needs to reach out to others because others come to him. With cybersexuality, he doesn't need to make at love at his partner's house, love comes to him instantly, like a fax or a message on the electronic highway. The future lies in cosmic solitude. I picture a weightless individual in a little ergonomic armchair, suspended outside a space capsule, with the earth below and the interstellar void above. A man with his own gravity, who no longer needs a relationship to society, to those around him, and least of all to a family." Virilio, Paul and Jerome Sans (Interviewer)."Game of Love and Chance: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "The division of perception into two realities causes a blurring comparable to intoxication: we are seeing double. It's impossible to imagine what this will ultimately produce, several generations down the road. To live in one reality and then, from time to time, enter another, through a night of drinking or hallucinogens, is one thing. But to live all the time through telecommunication and the electronic highway is another. I don't think we can even imagine what it may provoke in people's minds and in society to live constantly with this "stereo-reality." It is absolutely without precedent." Virilio, Paul and Jerome Sans (Interviewer)."Game of Love and Chance: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "Play at being a critic. Deconstruct the game in order to play with it. Instead of accepting the rules, challenge and modify them. Without the freedom to critique and reconstruct, there is no truly free game: we are addicts and nothing more." Virilio, Paul and Jerome Sans (Interviewer)."Game of Love and Chance: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "Yes, I am a victim of war, a "war baby." I was born in 1932, along with the rise of fascism. As a child I lived through the horrors of the Second World War, through the reign of technology as absolute terror." Virilio Paul and James Der Derian (Interviewer). "Future War: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "I was interested in cinema as cinematisme, that is the putting into movement of images. We are approaching the limit that is the speed of light. This is a significant historical event." Virilio Paul and James Der Derian (Interviewer). "Future War: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "Cinema interested me enormously for its kinematic roots; all my work is dromological. After having treated metabolic speed, the role of the cavalry in history, the speed of the human body, the athletic body, I became interested in technological speed." Virilio Paul and James Der Derian (Interviewer). "Future War: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "The logistics of perception began by encompassing immediate perception, which is to say that of elevated sites, of the tower, of the telescope. War is waged from high points. The logistics of perception was from the start the geographic logistics of domination from an elevated site. Thus the "field of battle" which is also a "field of perception" - a theater of operation - will develop on the level of perception of the tower, of the fortified castle or on the level of perception of the bombardier." Virilio Paul and James Der Derian (Interviewer). "Future War: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date.
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Paul Virilio - Professor of Philosophy - Quotes

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"Thus we have a development of the battlefield corresponding to the development of the field of perception made possible by technical advancements, successively through the technologies of geometrical optics: that of the telescope, of wave-optics, of electro-optics; that of the electro-magnetic transmission of a signal in video; and, of course, computer graphics, that is to say the new multi-media. Henceforth the battlefield is global. It is no longer "worldwide" [mondialise] in the sense of the First or Second World Wars. It is global in the sense of the planet. For every war implicates the "rotundity" [rotondit] of the earth, the sphere, the geosphere." Virilio Paul and James Der Derian (Interviewer). "Future War: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "I believe that these three revolutions and all that we were just saying lead to a technical "essentialism" [integrisme], a "cybercult". Just as there is religious "essentialism", there is a technical "essentialism" through technical fundamentalism, just as frightening as religious fundamentalism." Virilio Paul and James Der Derian (Interviewer). "Future War: a Discussion with Paul Virilio." in: Watson Institute. No Date. "Cybersex pushes this logic even farther. Its not divorce, it's the disintegration of the couple. You don't make love anymore because it's dangerous, because sometimes there are problemsone person may not be very skilled or the situation may get messy. So you use a kind of machine, a machine that transfers physical and sexual contact by waves. What is at play is no longer the connector rod in its housing, but the loss of what is most intimate in our experience of the body." Virilio Paul and Caroline Dumoucel (Interviewer) and Pauline Eiferman (Translator). "Paul Virilio." (Interview). in: Vice Magazine. September 2010. "The actor Louis Jouvet wrote, "Everything is suspect, except the body and its sensations." From now on, with virtuality and electronic copulation, even the body and its sensations will be suspect. In cybersex, one sees, touches, and smells. The only thing one cant do is taste the saliva or semen of the other. Its a super-condom." Virilio Paul and Caroline Dumoucel (Interviewer) and Pauline Eiferman (Translator). "Paul Virilio." (Interview). in: Vice Magazine. September 2010. "When computer science appeared in 1947-1948, computer scientists said it was the best of things but that it could also be the worst.We were coming out of a totalitarian period and computer science itself, through the birth of the computer, served in the struggle against totalitarianism. But the computer scientists of that time warned us that this new power must not become a"cybernetic" power, anew, worse totalitarianism. I am only forging a link with this tradition." Virilio, Paul and David Dufresne (Interviewer) and Jacques Houis (Translator). "Cyberesistance Figher - An Interview with Paul Virilio." in: Apres Coup Psychoanalytic Association. January 2005. "If the media are the Occupation, the multimedia are likely to be far worse. Just as they entail promise: the world citizen will be shaped by worldwide information. It's obvious. But we are not there yet. First we must fight against the negativity of the new technologies." Virilio, Paul and David Dufresne (Interviewer) and Jacques Houis (Translator). "Cyberesistance Figher - An Interview with Paul Virilio." in: Apres Coup Psychoanalytic Association. January 2005. "To invent something is to invent an accident. To invent the ship is to invent the shipwreck; the space shuttle, the explosion. And to invent the electronic superhighway or the Internet is to invent a major risk which is not easily spotted because it does not produce fatalities like a shipwreck or a mid-air explosion. The information accident is, sadly, not very visible. It is immaterial like the waves that carry information." Virilio, Paul and David Dufresne (Interviewer) and Jacques Houis (Translator). "Cyberesistance Figher - An Interview with Paul Virilio." in: Apres Coup Psychoanalytic Association. January 2005. "I am an art critic of technologies, a fan worried about the propagandistic and sudden nature of the new technologies. When machines begin to be idolized, social catastrophe is never far behind." Virilio, Paul and David Dufresne (Interviewer) and Jacques Houis (Translator). "Cyberesistance Figher - An Interview with Paul Virilio." in: Apres Coup Psychoanalytic Association. January 2005. "The Internet is a stunt designed to legitimize the future information superhighway. It is in kind publicity, a loss leader, very attractive as well, which therefore ensnares those who might have some reservations concerning information made worldwide. The goal of both the spiderweb and the Web is to catch everything." Virilio, Paul and David Dufresne (Interviewer) and Jacques Houis (Translator). "Cyberesistance Figher - An Interview with Paul Virilio." in: Apres Coup Psychoanalytic Association. January 2005. "If large corporations such as Time Warner, Microsoft, Disney,etc., are in the process of becoming giants, it is because they must be competitive on the worldwide level. The multinationals did not allaspire to worldwide status. But, today, a multinational corporation is necessarily faced with becoming worldwide. Hence, a considerable increase in publicity investment and an inevitable propaganda effect." Virilio, Paul and David Dufresne (Interviewer) and Jacques Houis (Translator). "Cyberesistance Figher - An Interview with Paul Virilio." in: Apres Coup Psychoanalytic Association. January 2005. "But you cannot focus on Internet and forget the rest of the information superhighway and the whole system. The term "linked" applies to a system of which Internet is only a part. The debate on the Decency Act is linked to a future media control." Virilio, Paul and David Dufresne (Interviewer) and Jacques Houis (Translator). "Cyberesistance Figher - An Interview with Paul Virilio." in: Apres Coup Psychoanalytic Association. January 2005.

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Paul Virilio - Professor of Philosophy - Quotes

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"There is an Internet sectorization and sectarianism, an integral part of worldwide becoming. The nation-state is superseded by smaller groupings. There is a deconstruction of the nation-state which does not mean a progression beyond but a regression to the tribes, to the special interest groups that had preceded the nation-state..." Virilio, Paul and David Dufresne (Interviewer) and Jacques Houis (Translator). "Cyberesistance Figher - An Interview with Paul Virilio." in: Apres Coup Psychoanalytic Association. January 2005. "The first deterrence, nuclear deterrence, is presently being superseded by the second deterrence: a type of deterrence based on what I call 'the information bomb' associated with the new weaponry of information and communications technologies. Thus, in the very near future, and I stress this important point, it will no longer be war that is the continuation of politics by other means, it will be what I have dubbed 'the integral accident' that is the continuation of politics by other means." Virilio, Paul and John Armitage (Interviewer) and Patrice Riemens (Translator.) "The Kosovo War Took Place In Orbital Space." in: CTheory. October 18, 2000. "Resistance is always possible! But we must engage in resistance first of all by developing the idea of a technological culture. However, at the present time, this idea is grossly underdeveloped. For example, we have developed an artistic and a literary culture. Nevertheless, the ideals of technological culture remain underdeveloped and therefore outside of popular culture and the practical ideals of democracy. This is also why society as a whole has no control over technological developments. And this is one of the gravest threats to democracy in the near future." Virilio, Paul and John Armitage (Interviewer) and Patrice Riemens (Translator.) "The Kosovo War Took Place In Orbital Space." in: CTheory. October 18, 2000. "The original industrial accidents as, for instance, the derailment of a train or the crash of an airplane, were all specific, localized, and particular accidents. They were taking place at a certain place and at a certain moment in time. Now, however, the revolution of instantaneous transmissions brought about by telecommunications makes the accident global." Virilio Paul and Andreas Ruby (Interviewer). "Surfing the Accident." in: Institute for the Unstable Media. Publication "The Art of the Accident." 1998. (English). "The industrial accident is still the kind of event that "takes place." The post-industrial accident, on the other hand, goes beyond a certain place, you may say that it does no longer "take place," but becomes an environment. The disaster that befell the Titanic involved only its passengers; the Millennium Bug will involve everybody on this Earth." Virilio Paul and Andreas Ruby (Interviewer). "Surfing the Accident." in: Institute for the Unstable Media. Publication "The Art of the Accident." 1998. (English). "Since I have a Judeo-Christian religious background, it is obvious to me that one must link any definition of the accident to the idea of original sin. The content of this idea is merely that any person has the potential to become a monster. Now, this idea of original sin, which materialist philosophy rejects so forcefully, comes back to us through technology: the accident is the original sin of the technical object. Every technical object contains its own negativity. It is impossible to invent a pure, innocent object, just as there is no innocent human being. It is only through acknowledged guilt that progress is possible. Just as it is through the recognized risk of the accident that it is possible to improve the technical object." Virilio Paul and Andreas Ruby (Interviewer). "Surfing the Accident." in: Institute for the Unstable Media. Publication "The Art of the Accident." 1998. (English). "Here the accident is inherent to the being itself, something that is almost a reversion of the Aristotelian definition: at that stage it is the accident that becomes absolute and necessary, whereas the substance appears to be relative and fortuitous. With "genetic engineering" one has clearly entered the realm of eugenics. Eugenics which pertain to everything industrial, that is everything that can be produced industrially in laboratories - and it promptly meets afresh its protagonists in the Frankensteinian fiction, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The integral accident is not simply a case of instantaneous contagion (as with the stock markets today), but a phenomenon that questions the exchange that has existed between substance and accident up till now. So now we have to ask ourselves: what are the limits of industrialization?" Virilio Paul and Andreas Ruby (Interviewer). "Surfing the Accident." in: Institute for the Unstable Media. Publication "The Art of the Accident." 1998. (English). "It was only a skip end a jump from social Darwinism to biotechnological cybernetics. The jump was easily taken in the Second World War, by the very people who victoriously opposed the biocracy of a National Socialist State that based its political legitimacy on the utopia of a redemptive eugenics. Total mobilization and motorization have always been two sides of the same coin in the race for biological and technological supremacy." Virilio, Paul and Julie Rose (Translator). "The Art of The Motor." in: Stanford University. (Original Publication:) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995, pp. 133-156. "The war of total mobilization was obviously well worth winning against Nazism with its racial and eugenic goals, but it was also the main catalyst in the development of a purely statistical notion of INFORMATION due to the strategic necessities of intelligence,4 and thus led to the gradual spread of a SOCIOPOLITICAL CYBERNETICS that tends to eliminate not only the weak, but also the component of free will in human work, promoting, as we have seen, socalled "interactive user- friendliness."" Virilio, Paul and Julie Rose (Translator). "The Art of The Motor." in: Stanford University. (Original Publication:) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995, pp. 133-156. "This is just a metaphor for the subtle enslavement of the human being to "intelligent" machines; a programmed symbiosis of man and computer in which assistance and the much trumpeted "dialogue between man and the machine" scarcely conceal the premises: not of an avowed racial discrimination this time so much as of the total,
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unavowed disqualification of the human in favor of the definitive instrumental conditioning of the individual." Virilio, Paul and Julie Rose (Translator). "The Art of The Motor." in: Stanford University. (Original Publication:) Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995, pp. 133-156. top

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