A RhetNet Conversation:
Against Speed

(words borrowed from) Paul Virilio (via Eric Crump; via Wired)
from Wired 4.05
19 May 1996

Comment:

"Written work is threatened by the evocative power of the screen, and in particular the live screen. [...] It is real time that threatens writing. Writering is always, always, in deferred time--always delayed. Once the image is live, there is a conflict between deferred time and real time, and this is a serious threat to writing and the author.

"I think that the infosphere--the sphere of information--is going to impose itself on the geosphere. We are going to be living ina reduced world. The capactiy of interactivity is going to reduce the world to nearly nothing. In fact, there is already a speed pollution, which reduces the world to nothing. In the near future, people will feel enclosed in a small environment. They will have a feeling of confinement in the world, which will certainly be at the limit of tolerability, by virtue of the speed of information. If I were to offer you a last thought--interactivity is to real space what radioactivity is to the atmosphere."

(from "Speed Pollution," an interview with Paul Virilio by James Der Derian, translated by James Der Derian with Lauren Osepchuck and Michael Degener.)


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