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This page contains all of the posts and discussion on MemeStreams referencing the following web page: Ground Zero, by Paul Virilio. You can find discussions on MemeStreams as you surf the web, even if you aren't a MemeStreams member, using the Threads Bookmarklet.

Ground Zero, by Paul Virilio
by Jeremy at 1:24 am EST, Mar 7, 2003

How would it be if what we take for human advance were simply a technological progress that literally leaves us out of its equations? What if Progress is not humanity striking out bravely towards the future, but an ultimately destructive force?

In a remarkable tour d'horizon, Paul Virilio paints a bleak picture of current scientific, cultural, social and political values.

Art has succumbed to the techniques of advertising and in politics, the battle for hearts and minds has become a mere convergence of opinion. TV ratings have triumphed over universal suffrage. The events of September 11 reflect both the manipulation of a global sub-proletariat and the delusions of an élite of rich students and technicians who resemble the 'suicidal members of the Heaven's Gate cybersect'.

And, in this post-humanist dystopia, we are morally rudderless before the threat of biological manipulations as yet undreamt.

If you read one book by a French writer this year, make it a book by Paul Virilio. You may not agree, but he will definitely make you think.


 
 
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