One day the virtual world might win over the real world. These new technologies try to make virtual reality more powerful than actual reality, which is the true accident. The day when virtual reality becomes more powerful than reality will be the day of the big accident. Mankind never experienced such an extraordinary accident … I must say that cyberspace is acting like God and deals with the idea of God who is, sees and hears everything.
Predictor: Virilio, Paul
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 interview with Louise Wilson for CTheory, Paul Virilio, the emblematic French theorist of technology and author of “Pure War, Speed and Politics,” and “War and Cinema: the Logistics of Perception,” says: ”New technologies are substituting a virtual reality for an actual reality. And this is more than a phase: it’s a definite change. We are entering a world where there won’t be one but two realities, just like we have two eyes or hear bass and treble tones, just like we now have stereoscopy and stereophony: there will be two realities: the actual, and the virtual. Thus there is no simulation, but substitution. Reality has become symmetrical. The splitting of reality in two parts is a considerable event which goes far beyond simulation … The simulator is the stage in-between television and virtual reality, a moment, a phase. The simulator is a moment that leads to cyberspace, that is to say, to the process because of which we now have two bottles instead of one. I might not see this virtual bottle, but I can feel it. It is settled within reality. This explains why the word virtual reality is more important than the word cyberspace, which is more poetic … This is no simulation but the coexistence of two separate worlds. One day the virtual world might win over the real world. These new technologies try to make virtual reality more powerful than actual reality, which is the true accident. The day when virtual reality becomes more powerful than reality will be the day of the big accident. Mankind never experienced such an extraordinary accident. The technologies of virtual reality are attempting to make us see from beneath, from inside, from behind…as if we were God. I am a Christian, and even though I know we are talking about metaphysics and not about religion, I must say that cyberspace is acting like God and deals with the idea of God who is, sees and hears everything.”
Biography:Paul Virilio was a French technology theorist and author of “Pure War, Speed and Politics” and “War and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception.” (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: October 21, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Virtual Reality
Name of publication: CTheory
Title, headline, chapter name: Cyberwar, God and Television: An Interview with Paul Virilio
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=62
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney