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.

Paul Virilio

The technologies of virtual reality are attempting to make us see from beneath, from inside, from behind... as if we were God.

Paul Virilio

attempting technology reality

The field of vision is comparable, for me, to the terrain of an archaeological dig. To see is to be on guard, to wait for what emerges from the background, without any name, without any particular interest: what was silent will speak, what is closed will open and will take on a voice.

Paul Virilio

voice names waiting

Cyberspace is an accident of the real. Virtual reality is the accident of reality itself.

Paul Virilio

accidents cyberspace real

Cyberspace is acting like God and deals with the idea of God who is, sees and hears everything.

Paul Virilio

cyberspace acting ideas

As I said back in 1984, the idea of logistics is not only about oil, about ammunitions and supplies but also about images.

Paul Virilio

oil logistics ideas

Television was first conceived to be used as some kind of telescope, not for broadcasting. Originally, Sworkin, the inventor of television, wanted to settle cameras on rockets so that it would be possible to watch the sky.

Paul Virilio

telescopes rockets sky

Science, which is not so attached to 'truth' as it once was, but more to immediate 'effectiveness', is now drifting towards a decline, it's civic fall from grace.

Paul Virilio

aggravation science fall

The simulator is an object in itself, which is different from televison and leads to cyberspace.

Paul Virilio

cyberspace objects different

GPS are everywhere. They are in cars. They were even in the half-tracks that, initially at least, were going to make the ground invasion in Kosovo possible.

Paul Virilio

gps car track

Images contaminate us like viruses.

Paul Virilio

viruses

Video is originally a de-corporation, a disqualification of the sensorial organs which are replaced by machines. The eye and the hand are replaced by the data glove, the body is replaced by a data suit, sex is replaced by cybersex. All the qualities of the body are transferred to the machine.

Paul Virilio

data eye sex

The body has a dimension of simulation. The learning process, for instance: when one learns how to drive a car or a van, once in the van, one feels completely lost. But then, once you have learnt how to drive, the whole van is in your body. It is integrated into your body.

Paul Virilio

dimensions car body

For all the sophistication of GPS, there still remain numerous problems with their use. The most obvious problem in this context is the problem of landmines. For example, when the French troops went into Kosovo they were told that they were going to enter in half-tracks, over the open fields. But their leaders had forgotten about the landmines. And this was a major problem because, these days, landmines are no longer localized.

Paul Virilio

gps track leader

What is accidented is reality.

Paul Virilio

reality

From the original watchtower through the anchored balloon to the reconnaissance aircraft and remote sensing-satellites, one and the same function has been indefinitely repeated, the eye's function being the function of a weapon.

Paul Virilio

balloons weapons eye

If we consider my latest book, Strategie de la deception, what we need to focus on are the other aspects of the same phenomenon.

Paul Virilio

deception focus book

For the US, GPS are a form of sovereignty! It is hardly surprising, then, that the EU has proposed its own GPS in order to be able to localize and to compete with the American GPS.

Paul Virilio

gps able order

Wealth is the hidden side of speed and speed the hidden side of wealth.

Paul Virilio

wealth speed sides

Thus it is no longer a Caesar or a Napoleon who decides on the fate of any particular war but a piece of software! In short, the political intelligence of war and the political intelligence of society no longer penetrate the techno-scientific world.

Paul Virilio

fate political war

Time is not something that can be measured with a pendule. Time is something that we build together within a tribe, a family, a region.

Paul Virilio

regions tribes together