Interview and Photo By Caroline Dumoucel
Translated By Pauline Eiferman Speed and PoliticsVideos by VICE
Paul Virilio:
Did you hide in basements during the bombings?
And yet you suffer from claustrophobia, right?
Do you mean “accident” in the same way that some say “event” in modern-day philosophy?
Are you against progress?
It’s fairly simple, but so universal.
I’m guessing that you always hear, “Regardless, Mr. Virilio, progress is a good thing.” Does that annoy you?
Let’s talk more about the danger that’s inherent in speed.
You just made a gesture as if you were wearing blinders.
You also say that human nature is to resist. So what should I do? Throw my MacBook out the window?
What do you think of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s comments about 9/11 being “the greatest work of art that exists for the whole cosmos”?
What could be done to prevent such perversions?
Today, man is capable of destroying humanity. Hans Jonas, in The Imperative of Responsibility, calls for a radical change in ethics. I suppose you agree with him.
Please explain.
In American movies of the 70s, there were tons of catastrophes. Today, we’re more into apocalypse movies.
In the 70s, people were more into local catastrophes.
And what about all these more recent apocalyptic blockbusters, like The Day After Tomorrow or 2012?
There’s also an obsession with catastrophe in the news media. We’re always waiting for the next one to arrive.
I guess I should have known your answer, considering it’s a machine that accelerates particles to make them collide. But do you think that the risk really exists?
Fifteen years ago, you said you wanted to write a book called The Integral Accident. You also said that everyone could write their own 1984. You still haven’t written it, but did you mean that the consequence of this integral accident would be totalitarianism?
What do you think of Ray Kurzweil’s thesis about the singularity? He says that in 2050, humans will be more technical than organic.
It sounds like a science-fiction movie. Gattaca, for instance.
Right. Ford’s voiceover says something like, “Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than ever before. Not just his life… anybody’s life… my life.”