From: TorTorsen-AT-aol.com
To: technology-AT-world.std.com
Date: Wed, 18 May 94 15:39:44 EDT
Subject: Re: Virilio/Malgosia


I wish respectfully to suggest that Malgosia take a chill pill, a really big
one.  His/her response to my post comes rather close to a flame.  And the
thousand and one rhetorical or other questions suggest to me a good,
old-fashioned problem of nerves.  Perhaps she/he should take Virilio's
implied advice and interact a bit more outside of transmission technology.
 And finally if Malgosia wishes to respond to a post, perhaps he/she could
actually read it. 

As I noted in my post, I do have some qualms about this technology, although
I do not share Virilio's physicalistic slant, mainly because it is not to me
the main, or only, threat.  Critical thought implies bringing the lessons, or
what-have-you, of the past forward to evaluate the present and what the
future may hold.  And that is fine.  The Virilio essay is nostalgic because
it is not balanced.  There is no positive or even value neutral aspect to
technology, only this cartoon-superficial negative scenario he develops.  The
piece was in the main a polemic, instead of an exploration of his central
insights into how our conceptualization of or experience of being will change
as a result of the interactive technology.  (The piece was also oddly
jargon-riddled given its conservative slant.)

       Regarding the idea that this technology is going to atrophy our
bodies-- Pursuits and technologies that produce this effect have been around
forever.  The overreaction is just this.  We've had, for instance, printed
books for quite a while.  If you work all day hunched over a composing stick
setting lead type, you're going to need a good back rub and then some.  If
you read books all day and don't get any exercise, you're probably not going
to be in the best of shape.  So what?  Don't we already know this?  If you
sit in front of a computer and write frantic, ax-grinding posts all day,
sure, you're going to need a thigh master.  If you work all day at an
old-timey typewriter, you may get a problem with your wrists.  Occupational
hazards associated with technology are well known and documented.   Every
technology is developed to separate us or protect us from a part of the
physical world that we find problematic, threatening, time-consuming, etc.
 The price exacted on the body is a price, but it is only one price.   And
even the factory worker who is displaced by a machine can tell you that.
 Virilio dresses the sentiment up in an intellectual outfit so we can ponder
his depth of vision.  Further, he appears to think that everyone is going to
get caught up in this electronic world and wholly forsake the other.  This is
pure chicken little, and he has no basis for this predicted catastrophe, at
least none that he shares.