In the third section of Open Sky, Paul Virilio discusses the ways in which technology effects our physical being and then wraps up the book with a deeper look into the technological arena that is changing the world as we know it. While I enjoyed the book as a whole and loved the way it pushed the envelope with its existentialism, I particularly enjoyed the mind-bending topic in the chapter "From Sexual Perversion to Sexual Diversion".
While it is clear to me that technology effects our personal lives in many ways, the ways in which it effects personal, loving relationships bother me the most. In a world where not many things are personal anymore, it is heartbreaking to me that the sense of communication, passion, and connection once shared by physically having to be in the same place as one another is lost with the addition of the internet, telephones, etc. Conversations that once centered around long discussions complete with emotion, expression, and reaction are now reduced to a break up over the phone, a text message to get asked on a date, and a Facebook chat to cancel plans. After this chapter in the book, I see now that technology is also effecting the more passionate and physical sides of relationships as well.
Virilio explains the popularity of such things as internet dating, pornography sites, and (at the extreme), forms of "remote-control masturbation". I was shocked to learn of the different technology that enables people to feel "pleasure" from a distance. In a world where people crave and desire things quickly and instantly, there is now even an option to experience the happiness and pleasure that once had to come from a warm body from world and miles away. After reading - and discussing aloud with my friends - this concept was still difficult to wrap my head around. After some thought, I feel I have taken the position of being somewhat fearful of what technology could do to our culture, our traditions, our feelings, and our emotions. For someone who mourns the loss of handwritten letters and long calls on the phone, the idea of reducing such beautiful human acts of passion to a mere visit to a website scares me. This idea of "telesexual interactivity" as Virilio calls it threatens the past, present, and future of our race by changing the fabric that holds us together - personal connectivity.
As Virilio ends the book, he sums up the pages and pages of discussion on how technology can touch and shape every part of our world. After this reading, I believe it is our job as technology and media consumers to question and fear the onslaught of speed and info and machines. It is our job to dissect our changing world rather than simply sitting back and allowing it to wash over and consume us.
What are the ways in which you can become more educated about the technological world around you? What ways do you think you hold on to the connectedness of the past and what technologies are you willing to gain at the loss of ourselves?
