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Original Accident, The


Original Accident, The

Paperback by Virilio, Paul (The European Graduate School); Rose, Julie

Original Accident, The

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£11.99

ISBN:
9780745636146
Publication Date:
29 Nov 2006
Language:
English
Publisher:
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Imprint:
Polity Press
Pages:
128 pages
Format:
Paperback
For delivery:
Estimated despatch 22 May 2024
Original Accident, The

Description

The future once promised the certainty of a better life for all but now it is full of uncertainty, danger and fear. Our lives are surrounded by the threats, imaginary or real, posed by terrorist outrages, natural catastrophes and disasters of all kinds. The future is overshadowed by the nightmare of an outmoded humanity overwhelmed by a catastrophe of its own making, a kind of catastrophic grand finale that would mirror the original accident - the Big Bang - that some scientists believe created the universe. A biting meditation on Progress technoscientific progress, at any cost and without any limits this book defines the ways in which postindustrial science has merged with out-and-out hyperterrorism to threaten the foundations of Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian civilization, and the future of the planet with them, through innovation of mass catastrophes that are part and parcel of its panoply of inventions. Urging us to face up to the consequences of our brave-new-world technologies, Virilio calls for the creation of a Museum of the Accident to fight our habituation to horror and violence, and our daily overexposure to terror, in the name, not of some preventive war, but of a preventive intelligence that would help us deal with both natural and artificial disasters.

Contents

PART ONE Caution The Invention of Accidents The Accident Argument The Accident Museum The Future of the Accident The Expectation Horizon Unknown Quantity PART TWO Public Emotion The Original Accident The Dromosphere

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