Virilio
A reader sent me a quotation from Paul Virilio the other day. I’m going to add it to quotations, and I thought I would flag it up here too, since it certainly gave me a hell of a laugh. It’s from Polar Inertia, translated by Patrick Camiller ‘with financial support from the French Ministry of Culture’. Hmm – I wouldn’t, if I were you, French min of cult.
An earthling based at NASA headquarters will be equipped with a data suit and a helmet relaying live vision of the Martian surface; he will then be able to remote-guide a vehicle several light years away on the red planet.
The robot’s video-sight will certainly be his own, as will the hands steering the instrument about. And when it cautiously moves around on the burning soil of Mars, it will be the feet of its human remote-guide that allows it to do so.
Don’t you just love the idea of remote-guding something that is several light-years away? Not to mention the idea that Mars is several light-years away. Cackle, shriek.
“Mars is several light-years away”
(Cough) – minutes. I think you mean minutes.
You think Virilio means that – he’s the one who said the vehicle is several light years away on the red planet.
Lets not forget the “burning soil” of Mars. Soil that on the *hottest* days of Martian summer might, just might get above the freezing point of water…
Maybe next time they might let the minister of Culture take a break and have the minister of Science write the PR.
Well heck — they’re all red and all. Certainly *look* as though they’re burning!
By the way, whatever happened to all those canals?