The Unholy Trinity of Bombs

After writing recently on interactive waste disposal, I am now in the process of re-reading Paul Virilio's The Information Bomb, and wanted to take a moment to collect a bunch of floating ideas into one semi-coherent, in-progress thought framework. I haven't followed Virilio here dogmatically, instead incorporating some ideas from Critical Art Ensemble, McKenzie Wark, and my own work.

  Nuclear Bomb Information Bomb Genetic Bomb
Unit Atom Meme Gene
Detonation Hiroshima (1945) 9/11 (2001) ?
Detonator Conventional chemical explosive Plane hitting WTC and exploding ?
Foundation Manhattan Project ARPANET Human Genome Project
Significant Milestone Trinity Site (1945) Persian Gulf War (1990-91) Dolly the Sheep (1996)
Property Form Nuclear Energy Data Archives/ Telesthesia Patentable Flesh Products
Pollution Radioactivity Interactivity Proactivity
Accident Chernobyl (1986) Black Monday (1987) ?
Policy Deterrence Temporal Breaks (eg. NYSE circuit breakers, network television tape delay) ?
Space Local Global Diasporal
Date: April 6, 02007
Feedback: 3 comments | Permalink: url
Tags: Empire | Virilio | hygiene | semiotics | temporality | vectoral capitalism | violence | warfare

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3 responses to The Unholy Trinity of Bombs

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  1. Ben Sylvester says:
    November 28th, 2007

    This idea of predicting future bombs that will substantially impact society is intriguing. Here it is proposed that the genetic bomb is cloning, however in our drug consuming society I believe a cellular bomb has yet to come through widespread disease. There are many conditions that are widespread and deadly including cancer and aids, but a ramped contagious disease like SARS is but a glimpse of what could happen at the cellular level.
    On top of this genetic bomb, there are many more catastrophic bombs on the way, what I believe to be in the near future and of monumental magnitude is the environmental bomb. Brought on by ignorance and disregard for our surroundings, in the next 50 years we could finish the job and kill ourselves. In the book "Blue Gold" authors Maude Barlow and Joanne J. Myers describe how precious water will be in the 21st century as the world runs out of clean fresh water. The pollution we have brought to the environment from consuming natural resources and industrialization has taken a toll that can not be reversed. When we run out of water, what else matters? When our air is too polluted to breathe, what then? We cast these notions aside and pretend everything will be fine, but this is a near reality that will approach us in our lifetime.

  2. sportsBabel » Gestures Sacred and Profane says:
    November 3rd, 2009

    [...] Are we witnessing what Paul Virilio might have called the pollution of proactivity? [...]

  3. sportsbabel says:
    February 20th, 2010

    oh, there are actually two information bombs. at least.

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