Need for Speed

Abstract

In Paul Virilio’s Negative Horizon, the author writes about humanity and its experiences with the notion of speed. To make his point, Virilio advances through the arc of human history and concludes that we’ve been aggressive reaching outward and forward towards some unknown destination. Velocity, he warns us, is our obsession and because of it, we are losing our understanding of both time and space. In his book, Virilio dwells on the idea of the physical vehicle but he does touch on the influences of media. In this essay, I attempt to advance this idea: Are media vehicles? And, in the age of the Internet, can the human experience become digitized and launched like dashes of lightening outward over vectors of fiber optic highways? And, in doing so, haven’t we become merely cognitive passengers desperately clinging to this need for speed?