Summary

In class, we began our discussion by comparing Baudrillard's and Virilio's views.  Baudrillard recognized that Saddam Hussein understood the power of media and information and used his media (hostage videos, images of him being kind to children) to his utmost advantage.  Baudrillard suggests that Westerners' denunciation of these tactics is hypocritical because our news media sources operate on the same idea.

We began discussing Virilio by noting that his focus is not so much on the medium of the message but rather the speed.  Virilio suggests that CNN interferes with our perception of reality by suggesting that what we (the viewers) are being shown is taken as absolute truth, reality that is happening on the other side of the globe at that exact moment, but that idea is not necessarily so.  We discussed the concept of "real time" and its downsides: because information is being streamed live, neither the TV personalities nor the viewers have time to reflect on what is happening due to the fact that there is a constant feed of new information to take in.  This causes most responses to be based on emotion rather than reason.

We also discussed the importance of the stealth fighter plane first publicized during this war.  The reason the plane is so successful is not due to its speed or its capacity to carry any sort of special weaponry; the important characteristic is its invisibility on radar.  It is not invisible in the traditional sense; when on the ground nearby or when it's directly above you, it's easy to spot, but the key idea is that its image on the radar does not exist.  It eliminates its virtual representation, which is an important strategical move in this era of information war. 

Additionally, at the very end of class, we touched on Borges's The Garden of Forking Paths, which is a short story that was written in such a way that it is reminiscent of a hypertext novel. Throughout the story, there are a series of "forking paths", which essentially are reminiscent of the different links a person could be taken to were the story actually in hypertext form. 

Word Count: 357

Quotes

"Albert rose. He turned his back on me for a moment; he opened a drawer of the black and gold desk. He face me and in his hand held a sheet of paper that had once been crimson, but now was pink and tenuous and crosssectioned."*

"Albert rose. Standing tall, he opened the drawer of the tall desk; for the moment his back was to me. i had readied the revolver. I fired with extreme caution. Alber fell uncomplainingly, immediatley. i swear his death was instanteneous -- a lightning sroke."*

* The "Albert rose" serves as an instance when Borges is structuring his story as a hyper novel.

"No politics is possible at the scale of the speed of the light. Politics depends upon having time for reflection."

"This change and this acceleration have modified the conduct of war. Ancient war depend upon the citizen-soldier."

"Soon, war will be waged by automatic answering machines. Then new weapons being designed will strike their objectives with a lightning speed of nanoseconds or milliseconds. At the speed of light, man can neither see the weapon arrive nor fend off the attack."

Key Terms

Mass War - win the war by being the the biggest. (Castles, Fortress, Army)

Energy War - war get fast, kills the heavy set armies

Information War - information moves at light speed 

Tele-Action - acting from a distance

Hypertext Novel- a novel that can be read in several different ways/through different layers