The Airplane - Dream and Reality

The Dream of Flight

The concept and aspiration of flight have captivated humanity since the dawn of history. Bound to the earth, humans gazed enviously at the birds soaring above, dreaming of the day they could join them and conquer the skies. Numerous attempts were made to imitate the flight of birds, from mythological tales like Icarus and Daedalus to the daring experiments of inventors throughout the ages. Yet, despite these earnest endeavors, most attempts ended in disappointment and failure. Successes were few, flights were short and unstable, and the dream of safe and efficient flight seemed further away than ever. Humanity realized that conquering the skies required a significant technological breakthrough.

False Dawns

This breakthrough arrived in the form of three remarkable inventions that promised to revolutionize the world of aviation: the hot air balloon, the airship, and the glider. Each sparked great excitement and curiosity, and it seemed that humanity had finally found the way to conquer the air. However, despite their initial promise, within a relatively short period of a few decades, these three inventions proved unsuitable for realizing the full vision. The hot air balloon was at the mercy of the winds, the airship was cumbersome and vulnerable, and the glider had limited control over its flight path. These inventions became resounding failures, leaving humanity disappointed that the technology capable of carrying masses of people into the skies had not yet been found.

The Wright Brothers' Triumph

But then, with the invention of the airplane by the Wright brothers at the beginning of the 20th century, the picture changed completely. The airplane, with its innovative design, efficient wings, and sophisticated control system, finally proved that the skies could be conquered safely and efficiently. It ushered in a new era of possibilities, revolutionizing transportation, commerce, military, and culture. Unlike the failed flying machines that preceded it, the airplane has proven to be a promising invention for over a century, continuing to evolve at a dizzying pace, from piston-engine aircraft to jet aircraft and sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles.

Taking Flight and Expanding Minds

The invention of the airplane not only fulfilled humanity's dream of flight but also opened up new possibilities for spatial thinking and perception of the world. The airplane's complete control over movement in the air fulfilled another long-held dream of humanity: the unlimited expression of perspective, the three-dimensional thinking that deepens our understanding of spatial relationships, a cognitive tool of the highest order. The ability to move freely in three-dimensional space changed the way we perceive the world and the relationships between objects within it.

Dreamers and Doers

Throughout the development of modern aviation, those involved were divided into two types: dreamers and doers. The dreamers envisioned fantastic visions of effortlessly conquering the air, imagining floating cities and fantastical flying machines. But alongside the dreamers were the doers, the engineers, inventors, and pilots who progressed step by step, experiencing failures and losses along the way. Progress in aviation was the result of a combination of bold vision and meticulous work, of wild imagination and complex engineering reality.

Aviation as Ideology or Tool

In parallel to technological development, two social and political approaches to the idea of aviation emerged: aviation as consciousness and aviation as awareness. Societies that championed aviation as consciousness saw it as a dreamlike vision, capable of uniting their underdeveloped nations and propelling them to the forefront of modernity. Aviation served as an ideological tool for shaping national consciousness and fostering pride and patriotism. Societies that championed aviation as awareness saw it merely as a means to advance the individual and society, carefully avoiding its transformation into an ideological tool. Aviation was perceived as a useful tool for transportation, commerce, and research, but not as a defining factor of national identity. This difference in approach highlighted the distinction between dictatorships and democracies in the 20th century, with dictatorships advocating aviation as consciousness and democracies advocating aviation as awareness.

Anthropomorphism:

Aviation's Third Way

Between the world of dreamers and the world of doers, between aviation as consciousness or awareness, exists a third perspective that allows us to understand the significance of aviation and its unique place in the human experience: the perspective of anthropomorphism. While dreamers aspire to transcend the limitations of physical reality and fly on the wings of imagination, and doers focus on realizing dreams through technology and development, anthropomorphism bridges the two worlds. It allows us to perceive the airplane not just as a flying machine, but as an entity with human qualities, a kind of "flying human" that fulfills the dreams of both worlds.

Holistic Experience

Aviation, as perceived from this perspective, is not just physical movement through space, but also a journey of consciousness and spirit. It allows us to experience the world from a new perspective, to rise above the limitations of everyday life, and to feel a sense of freedom and liberation. The anthropomorphism of the airplane allows us to understand aviation as a holistic experience, combining dream and reality, consciousness and action, and the human being with the world. It gives a deeper meaning to the experience of flight, transforming it into a meaningful human journey.

Enduring Power of Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is a powerful tool that enables us to understand human history. Through it, we perceive historical events as the result of human actions, decisions, and their consequences. This approach allows us to understand motives, identify with the past, take responsibility, prevent dehumanization, and understand history as a human creation. Anthropomorphism, despite being an ancient source, remains important today, especially in light of the increasing emphasis on personal development at the expense of social development, which leads to a growing need for people to rely on their immediate tangible environment and seek meaning and support in sources like anthropomorphism, as a response to the social disconnect created by technology.

The Airplane as Icarus

The airplane, with its nose resembling a head, wings spread like arms, and a rear body and tail simulating legs, becomes an anthropomorphism of the human body. This image, echoing "Jesus on the cross" or "a man spreading his wings" against the backdrop of the clouds – a central source of inspiration for anthropomorphism – evokes deep religious and spiritual associations. It reinforces the idea that aviation, as an intense and personal experience reminiscent of spiritual flight, may contribute to the rise of extremist regimes. However, it is important to remember that the rise of such regimes is influenced by many other factors, and aviation and the anthropomorphism of the airplane are only one contributing factor to this phenomenon, alongside other social, economic, and political factors.

Shared Wings of Aviation and Cinema

Feature films, like airplanes, are a clear expression of anthropomorphism. Both are technologies that allow us to experience the world in a new and powerful way, and both use anthropomorphism to create a deeper emotional experience. The airplane, in its human-like form, evokes feelings of freedom and liberation reminiscent of spiritual experiences. Cinema breathes life into characters and stories through a variety of techniques, creating imaginary worlds that feel real. Both create an illusion of reality, use movement, evoke emotions, and enhance the human experience. Cinema, in addition, turns human stories into a collective dream and uses symbols and metaphors to convey complex messages and ideas.

The Domino Effect That Led to World War I

Only ten years and 226 days separated the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903 from the outbreak of World War I, yet the connection between them runs deeper than expected. This decade, which witnessed the birth of the aviation age, was saturated with rising geopolitical tensions, extreme nationalism, arms races, and imperialist competition. These factors, coupled with a complex alliance system and recurring international crises, created fertile ground for the eruption of a global war. The assassination of the Austrian Archduke was merely the spark that ignited the flames of war already smoldering beneath the surface. The Balkan Wars, which preceded World War I by a few years, further exacerbated tensions, influenced the alliance system, and served as a "dress rehearsal" for the great conflict.

World War I erupted as a result of a "domino effect," a chain reaction of events where each event triggers the next, similar to dominoes falling one after another. Both the invention of the airplane and the invention of cinema were based on the understanding of continuous motion, and can be seen as expressions of the domino effect. In both cases, a chain of small, sequential events creates a significant outcome: the airplane depends on constant motion in the air for flight, and in cinema, a sequence of still images creates the illusion of motion and life on screen.

The domino effect that led to World War I was exacerbated by the invention of the airplane, which heightened political instability and impacted the global balance of power. The airplane influenced the military aspect, increased the potential for escalation, and altered the balance of power. Similar to the airplane, cinema also contributed to the domino effect: it reinforced nationalism and shaped public perception of war. Furthermore, both the airplane and cinema, which emerged and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, stood in stark contrast to the prevailing spirit of the era dominated by absolute monarchies. These regimes emphasized obedience, conformity, and centralized control, while the airplane and cinema symbolized freedom, independence, and critical thinking.

This connection between technology, consciousness, and war is also emphasized in Giulio Douhet's book "The Command of the Air," which predicted the central role of air power in future wars. The inspiration for writing the book stemmed from the author's participation in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912. During this war, the author witnessed firsthand the aerial bombings carried out by Italian forces, a first in history. They profoundly influenced his perception of the future of warfare, which he envisioned as based on the subjugation of the civilian rear in cities through strategic bombing.

Today's drone and missile attacks, coupled with the growing use of the internet, are not merely a continuation of Douhet's theory, but also a contemporary manifestation of the enduring influence of the airplane and cinema on the nature of warfare. They underscore how technology and visual media are employed to achieve military and political objectives, and the complex challenges confronting societies grappling with these threats.

The Mirage - an Airplane That Had a State

The Development of Fighter Aircraft in the Context of Long-Term Historical Processes:

Fighter Aircraft - A Mirror of Geopolitical Change

The development of fighter aircraft typically occurs within the framework of an international arms race. This race is influenced by numerous political, economic, and technological factors, and it evolves over time. Military requirements change over time, in accordance with shifts in security perceptions and geopolitical threats. The development of fighter aircraft must adapt to these requirements and is therefore influenced by broader social and political factors.

The High Cost and Long-Term Impact of Fighter Aircraft Development

The development of fighter aircraft is a very expensive project, requiring significant government and industrial investments. The process takes a long time and requires continuous support over many years. It has a significant impact on society and the economy. It leads to the creation of new jobs, drives research and development in other fields, and contributes to overall technological progress. These effects occur over time and are not immediate.

The Multidisciplinary Nature of Fighter Aircraft Development

The design, production, deployment, and upgrading of fighter aircraft are processes based on many fields of knowledge, such as aerodynamics, metallurgy, engines, and electronics. Progress in these fields over time is essential. When an aircraft is successful, its lifespan can span several generations, up to 100 years.

The Long View of History - Understanding Change Over Time

This argument aligns with a theory in historical research that emphasizes the importance of long-term processes and gradual changes in understanding the past. Scholars specializing in this theory use diverse sources, including archival documents alongside statistical data, and they focus on broad structures over time, such as social, economic, and cultural changes. Understanding these processes is crucial for a deeper comprehension of the past and its effects on the present. This theory contrasts with other historical perspectives that focus on specific events and central figures as decisive factors in shaping history.

Mirage 3 - The Key to Air Superiority:

Israel's Guardian Angel

The Mirage 3 reigned supreme in the skies during the 1960s, and Israel acquired a substantial number of them early in that decade. 

This aircraft instilled a sense of security in an entire generation of young Israelis who felt that their existence and future were guaranteed because of it. 

A popular children's film with a romantic touch, "Shmone Ba'Ikvot Echad" ("Eight in Pursuit of One") [1964], was even made about a spy searching for the aircraft's secrets at a military base, and the children of the nearby kibbutz capturing him.

National Miracle

The delta-winged aircraft was the best interceptor of its time in the Middle Eastern skies and gave Israel air superiority. These planes were the spearhead of the Israeli Air Force in the Six-Day War of 1967 and contributed significantly to the resounding victory in that war. The word "Mirage," meaning "desert illusion", became almost synonymous with the victory.

Israel's Aerospace Ambitions - Taking Flight from the Start:

From its earliest days, Israel invested in the indigenous development of aircraft, despite the endeavor being considered a highly expensive and volatile startup. Ben Gurion Airport in Lod became the central hub for the Israeli aerospace industry, which today stands as one of the most advanced in the world.

Mirage 5 Evolution - From Interceptor to Attacker

The Mirage 5 aircraft was designed by the Israeli aerospace industry before the Six-Day War. Israel developed it in collaboration with France, as early as 1966, as an improved version of the Mirage 3, intended for air-to-ground attacks. The Mirage 5s were revolutionary compared to the Mirage 3s, which were primarily designed for interception. The Mirage 5 could carry 4 tons of bombs compared to only one ton carried by the Mirage 3, and it was much cheaper and simpler.

From Embargo to the Birth of the Nesher

On the eve of the Six-Day War, France, which was Israel's sole supplier of aircraft at the time, imposed an embargo on arms shipments to the Middle East, preventing the delivery of the 50 Mirage 5s that Israel had ordered. After the war, Israel managed to obtain, through indirect means, all the aircraft's blueprints and produced it in the early 1970s under the name "Nesher." This was despite the complex moral dilemma involved in manufacturing without obtaining the patents and production rights. 

"Israel is an Airplane" - The Kfir's Legacy

In the second phase, Israel developed a semi-original version of the aircraft, with an American engine, under the name "Kfir." It produced a considerable number of them, based on its security needs, and even exported them to several countries, where some of them are still in service today. The investment in the "Kfir" was enormous and required a reorganization of the aerospace industry. It gave rise to the expression that "Israel is an airplane that has a country."

Mirage of Security:

The Sinai Dream

The phrase "a plane that has a country" held a deeper meaning for Israel. The aspiration to produce a large and powerful fleet of "Nesher" and "Kfir" aircraft, providing the nation with long-term security, merged with a broader political outlook that rejected confronting the complex reality in the territories captured during the Six-Day War. The triangular shape of the Sinai Peninsula seemed to mirror the wings of the Mirage, becoming a sort of "desert mirage."

Military Over Diplomacy

This imagery served as the foundation for official policy, disregarding peace proposals offered by Egypt and the U.S. Without a concrete plan for the future of the territories, Israel relied on its military might, particularly its domestically produced Mirage 5 aircraft with their long-range strike capabilities, as a deterrent against any potential attack.

Flawed Intelligence

A small group of senior intelligence officers formulated a "conception" supporting this approach. They argued that as long as Egypt also lacked long-range strike aircraft, it wouldn't dare attack Israel. This notion, based on an illusion of military and territorial superiority, was endorsed by the political leadership and led to a situation where, on the eve of the Yom Kippur War, abstract concepts overshadowed practical considerations in national security perception. The eve of the war, which broke out on October 6, 1973, found Israel in a state of surprising unpreparedness. 

 

The Mirage 5's Legacy:

French Betrayal - Egypt's Armament  with Mirage 5

As early as 1970, a deal was struck between France and Libya, an enemy of Israel and an ally of Egypt, for the supply of 110 Mirage 5 aircraft, an improved copy of the planes Israel itself had designed. Given the precedent of Israel stealing the aircraft's plans, the French likely did this without any qualms. This was despite the fact that these planes were originally intended for Egypt, Israel's arch-enemy. The French embargo on the eve of the Six-Day War also included Egypt. Nevertheless, the planes were gifted to Egypt by Libya, starting in 1972.

Egypt's Military Shift From Soviet to French

Up until then, the Egyptians had relied on Soviet aircraft. They wanted to launch a war against Israel, but the USSR delayed the delivery of modern long-range strike aircraft, such as the MiG and Sukhoi, as it wanted to ensure Egypt's long-term dependence on it. The Egyptians were reluctant to start a war until they had such aircraft, and the Mirage 5s received from Libya became a suitable substitute. The Israeli government and the officers who formulated the "conception" ignored the fact that Egypt was receiving superior strike aircraft from France, in greater quantity and quality than the Soviets had planned to provide.

A Wide Door for Egypt to the West

It's interesting to ponder whether the government and military leaders' disregard for the implications of the deal was intentional. Undoubtedly, it opened a wide door for Egypt to the West, something Israel also desired. 

Hostility had prevailed between Egypt and the Western powers since Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956. 

Consequently, a complacent "wait and see" attitude developed among decision-makers. This attitude was incompatible with the vigilance expected of military personnel towards an enemy.

The Yom Kippur War - Yellow Triangles on Israeli Mirages

Just as the Mirage 3s prompted Israel to launch a surprise attack in the Six-Day War, the Mirage 5s motivated the Egyptians to launch a surprise attack on October 6, 1973. They became a central weapon in their arsenal, and during the war, they used them to strike deep into the Sinai Peninsula. To avoid misidentifying the Egyptian Mirages in the air, the Israeli Air Force had to paint the wings of its own Mirages with yellow triangles, reminiscent of the Star of David patches the Nazis forced Jews to sew onto their clothing.

The Mirage's Lingering and painful Impact

In this war, Israel found itself, to its surprise, in a situation where a sophisticated and powerful aircraft it had developed itself, and which was critical to its security, was gifted, in practically unlimited quantities, to the very enemy for which the plane was developed. Moreover, the businessman behind this roundabout deal, who also planned a similar deal with Saudi Arabia, was an Egyptian who was also Israel's top spy. He was close to Egyptian President Sadat and provided Israel with a hasty, last-minute warning about Egypt's intention to go to war. Nevertheless, Israel was surprised and unprepared for the Egyptian surprise attack. 

The entire affair, in the spirit of the name "Mirage," became a bitter mirage for the Israeli leadership and significantly impacted its intelligence, military, and political actions to this day.

The Shift in Israel's Military Supply to American Reliance:

Nixon's Ultimatum

At the very start of the French embargo, Prime Minister Golda Meir traveled from Jerusalem to Washington to request an immediate replacement for the Mirage 5. The primary source for Israel's fighter jets became the United States, which supplied it with "Phantom" and "Skyhawk" aircraft, which were also of higher quality. Nixon conditioned the supply on the revocation, under the Law of Return, of the Israeli citizenship of Meyer Lansky, the American-Jewish casino magnate who had aided Israel, through Golda, during its difficult times in the War of Independence.

The Lavi's Legacy - A Dream Fade Out

The phrase "a plane that has a country" is even more fitting for the Israeli aircraft designed in the 1980s to replace the "Kfir" - the "Lavi," which was an original Israeli design from start to finish. The United States partnered in its development and funding. At an advanced stage of development, after the prototype had conducted its maiden flights, the Americans decided to halt funding for the project. 

The cancellation of the project diverted thousands of engineers to the high-tech industry, creating the foundation for the Israeli "Startup Nation." Today, no fighter jets are developed or manufactured in the Israeli aerospace industry. 

The Lavi and the Mirage 5 are remembered more as mirages. The peace agreement with Egypt, under which Israel returned the entire Sinai Peninsula captured in the Six-Day War, largely contributed to pushing the issue out of historical memory.

Dependence on U.S. Aid

Today, the State of Israel relies on the United States and is entirely dependent on it for the supply of fighter jets. The United States provides it with advanced fighter jets that cost a fortune, and their cost constitutes the majority of the fixed annual military grant to Israel, which amounts to over three billion dollars. The accumulated sum since the grant began, about fifty years ago, reaches hundreds of billions of dollars. It's unknown if and when the tables will turn, and the U.S. administration will decide to reduce or completely eliminate it. The Israeli government and its citizens have become accustomed to taking this grant for granted. If it were to be canceled, the end of the state, as it currently exists, would be swift.

Swift Victories with Lasting Impact

The aerial arms race is expensive and prolonged, but its outcome is often determined within a few hours. The decision is reached based on a slight advantage. In aerial warfare, a slight technological edge, achieved through years of technological effort, is the key to victory. 

One recent example is the victory Israel achieved against Iran in the "Swords of Iron" war: Iran launched hundreds of missiles at Israel within a few hours. About 99 percent of them were intercepted by Israel's air defense systems, developed over approximately 30 years. This swift victory may shape the political future of the region for many years to come. 

The "Kfir" aircraft

The World Order Around Israel

 

 

  

   

The International Space Station above the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

 

The International Space Station above the Temple Mount in Jerusalem 

The International Space Station above the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

The Oblique of the Tribe of Dan

The tribe of Dan, from which the hero Samson came, migrated north in the Land of Israel and settled in the area near Sidon. There it connected with the gentiles of the sea and became a tribe of sailors. From there, according to one tradition, it continued in a northwesterly direction, becoming part of the Greek tribes, also called "Danaides". It continued wandering in this direction along the Dnieper River, reaching as far as Denmark. All of these places contain the syllable "Dan" in their names.

"Oblique" is also an important geometric concept in modern architecture. It notes a design compromise between the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the urban space. The world is today one global city, run virtually in the speed of light, by the electronic media.

Ukraine, along which the Dnieper River flows, is also on a political "Oblique", as an intermediate state between East and West.

The danger in this geographical-political-war Oblique for the State of Israel is its inevitable lengthening towards Lebanon, Syria, the Gulf states and Iran.

Oblique of Dan

Blueberry Hill song, 12 Monkeys movie and Vladimir Putin's performance

The essence of the promise of stability, prosperity and security is at the mercy of science and human intelligence. If something still got out of hand, it was because someone was probably negligent, did not perform his task properly, did not turn in time to the appropriate expert - a phenomenon known in modern language as "failure" that requires investigation and examination.

In his book "The Critical Space", the French philosopher Paul Virilio described in detail the striving of rational-scientific thinking to achieve control in the world of phenomena with a tendency to control even the uncontrollable. But capturing the great promise of technology and science will, in his view, lead to an "integral accident" that will not only change the human perception of technology but may even bring an end to the "modern project."

Of course, Virilio did not wish for such an "accident" but warned against it: as great as the promise is, so is the depth of the crisis. Indeed, modern man's expectations of science and the state find themselves repeatedly battered in the face of defiant reality. This time, in the Russia-Ukraine war, we are not just facing a "global accident".

From Gaston Bechelard to Paul Virilio

Gaston Bechelard and Paul Virilio are two of the greatest French philosophers of the twentieth century. They have many similar characteristics: Phenomenological and the anti-structuralist approach. Cognitive fracture as a key for understanding human behavior. Existence of eternal movement, speed and present. Flight and aviation as key amplifiers of consciousness. Importance of material reality and especially architecture. Negation of Post-modrnism. Poetic writing style. Affinity for physics of relativity. Different characteristics are: Purification versus accident. Psychoanalysis versus technology. Classics against Hyper-modernism.

Bechelard [1884 - 1962] was a senior member of the French Academy of Sciences, and greatly influenced postmodern French philosophers. He contributed greatly to the study of the poetics and philosophy of science. He developed the concept of the "cognitive rift", which is essential for the progress of science out of crises. He has extensively developed the concept of "dynamic imagination", according to which the main function of the creative imagination is to refute existing images.

Virilio [1932 - 2018] was a cultural theorist, urbanist and aesthetic philosopher. He is best known for his writings on technology, as it has evolved in relation to speed and power, architecture, the arts, the city and the military. The major concepts he developed are "Dromology" ["Racing"] and "Global Accident". According to them, modern culture, the cyberspace, is instantly virtual. It moves at the maximum speed of light, creating a reality of a uniform world, a huge global city, which is a terminal saturated with detached images and prone to accidents.

For both, fliht and aviation are key to creative thinking. They are  a male-female creature alike and the deity in person. The attributes embodied in these concepts becomes for them, automatically and involuntarily, the creative intuition. This is similar to the reliance of many other creators on these concepts as a starting point for thinking. For example, the issue of UAVs stands out today. It has become a tool through which one can review and summarize any human phenomenon. For Bechelard the UAV is another good conductor, an amplifier, for the imagining mind. For Virilio, it is another link in the de-localization and global accident of humanity.

The difference between Gaston Bechelard and Paul Virilio is the difference between the optimist and the pessimist. Bechelard's point of view is personal and intimate, compared to Virilio's global-cosmic point of view. Bechelard observes in space what the near and familiar reality is, on the personal and private scale. Virilio is replacing Bechelard's dream and reverie with technology and media. He looks at the world from the outer and unfamiliar space, on the superpersonal scale and on society as a whole. Bechelard is the desire, the passion and the hope. Virilio is the surrender and defeat, the inevitable global accident. In Bechelard the world is as round as a well. For Virilio, the world is as square as a screen. Bechelard is innocent and Virilio is cynical. In Bechelard the world opens up and in Virilio it is closing.

While Heidegger, Virilio's spiritual teacher, view the radio as superficial and a reduction, Bechelard saw it as a possibility for deepening and uniting hearts, a kind of universal utopia. The conversations in cafes are loud, but in the universal world of radio, everyone hears each other, and everyone can listen comfortably.

Clues to Bechelard's critique of the "distressed philosophy", as he called existentialist philosophy, can be found without difficulty in all his writings. The refusal of distress was inconsistent with the fashion order of his time, but Bechelard remained consistent in his positions. Boldness was needed to write, in the middle of the twentieth century, in France, in the days of the existentialist climax, that "distress is false: we were created to breathe well''.

Many writers note the psychic powers that Bechelard's philosophy imparts to those who come through its gates, the healing quality inherent in his philosophy, in the possibility he offers, in which man and the world are in constant poetic dialogue. There is indeed a lot of loneliness in Bechelard's philosophy. This is, without a doubt, a philosophy of the individual, the loner. But he is not alone, he is always in the company of the world. Moreover, he is in the company of the beauty of the world. The natural destiny of dreaming, Bechelard believed, is to see the beauties of the world. You can not dream of ugliness in a reverie. Beauty is not only aesthetic, it also a need of the cognitive, ethical and mentality of the person.

Virilio is replacing Bechelard's dream and reverie with technology and media. The sorting and comparison based on the classicical writers by Bechelard, alternates with him to the sorting and comparison based on the present reality. Bechelard's point of view is personal. Virilio's perspective is global. According to Virilio, the world has changed. It is not the same world known by classical works and history. It all became a bustling mega city. We can no longer rely on our natural perception. It was completely distorted by the Tele-Media. The original and new poetic image can not exist in the world of electronic consumerism images, which enslave the imagination and cognition. Loneliness is no longer a sacred value. It is mechanical, and stems from the social split into "human points" created by technology.

The words, too, became worthless. Only the oral experience, the continuity that the delay and acceleration in speech are capable of, remained. It is the stops speech can create, by the wisdom of the thinker, in the mind of the listener. Virilio, through his stretched paragraphs, brings back the reader to the beginning of the social consciousness, of the shoutings of primitive man. He does not have a dialogue with the reader, as does Bechelard. There is hom survival for its own sake. No hand caressing. There is a finger that press the destruction button.

Virilio is one of the most prolific and poignant critics of the drama of the modern technological age. The enterprise of his life is an ongoing reflection on the origins, nature, and influences of the technologies that make up the modern  and postmodern world. He was particularly interested in military technology, representation technologies, computer and information technologies and biotechnology. The question of aviation as a dystopia is central to his thinking, as aviation is a key factor in the creation of the visual world and the global city, a world-terminal that is negatively interactive. Although Virilio does not ruling out technology, he radically criticizes the ways in which it changes the world, and even the human race. The criticism towards him is that he has a flawed perception, which is too negative and one-sided, and loses the empowering and democratic aspects of new computer and media technologies.

Sources:

Gaston Bechelard. The poetics of space

John Armitage. Virilio Live: Selected Interviews

The book "Open Skies" and the film "Eye in the Sky"

The introduction to the book "Open Sky" [1997], by Paul Virilio, begins routinely. He calls the sky "the primary beach." The sky separates the fullness of the earth from the emptiness of outer space. With the invention of the artistic perspective in the Renaissance period, focusing on a horizontal vanishing point, man moved away from the natural connection to the initial vertical contrast of sky-earth, embodied in gravity. Nowadays, when the sky is populated by countless afying objects, it is worthwhile to go back and focus on the vertical horizon.

From then on Virilio turns to an original theory: outer space does not exist as the scientists explained to us. The essence that controls the universe is time, which is matter in itself. Time is the dark matter of the universe. From the initial cosmic darkness derive our cognition of time as matter. This time-material creates the space familiar to us. We should call the regular time "continuity". Continuity exists in itself as matter, from the continuity that exists between atomic particles, to the continuity measured in the ranges of the creation of the universe. It is a substance whose intensity is measured by its speed, which is in relation to the speed of light.

Despite the lack of a scientific basis for the theory, the continuity of time as a material in itself is well tangible to anyone involved in filmmaking. The film editor connects footage of filmed raw material. Between each of two sections is a section of a black screen. Each passage create in the editor a sense of tangibility. His challenge is to cut off the darkness, the void, just as he cuts a piece of something . The black screen segments between the pieces of footage are a physical entity. This entity is un identified, yet it exist. Its feeling is as of the photographed material. It therefore treated, without choice, like a substance in itself. Nature despises emptiness for its own sake.

Virilio abandoned his keen interest in cinema in favor of interest in the dimensions of time, which allowed him to explore the mega cities of the world as a critical space, enslaved to accelerated technology.

Emptiness in which ordinary time becomes substance characterizes the opening scene of the film "Eye in the Sky" [2015]. The protagonist of the film is a colonel, responsible from London for an operation using unmanned aerial vehicles, which takes place in Africa.

The motto at the beginning of the film is: "In war, truth is the first victim." The motto is the essence of Virilio's thought, which deals mostly with observation technologies and decision making in the field of military aviation, and their impact on visual thinking today, where immediacy plays a central role, due to the congestion of images.

The opening scene of the film shows, in half-body camera views, a girl in Africa in the yard on a sunny morning, watching her mother bake bread, and at the same time playing with a hula hoop, next to her father fixing a bicycle. The ring is symbolic. It points out, according to Virilio's worldview, inspired by the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, the usual time and space, embodied in the growing by the diameter latitudes  of the Earth. Virilio describes this in his book "Polar Inertia" [1990].

Using a drone, the camera gradually moves away from the yard toward the street, where a military jeep with armed men is moving. The jeep is seen through the target sight of a UAV that follows it. The camera continues to move away, and the distance causes the viewer's point of view to focus on the vertical axis, which according to Virilio and Hawking indicates the abstract time and space, according to the earth longitudes,  which are arbitrary and uniform in diameter. The aiming lines of the drone become the letter E in the name of the movie, which  appears on the screen.

The picture shift to the Colonel, who is seen in a second long opening scene, in the close-up of her face in complete darkness, as she wakes up in her bed in her country house, ahead of a work day. It's still night time. The lighting is foggy and warm, using night lamps indoors and outdoors. In contrast to the clear sense of reality in Africa, the sense here is of an undefined, mystical reality. As if time is matter and the central dimension.

The camera follows her in half-body shots: while still drowsy she puts on a robe, takes the dog out into the yard, and opens the computer with a fingerprint. On the wall are pictures of the faces of the terrorists she focuses on. The picture sharpens. The photographs finally awakening her, along with an urgent mail.

An eye in the sky - the full movie on YouTube

Paul Virilio - Camera movement over eighty years

The properties of the element of fire guide Virilio in writing on the subject. Fire is an almost imageless element, except for three: light, heat, immediacy. The light according to Virilio is the light of the camera, the heat is the weapon, the immediacy is the decision making.

Virilio reviews how the development of the camera was due to the development of the machine gun, and in general how the development of cinematic photography was due to the consequences of various military developments. Observation and visual intelligence are the cornerstone of the military. That is why they have been at the forefront of technology since the dawn of history to the present day. As the weapons became more sophisticated and the slaughter on the battlefield increased, so did the need for more sophisticated means of observation. The observation plane became the most effective means, and in this way the battlefield, and later the whole world, also became cinematic. The war itself became a spectacular visual spectacle, due to the sophistication of the night lights and the intensity of the shells, in parallel with the sophistication of the defenses against them, trenches and fortifications, which created a sense of disconnection.

The function of the camera is first to connect the fragments of the whole that are revealed to it in separate images, into one complete image. Unlike more modern photography, which focuses on details and create resolutions. Nowadays, with the development of means of observation also for the invisible, such as infrared and radar, and other electronic means, the problem is the management of the information that comes from them, which is the most reliable, but also dense. This created the need for computing, and from there it was a short way to make automatic decisions. In this way the war became a nonstop film, and the nonstop time management replaced the management of space. There was also an obsession with stealth weapons, simulations, and electronic deception. As a result, the war became impersonal and intangible.

Because the sense of reality went wrong, so did human reason. The need to filter information under the conditions of human-machine combined activity was first discovered in World War II, with the sophistication of air defense equipment. Thus was founded the science of cybernetics, based on the concept of the system and the feedback, and in particular the negative feedback, which allows for the screening of human errors through practices.

A detached worldview was created as a result, making motion pictures more tangible than reality. Reality, which has been imprisoned and eliminated by the electromagnetic cyber world, is being revived through the worlds of guided imagery of cinema. Movies have become the telescopic rifle through which we look at war in particular, and the world at large.

In World War II, aerial observation, which has become very sophisticated, has become the most important means of feeding raw materials for films designed to portray reality with an objective eye. But the aerial observation also turned the surface into a detached object, as in a laboratory. Everything became too clear and immediate from the air, and repeated evidence was required, as in a laboratory experiment, to confirm any report. This is due to the increasing speed and mobility of the modern ground military movement. The need for a broad verbal interpretation of the outcome of air battles and bombings, has turned silent films into talking films, among viewers in the command rooms. The ability to carry out nocturnal attacks using bright lighting and the use of radar added to the sense of cinematic detachment from reality. The speed of the decision became more important than its correctness. Mobility, the hallmark of the military force, has become a series of means of communication, sent only by the commander-in-chief to any force on the ground. Statistics have become a major tool for him in decision making.

The citizens of the home front have also became partners to the reality of the command rooms. They were attentive to alarms, under the cloud of uncertainty of the bomb approaching them on the one hand, and watched at night the spectacular spectacle of the air defense spotlights and light bombs.

A similar spectacle is currently being experienced by Israeli citizens watching from a protected area in the background during clashes in Gaza, such as in Operation ''Wall Guard'', in which trails of thousands of missiles illuminated the sky. The first Lebanon war is an early and different example of the means of sight taking over the war, using the unmanned aerial vehicles to asist the airplanes.

In World War II, the culmination of the spectacle of light and fire was the atomic bomb. Immediately after the war it was replaced by the exhaust from the jet aircraft engines, and a few years later the fire emitted by the missile engines launched into space. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, which required an immediate response from the United States following fears of launching missiles from the island, expressed the empowerment of the processes that connected the observation, immediacy and weapons, that are a modern incarnation of primodial fire.

In the Vietnam War, unmanned jet aerial vehicles were used for the first time, as part of a sophisticated electronic system of aiming and collecting data from various sensors. The UAVs, and the missiles launched by pilots remotely using the Send and Forget method, contributed to the disengagement of the fighters from the war. What remains is the link between the flash of light and the war. For war as a vision in Vietnam contributed the use of drugs by soldiers. War as a cinema has become a default.

In the 1970s, the advanced flight simulator was developed, which enabled full simulation of operational flight, and became almost its replacement. The flight has become a cinematic misenscene. Strategic deterrence was also practiced through electronic war games. The computerized maps, created using the aerial scan of the surface, created a new world of computer mapping, imaging and navigation. The pilots were given an overhead display, sophisticated helmets, and the ability to fly and launch through speech and eye focus. The flight became automatic. The eye and the weapon merged.

The critical space according to Paul Virilio

Global urban geographical decentralization, which is a major phenomenon nowadays, has led to the creation of huge cities and an endless, legal and illegal suburban expansion that extends across entire countries. The State of Israel, in particular, has long since became, due to its small size, population density, and lack of governance in the area of ​​regional planning, a single suburban city. This situation is changing the definition of sovereignty. It marks the end of the uniqueness of the place, which characterizes the old political stage and the historic city, and its replacement by the principle of immediacy, the unity of time, which is a politics of intensity and interactivity, of a technical set-up. Systems architecture has finally replaced the historic architecture and urbanism system.

The ubiquitous, immediate presence is being followed by the replacement of the traditional agenda, which was based on the solar cycle,  with accelerated technological agenda, realized by the electronic and digital media. The accelerated agenda is pushing past habits of populating space. The stable regional and urban planning of the space has long been replaced by a general lack of restraint, under social enslavement to accelerated technology. Accelerated technology accompanies humans on their daily journey by high-speed means of transportation, aircraft, cars and trains. These means of transportation greatly eroded the importance of the traditional urban space. Humans have become transfer players in the geographic space, where they are constantly mobile.

A third reason for the disintegration of traditional space is modern weapons, the operation of which is characterized by automatic remote decision-making at lightning speed. A heavy critical mass has been created, heralding a catastrophe of the dismantled historic city, of the traditional urbanization, as well as of the state.

Because the cohesive spatial layout was lost in favor of an invisible morphological configuration, a committed personal, interactive isolation was created. An atomization of the individual was created. In this accelerated process, the individual is awaiting return to the homeland, but has no escape from life in the suburbs.

The endless urban expansion marches along with the inner urban collapse. Both together eradicated the distinction between urban population and colonial settlement. They obscure national citizenship, the very obligation to grant significant political citizenship to populations under authority. Separating colonialism from state citizenship is completely impractical, given these urban processes. The sense of enclosure in the kibernetic space is common to all sectors.

Both sides live on the scale of individual survival. Each of the two types of citizenship has, in practice, rights and obligations that equal their status. The "colonial" citizen is exempt from military service and other civilian duties. He is able to build his private home on state land without obtaining building permits, not paying taxes, marrying several women and more. The "state" subject is obligated to obey every law, mild or severe, and the authorities take every opportunity to impose authority on him. Both types of citizens enjoy free basic social and health insurance. The economic ties between them are numerous and diverse.

The traditional extroverted international colonialism, which was characterized by the occupation of territories far from the homeland, has now become an internalized colonialism, dominated by global technology and media corporations. The traditional city collapsed into itself and crumbled. The centers of major cities around the world have become slums.

The immediate interactivity of the technologies has led to the decline in the value of the local human workforce. It gives priority to multinational monopolistic centralism. This is an ideology that denies the rule of national freedom movements. It creates opposing niches for the pursuit of self-management. It corresponds to a minimum country claim presented by economists. This claim enables the creation of technologies that do not require full employment and a real and practical presence of employees.

The pursuit of sovereignty today is a symptom of a simultaneous search for momentum. It is an acceleration that characterizes all separation movements, that exists between all contemporary urban classes, regardless of their national identity. The aspiration for political isolation is of extraordinary dimensions, and includes all sectors of the population. The anti-establishment ecological movement has long exhibited its enormous dimensions, for example in the North American survival movements. Survival movements can also serve as a touchstone for their absurd chances as a counterculture.

Today the spatial disruption has become the disruption of time. Transience has become a key concept in employment. Technical unemployment, temporary employment, dispersal of the wage burden, fragmentation of the labor system, fragmentation of residence, fragmentation of the family, and so on, have become the distinctive hallmark of life today. In addition, a culture of online social networking has been created, based on similar principles.

The traditional family and community, which were the building blocks of national identity, have disappeared. They fell apart following the modern lifestyle. This disintegration also has negative consequences for the status of citizenship, as it allows for disobedience to state institutions, such as through a tax revolt and a lack of governance. There is no real civic center, almost no valuable political center. The real weapon is first and foremost the position, array and direction of the forces present in the current systemic deployment, which tends to completely neutralize the ties between the citizens, the neighborhood unit.

As a result, the development of terrorism today is limited. Terrorism has nothing to do with substansive actions today. In fact, the various national terrorist movements have never had anything to do with opposition to the collapse of traditional urban systems. They expressed a utopian connection to the homeland, while the land of their longings had long since became a suburb. 

Traditional terrorist bodies are today  inefficient and irrelevant, in the reality of mega cities, which are spreading and collapsing simultaneously and uncontrollably. First, they arose to present a false utopian vision of the homeland, but not to deal with the urban issue as reality requires, by way of presenting an independent alternative to urban renewal. Second, they operate in a crumbling society, because the family and the traditional community, which are the source of classically organized resistance, no longer exist for all the inhabitants of the mega cities. Third, they operate in an outdated strategy, of conventional weapons, while the key today is the technological weapon, based on speed.

Military technological progress, which nowadays dictates political decision-making, is characterized by ballistic missiles. Everything is known today in very short durations, a few minutes and sometimes even less. The first response doctrine argues that in order to achieve the target, the nuclear missiles must be launched before those of the enemy have left the ground. These characteristics are similar to those of unmanned aerial vehicles, which are currently the most common weapons in the war against terror.

In order to be able to express themselves, the various political resistance bodies must adopt quick quantum thinking like lightning, based on time and not on space, and act according to commutes between center and fringe, in the territory in which they are located. Speed also requires action in attacks instead of defense. This is at the risk of losing self-identity, which is typical for quantum decision makers. They also run the risk of lack of public support, engaged in time management in a technological and informative race, and baseless political promises, in an urban environment that has lost its original identity.

The article was written based on Paul Virilio's book "The Critical Space".