Becoming Virtual, the English title of Pierre Lévy’s Qu’est-ce que le virtuel, may seem at first sight to confirm Baudrillard’s most pessimistic prediction for the future of humanity. But the impression is dispelled as early as the second page of the introduction to Lévy’s treatise:
"The virtual, strictly defined, has little relationship to that which is false, illusory, or imaginary. The virtual is by no means the opposite of the real. On the contrary, it is a fecund and powerful mode of being that expands the process of creation, opens up the future, injects a core of meaning beneath the platitude of immediate physical presence." (16) ... [] ... The possible is fully formed, but it resides in limbo. Making it real is largely a matter of throwing the dice of fate ... [] .... All it takes to turn the possibility into the actuality of a snowstorm is to delete the symbol O (possibility operator) in front of the proposition “It is snowing today.” The operation is fully reversible, so that the proposition (p) can pass from mere possibility to reality back to possibility. In contrast to the predictable realization of the possible, the mediation between the virtual and the actual is not a deterministic process but a form-giving force. (p: 35)
"The virtual, strictly defined, has little relationship to that which is false, illusory, or imaginary. The virtual is by no means the opposite of the real. On the contrary, it is a fecund and powerful mode of being that expands the process of creation, opens up the future, injects a core of meaning beneath the platitude of immediate physical presence." (16) ... [] ... The possible is fully formed, but it resides in limbo. Making it real is largely a matter of throwing the dice of fate ... [] .... All it takes to turn the possibility into the actuality of a snowstorm is to delete the symbol O (possibility operator) in front of the proposition “It is snowing today.” The operation is fully reversible, so that the proposition (p) can pass from mere possibility to reality back to possibility. In contrast to the predictable realization of the possible, the mediation between the virtual and the actual is not a deterministic process but a form-giving force. (p: 35)
