Since the 1990s Virilio has identifi ed catastrophe as both an inevitable side eff ect and the true nature of rapid technological progress. The concept fi rst appears in Open Sky (1997 [1995]), then in Polar Inertia (2000a [1990]), but becomes a central concern in The Information Bomb (2000d [1998]), Unknown Quantity (2003b [2002]), The Original Accident (2007a [2005]) and The University of Disaster (2010a [2007]), all works in which Virilio develops and extends his theory of the integral accident and unpacks the role of catastrophe as a potential redeeming force.

Virilio laments the widely held perception of technological accidents as an exception, subversion, contamination or deviation to an otherwise functional norm. In contrast, he repeatedly points out that accidents are not unforeseeable faults in otherwise perfect operations but that they are integral aspects of the technological devices and scientifi c systems produced by modernity's drive for progress. Virilio explores the accidents associated with the heroic products of the twentieth century, observing how each new invention also brings about its accompanying catastrophe: the ship has introduced the shipwreck; the jet plane has brought about the air disaster; the automobile has ushered in the car crash; and electricity combined with modern technology has brought forth nuclear meltdown. Yet the hubris of modernity is such that it continues to foolishly embrace the positive side of technology while ignoring its implicit dangers. As a joint result of this ignorance and modernity's accelerating ‘progress’, industrial design and manufacturing processes have ensured the largescale production and distribution of new technologies, and, in turn, their corresponding accidents have become more numerous, globally widespread and mass produced.