Jean Baudrillard's (1929–2007) name is often linked with that of Virilio’s. There are certain similarities in their philosophies and they have cooperated together. All this despite the fact that their backgrounds are very diff erent: Baudrillard's in literature, sociology and anthropology; Virilio's in theology, craftwork and architecture. There might be a common background in Catholicism but this was never explicitly stated by either of them. They share points of view concerning the critique of modern consumer society, materialistic culture, from the standpoint of a set of symbolic values – with Virilio this is mainly but not exclusively Catholicism, with Baudrillard (1993) it is the anthropological idea of symbolic exchange. Virilio theorised modern society from the viewpoint of the war machine, whereas this plays almost no role in Baudrillard's thinking. Indeed, Catholicism is one of the principal sources of modern simulacra for Baudrillard whose later thinking fi nds its support in pagan pre- Christian cultures. Baudrillard famously critiqued the collapse of the social, whereas Virilio has sought in the social the very basis of opposition to the alienated features of modern mass society.

Baudrillard once said of Virilio: