The Software-Simulated Airworld: Anticipatory Code and Affective Aeromobilities

The paper explores how software simulations work to structure and mediate behaviour by producing specific emotional and affective experiences in order to prepare the body for future encounters.

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the way in which airspaces are organised, managed, and understood by virtual representations—software simulations that are tested and used both preemptively and in real time. We suggest that, while airspaces are often understood as simulations themselves—models and blueprints for real-world futures—they are among the most mediated of all contemporary social environments, produced not only through code, but based on scenarios which predict and plan for future events—real vitalities that might come true. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples of aeronautical software simulation employed by civilian and military aviation, we explore how code has become increasingly sophisticated and ubiquitous in response to the challenges set by the mobilities the simulations model and the affective susceptibility of the corporeal body that uses them. The paper explores how software simulations work to structure and mediate behaviour by producing specific emotional and affective experiences in order to prepare the body for future encounters.