The stock market is not the only crash; it's just the cover story.

In the early years of the third millennium, the Voyager 1 space probe exited the solar system, but not before turning its cameras back toward Earth, revealed to be a tiny speck receding into the dark cosmic void. Like Earth disappearing in its own rearview mirror, modernity is crashing into its vanishing points, where it confronts five apocalypses — nuclear, virtual, ecological, secular, and cosmic — each with its own ground zero — Trinity, Tomorrowland, Gaia hypothesis, Apollo 8, and the Big Bang.

With a new Afterword showing how the stock market crash reflects the cultural crashes explained in this book.

Barry Vacker teaches media, cultural, and utopian theory at Temple University, Philadelphia. The author of many articles and book chapters, his recent publications include the text for Peter Granser's photography book Signs (Hatje Cantz 2008). Vacker's recent work with experimental media includes the first three volumes of the "Theory Zero" book series (Zero Conditions, Crashing Into the Vanishing Points, and Starry Skies Moving Away), as well as the documentary film Space Times Square (2007), which he wrote and directed. barryvacker.net

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