ABSTRACT
Here in Potsdam, they say, is where the Cold War broke out and its networks began. Historians, whose mask I am going to wear for this lay engagement, seem to ignore the event, but other laypeople have reported it. Thomas Pynchon tells of Tyrone Slothrop, also known as Rocket Man, searching for the biggest chunk of pot of all times, who crosses the Avus and Lake Griebnitz, sneaks past Soviet guards through Neubabelsberg and finally excavates the hashish in the garden of a villa where a newly elected U.S. President has just arrived. Thus the first network, that of drugs, is already in place. Paul Virilio continues the story by recalling what that President talked about with his British counterpart, just before elections did away with Alan Turing's boss.
