The lecture will address the question of media materialism but from an alternative perspective. It investigates the various underground determinations of media, and digs beyond the media in order to discover crucial aspects of materiality of contemporary technical media. Such a perspective is relevant to the anthropocene-discussions but in this case provides input to think the link of geology of media and geopolitics which turns to geophysical politics.

In this context, the question of simulation becomes interesting. The technical conditioning of the geological epistemology is itself underpinned by the existence of geology, understood as a resource: the underworlds of mines that since Lewis Mumford have been understood as the primary case of technological futures. The geophysical survey plays an important role in understanding the Earth as a resource - and not only Earth but also the orbit and outer space too. This extends to the geopolitical missions of surveying places of intense military interest, such as Afghanistan, for their mineral resources.