Frolix-8

Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

Your Friday Sign of the Times

The Man In The High Castle - "People are always personally accountable for their behavior. If they kill, they are accountable. However, what I'm saying is that if the killing can be shown to be a product of the influence of a powerful situation within a powerful system, then it's as if they are experiencing diminished capacity and have lost their free will or their full reasoning capacity."

Second Variety - "As you approach, the robots turn their heads in your direction, their eyes light up, come too close and the robot suddenly growls. The closer you get, the more aggressive its behaviour."

The Penultimate Truth - "Since 2004, a series of robotic security guards have been roaming the perimeter of the Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada..."

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? - "Eventually, they hope that the robot will be able to perform basic tasks like stacking wooden blocks, and be able name objects and actions so that it can speak basic phrases like "robot puts stick on cube" or "I want more life, father." "

The Simulacra - "AIBO also has the added advantage of, erm, cleanliness, and is easier for senior citizens to take care of, so it looks like Sparky is pretty much out of a job." [ Everyone loves the Papoola... ]

The World Jones Made - "I was like, why?...He says it's related to gangs."

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--- Dick-Headline --- Earth Battles The Moon, Who Wins? ---

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Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

Jaroslaw Kukowski

Faith of Our Fathers - "Folks often joke about the blood-sucking parasites that infect politics..."

Vulcan's Hammer - "The other possibility for governing the Internet, and, more specifically, the criminal activity that occurs on the Internet, would be to change the structure of the Internet."

Second Variety - "Currently there is always a human in the loop to decide on the use of lethal force. However, this is set to change..."

Nanny - "The dishwasher sized Readybot prototype can currently do a little less than half of your common kitchen chores, but Benson says it'll eventually get to 80 percent..."

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? - "Best of all, he can even make the creature talk, and apparently, its array of scare tactics has been fairly effective thus far."

Piper in the Woods - "Now you can learn how your plants are doing with a DIY kit that lets them Twitter you."

Autofac - "...the A.I. takeover will come from a nasty nano-tech sludge that consumes all matter in its path to recreate itself endlessly."

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--- Dick-Headline --- Living Neural Networks Could Drive War Machines ---

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Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - "Safe and clean streets are a nice thing, but all I see in the videos is a group of volunteer bullies verballing abusing young people."

A Scanner Darkly - "They are the round ones that can move. I'm not very happy about it. It feels a bit strange when you are going to the loo." [ Link to Daily Scare. Apologies. ]

The Impossible Planet - "The Earth will become dry basically. It will become completely impossible for life of any kind to exist. It's a pretty gloomy forecast."

The Mold of Yancy - "The cause is not just a few bad apples - it's systemic."

Stability - "Where are the parents, the teachers, the moral leaders? Apparently they should all be lined up and shot for dereliction of duty."

Exhibit Piece - "Nobody in 2000 sees any sense in building a house that will last a century."

Impostor - "As far as I know, the first autonomous robotic bomb was the wabbler from the 1942 story of the same name by Murray Leinster."

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--- Dick-Headline --- What Scifi Fascist Regime Would You Rather Live Under?

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Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

Lethal Injection Attack Droid Prototype by Christopher Conte

Sales Pitch - "It’s a Big Brother-esque move that doesn’t apply to Big Brother, which is a CBS program."

The Zap Gun - "The major advantage of Skyguard is its use of a laser beam for interceptions."

We Can Build You - "The Hello Kitty fembot, as this uncanny specimen shall be henceforth named, also includes a wider repertoire of expressions, which are supposedly smoother, making it more likely that innocent bystanders will be fooled, and hardcore robot/Hello Kitty enthusiasts like us will have haunted dreams."

Autofac - "The idea is that a scout robot would use vision and mapping technology to determine what areas of an orchard need to be harvested, and then would deploy itself, or possibly a team of "harvester" robots to bring home a basket of delicious goodies."

Foster, You're Dead ! - "...it's something no self-respecting paranoiac should do without..." AND "...the Svalbard archipelago, where ironically no crops grow, is considered the ideal location for the new vault due to its remote location far from civil strife."

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? - "Thankfully, the multi-layered story is cerebral fodder as well as eye candy, so you won't get bored while you watch another clip of armor-piercing bullets get emptied into mindless robo-slaves."

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - "just looking at these photos makes me claustrophobic but i can’t help admiring the patterns created by the hardcore “pack ‘em in tightly” urban planning."

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--- Dick-Headline --- Insect Automata Burst from Robot Eggs in the Street ---

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Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

It's Monday, it's Dark-Haired Girl Day

The Trouble With Bubbles - "Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world."

A Scanner Darkly - "RottenNeighbor.com is here to help. It's the first real estate search engine of its kind, helping you find troublesome neighbors before you sign the paperwork on your new house, condo or apartment." AND "Who will be the customers for their innovative espionage technique?"

Ubik - "All moving objects are becoming ghosts. Only people and cars who are standing still are becoming visible. Movement makes you invisible."

Clans of the Alphane Moon - "The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read."

War Game - "This unique toy/teaching aid provides ample amounts of healthy fun along with education and awareness of the security measures that people face in real life."

War Veteran - "It's very straightforward: he's going to go blind unless he's treated."

The Divine Invasion - "Why are there videos of your church members assaulting him in public? Why would he kill himself in such a strange manner? Why would he die so mysteriously while in the process of exposing your church?"

James P. Crow - "What exactly would be the plusses and minuses of being able to google information instantaneously in your head, without anybody knowing you're doing it?"

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--- Dick-Headline --- Will Wright Wants To Control Your Miniature Worlds

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The Minority Report - Management-Speak

The role of IT Manager is a difficult and demanding one. Finding the right words at the right time can be particularly challenging, as the following field examples show. Firstly, the challenge of the emailed memo...

From: IT Manager
Sent: 06 February 2008 09:33
To: IT Technicians
Subject: FW: Language Lab

Guys,

The plan to upgrade the Language Lab in the Main Block can be invocated during ½ term.

Then there's this, from a helpdesk team briefing...

"…and then we have jobs where the finance department rings up saying that someone in finance hasn’t got access to the finance system. Now it may be that we’ve fucked up. But it might be that we’ve followed all the right procedures and the job’s just a black swan…"

Next, from a telephone conversation with a supplier about the use of Apple Macs...

"There is the argument that the students will come across Macs when they get out there, into the workplace or into uni. But there’s also the argument that we’re not supposed to be preparing them for that..."

And finally, in response to wider current affairs...

Technician - They’ve got Gazza on suicide watch...!

IT Manager - Surely they want to stop him doing it, not watch him doing it…

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Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

Your Friday Sign of the Times

The Crack In Space - "How much of the original animal that we once were has been has been lost in the evolution process?"

A Scanner Darkly - "This is the only SIM Card reader in the world that can actually see the deleted messages."

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer - "CLOUS AYANT SERVIS A CRUCIFIER LE CHRIST...PAY-PAL ACCEPTE...ENVOI AVEC ASSURANCE"

The Cosmic Puppets - "The study reveals that the context surrounding what we see is all important -- sometimes overriding the evidence gathered by our eyes and even causing us to imagine things which aren't really there."

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--- Dick-Headline --- US Claims Satellite Shoot-Down Success ---

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Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

Ubik - "I stood up, reached down to pick up the TV remote control from the floor and felt my foot sink into the ground. Glancing down, I saw that my leg was plunging into the carpet..."

Piper in the Woods - "So, we don't want full-on hybridity. But others have tried to bridge the plant-animal divide in less drastic ways."

Beyond Lies The Wub - "I will have my bionic limbs and jewelry box full of different faces."

The Electric Ant - "The state has, admittedly, saved her life by androidising large chunks of her anatomy. But in return, she is no longer free to live her life."

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--- Dick-Headline --- Aliens seize control of Daily Telegraph ---

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Achtung Internet

In honour of their annual gigs and increased ticket price thanks to all those nefarious file-sharers (maybe), I embed for your hopeful sanity the incomparable Half Man Half Biscuit...
You're Hard		Restless Legs
Twenty-Four-Hour Garage People		Paintball's Coming Home
Running Order Squabblefest		Vatican Broadside

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Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

VALIS - "Some of the applications the report investigated include putting voices in people's heads, using lasers to trigger uncontrolled neuron firing, and slowly heating the human body to a point of feverish confusion - all from hundreds of meters away."

Sales Pitch - "The company sees subway passengers as potential customers, but the scornful tone of the advertising language exposes a lack of interest in human feelings behind a meticulous design."

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? - "It purports to measure the mental state or change of state of a person and thus is of benefit to the auditor in helping the preclear locate areas to be handled." AND "Meet Noa, a so-called Sky Doll; a life-like female android without rights, who exists only to serve the State's needs and desires."

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--- Dick-Headline --- Brain control headset for gamers ---

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