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."

---

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

---

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."

---

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

---

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."

---

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

---

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."

---

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

---

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?"

---

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

---

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…

---

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."

---

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

---

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."

---

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

---

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

---

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."

---

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

---

Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

--- Dick-Headline --- --- NASA, UK boffins plan tunnelling Moon mole robot ---

The Hood Maker - "Everybody can rebuild this device without special technical skills."

The Zap Gun - "The new company, however, will broaden its reach to include manufacturing high- performance lasers, optical systems and guided-energy systems..."

War Veteran - "The MoD said yesterday it had introduced new equipment and medical care which had saved around two dozen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan "that conventional medical knowledge predicts should have died". "

Survey Team - "Excitement about finding other Earth-like planets is driven by the idea that some might contain life or perhaps, centuries from now, allow human colonies to be set up on them."

---

Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

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

The Electric Ant - "The "behaviors" the robot demonstrates are some of the actions I might do (along with everyone else) in a dream."

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? - "It's really part of our civilisation."

Faith of Our Fathers - "Offending content included "wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole purpose of seeking terror and horror." "

The Mold of Yancy - "And history will judge the decisions made during this period of time as necessary decisions."

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - "One point they emphasize is that by 2050, more than two-thirds of us will live in cities -- and many of those cities will be so densely populated that we can barely imagine what life will be like in them."

Dr. Futurity - "The webbing wraps around the heart and therefore does not come into contact with the blood stream. Inbuilt sensors recognise when the heart wants to beat and trigger a series of miniature motors which cause the web to contract – increasing the internal pressure and assisting the heart to pump the blood around the body."

---

--- Dick-Headline --- Robot chef whips up delicacies we wouldn't dare touch ---

---

Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

Your Friday Sign of the Times

We Can Build You - "I hope the buyer completely restores and revives the (holy) ghost in this machine."

The Divine Invasion - "This amazing picture taken of the Christ Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro puts a new meaning to the phrase 'touched by the hand of God.' "

The Trouble With Bubbles - "It looks like a scale model of our solar system."

Foster, You're Dead ! - "Fear sets the agenda..."

The Zap Gun - "I'm going to go out on a limb and claim that Earth is desperately unprepared for any kind of alien attack."

---

--- Dick-Headline --- How Many of Your Internal Organs Can You Live Without? ---

---

Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

--- Dick-Headline --- See Through a Warbot's Eyes ---

The World Jones Made - "Do you think they're offensive, or is it just good clean fun?"

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? - "He is immediately contacting law enforcement so he is not trying to pretend he is the police." [ well spotted, Plotinus ]

Stability - "Barriers and signs such as railings, kerbs, traffic lights and white lines cause crashes..."

The Hood Maker - "...there's the knitting, the sense of humour and the techno-induced diseases."

Radio Free Albemuth - "On the video, the officer... puts the boy in a headlock, pushes him to the ground, questions his upbringing, threatens to "smack" him and repeatedly accuses the youngster of showing disrespect..."

Survey Team - "Life on Earth originated in the ocean. Could life have similarly arisen in Europa’s ocean?"

Sales Pitch - "I’ve got paper cuts on my gums!"

A Scanner Darkly - "A plan to use U.S. spy satellites for domestic security and law-enforcement missions is moving forward after being delayed for months because of privacy and civil liberties concerns."

VALIS - "So since Jesus is a Master or Saint, and Charan Singh is a Master or Saint, and all Masters or Saints have trod the same path to God-realization, whatever Charan Singh says about Jesus applies to himself."

---

Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

--- Dick-Headline --- First Sight of Google Android ---

A Scanner Darkly - "Welcome to the world of A Scanner Darkly -- made real."

Eye In The Sky - "You're much better off accepting the pain when it comes along and dealing with it. That's according to Jenny McMullen and colleagues who tested the ability of student participants to cope with unpleasant electric shocks of increasing duration."

The Crack In Space - "This is high comedy, I mean, suppose they miss?"

Ubik - "For those with a sweet tooth, sugared Osama Bin Laden-shaped candies were on offer along with rat-shaped lollipops."

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - "I thought it was kind of strange that they save your information..."

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - "Without preventative action, the report said that a nine-day heatwave, with temperatures averaging at least 27 degrees over 24 hours, would cause 3,000 immediate deaths..."

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep ? - "Look at the weird look she gets when she's staring at the electronic "soul" of the Terminator she's just deactivated."

Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

The World Jones Made - "Sometimes we deliver the bouquets in the middle of the night or early morning, to avoid suspicion."

Stability - "It's a very delicate problem."

Not By Its Cover - "Against better judgment we have posted this book for sale."

A Scanner Darkly - "This simple procedure increased the accuracy of an industry standard face-recognition algorithm from 54% to 100%, bringing the robust performance of a familiar human to an automated system." AND "...the call will connect silently after two rings and you will be able to hear whats going on in the room...from anywhere in the world!"

The Minority Report - "If we can draw inferences from those correlations, then we may be able to save lives by heightening awareness of possible events or changing the allocation of our security assets to provide more protection."

---

Tor Books, Are You Listening? Gollancz? Anyone?

I'm not against anyone making a bit of dosh on the old fleaBay, but surely this is must be the next out-of-print PKD novel due a reprint? One those of us with more sense than money can afford? I mean, come on - they've got them in Italy, what's wrong with the English-speaking world? (Don't answer that question, you'll probably upset yourself).

Decent-quality cover shot comes from the Philip K Dick bookshelf, recently the subject of a lovely, shiny new web makeover. Nice one, Henri.

---

Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

It's Dark-Haired Girl Day. Nothing personal, you understand.

Deus Irae - "There is power to be harvested from various places in the body, and you can use that to generate electricity."

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - "Cobra Commander?" AND "The fact that she didn’t have an escort, one secretary reasoned, proved that she belonged in the building."

A Scanner Darkly - "At first customs officers found nothing, but then a roll-up cigarette was spotted caught in the tread of his shoe..." AND "We're not exactly sure how "covert" a giant vest with a camera sticking out of it is..."

The Ganymede Takeover - "There's just one teeny-tiny problem with the plan...Viagra, Cialis, and the like might just make you go blind in the long run."

Planet for Transients - "I found one extremophile in penguin guano."

The World Jones Made - "The minister was not commenting last night on his remarks. But they are likely to cause consternation in the Muslim community."

Strange Eden - "And what about the humans whose lovers include two husbands, one wife, two robots, and one degenerate speck of hypermatter?"

The Zap Gun - "I'm referring to Philip K. Dick's handicloset from his wackily prophetic 1965 novel The Zap Gun."

Autofac - "Garbage disposal factories are the unsung heroes of the giant machine world."

Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

Paycheck - "The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed—for lack of a better word—is good. Greed is right. Greed works."

The World Jones Made - "It shows insensitivity towards Muslim feelings and should be removed immediately." AND "The kit sends a "self-defined" picture of the woman beneath to every Bluetooth mobile phone in the vicinity." AND "If what we want socially is a pattern of relations in which a plurality of diverse and overlapping affiliations work for a common good, and in which groups of serious and profound conviction are not systematically faced with the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty, it seems unavoidable."

A Scanner Darkly - "The programme looks at the history of psychedelic drug research when it was still easily possible..."

Radio Free Albemuth - "It's invisible ink, officials said. The scanner will count it."

The Man Who Japed - "We are holding Jesus ransom until you clean up the poopie from your wieners..." AND "Have you ever noticed how the news media treats celebrities? It is just the same as how any other parasite works and just as repulsive."

Vulcan's Hammer - "To run, er, the entire internet, IBM looks to craft more flexible systems."

The Unteleported Man (aka Lies, Inc.) - "Diatoms have already been explored as the foundation for novel electronic devices..."

Faith of Our Fathers - "The next trillions of years are at stake, so you have been declared fair game."

---

Which PKD Story Are We In Today ?

Solar Lottery - "It basically works like a political tractor beam, pulling in the formerly hopeless, cynical and apathetic and parking them in the warm shuttle bay of hope and action. Something like that."

Radio Free Albemuth - "Do you mind if I check your badge again?" [ Puts my noddy 'Minority Reports' to shame ]

The Mold of Yancy - "Truthfully, I don't think the answer will be a simple one (e.g. 'it's the nose!' or something). But we hope to have a better idea very soon."

The Owl in Daylight - "The Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) program will develop a brain inspired electronic 'chip' that mimics that function, size, and power consumption of a biological cortex."

A Scanner Darkly - "...are the spooks going to be invading the virtual world?"

Foster, You're Dead ! - "ThorShield works by providing a highly conductive specialized layer of fabric that ensures the electric current discharged from the weapon flows through the lining rather than the body."