dystopia radio

[kleenexwoman]

There is an eerie resemblance between Philip K. Dick's "Vulcan's Hammer" and Isaac Asimov's UNIVAC stories. They're the same story, essentially: A supercomputer is running the world because humans can't be trusted to run it anymore, but the person who feeds data into the computer is withholding information from it because he's subconsciously working for the rebel group that wants to smash the computer. The entire thing is basically a psychological logic problem. However, Philip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov have very different ideas what this type of logic signifies. Asimov's view of logic is that it's a means to an end, a perfectly linear series of steps which anybody, given the correct information, enough time, and a pencil and paper, could figure out. PKD's view of logic is that it's some kind of mental trap, a web of nihilistic absurdity warping the world and leading its user to insanity.
This is probably because of the very, very different worldviews of the two authors. Asimov was rational, mechanistic, and atheistic; his worlds all have strict, reality-based laws and consequences. His characters are, for the most part, perfectly sane. PKD was paranoid, delusional, and, towards the end, a religious fanatic (granted, his religion involved satellites, pink laser beams, and Nixon as the Antichrist). His worlds are based on completely ridiculous principles, and even his token sane characters are neurotic.
I could do a thesis paper on this stuff. I think I will.

ETA: I just threw up in the sink. I don't think this has anything to do with supercomputers. Or logic. Oddly enough, I feel much better than I have since around the 5th. That's when I started getting sick. I'm fairly sure it's psychosomatic.

It occurs to me that nobody who I've ever really, really cared about has died. I think the closest thing I got was my great-grandmother, when I was in 3rd grade. That's kind of worrying. Is there some kind of perspective I don't have that can only be gained by a severe loss? And if that's the case, do I want that perspective?

Comments

[nematoddity.livejournal.com]

Wau. Yeah, your mind re-filters with death, to add in the new code. If you've never had anyone really close to you die, then you've never had that taste of the code, so yeah, it would hit you really hard.

Me, I'm used to it, one of my best-loved grandpas shot himself when I was five or six, so...I'm inured at this point.

In short,

[chime9821.livejournal.com]

Yes. Sorry to butt in...

But yes, I think there is a perspective that people gain when they've experienced something traumatic. Not necessarily death even, though that is the most common "something traumatic" that people go through.

As for the "Do I want that" part, I can't speak for you, obviously. You won't know if you want it or not until after you have it, at which point there's no getting rid of it.

Re: In short,

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much the consensus, I think. Thank you for your input...by the way, how'd you find my journal? Just curious.

[bluenewt.livejournal.com]

PKD was paranoid, delusional, and, towards the end, a religious fanatic (granted, his religion involved satellites, pink laser beams, and Nixon as the Antichrist). His worlds are based on completely ridiculous principles, and even his token sane characters are neurotic.

I think his book sounds far cooler.

The whole death thing... I was actually just thinking about that. You're actually very lucky to not know the pain of losing a loved one, because it's nothing fun. It does change a person's perspective a bit. At least for me. I was very close to my grandpa when I was little, and he died. I was not raised in any religion, but when he died, I remember I started praying to God then... I'd ask God to connect me to Grandpa and then I'd tell my Grandpa things. It was more theraputic and kind of wishful thinking than perhaps believing I was talking to my grandfather... but now I think I have more hope about the world.

That was kind of irrelevant and rambling. I doubt you'd particularily want to become more religious, but that wasn't the real point. Just kind of... examplifying something for you. That didn't make any sense but it has some strange meaning to me.

Well then.

I think I appreciate my own mortality more.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

It does make sense, and it's definitely something to think about. Thank you.



And yeah, PKD's books are a little cooler.