Philip K Dick's Electric Dreams: self-replicating AI, the illusion of self, and parasites

Decipher SciFi: the show about how and why

Philip K Dick

Callback to some.of.our.episodes on PKD and his stories. Pulp scifi of the 50s and 60s. General appreciation for his ideas and the return of thoughtful anthologies.

Autofac

PKDpocalypse. Consumerism something something. Supreme dedication to a task. The Paperclip Maximizer and the possible danger of a highly-capable AI dedicated to its task. Universal Paperclips. The unconscious, apathetic skynet.

Real Life

PKD was all about that hash tag life. The malleability of our perception of “reality.” Am I Anna Paquin? Neurological explanations for Deja Vu. Gaslighting. Dick moves. Colbert’s joke-telling disability.

Convincing your girlfriend she’s crazy or paranoid is called gaslighting, and it’s a dick move. But convincing her she’s a robot with artificial implanted human emotions is called bladerunning. It’s a Phillip K. Dick move.

Nathan Anderson

The Father Thing

Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Stranger Things. Really really affordable spacecraft for extremophiles. Parasites cleaning up after themselves poorly. Sometimes you just gotta step up and try to murder someone. Home alone booby-trap techniques, poorly applied. Compressed parasite operating systems.

1. Universal Paperclips: DecisionProblem.com
2. Blade Runner: "androids," the AI control problem, and brain design: Decipher SciFi
3. A Scanner Darkly: the surveillance state, drug abuse, and rotoscoping: Decipher SciFi
4. Minority Report: Eliot Peper on freedom and algorithmic precognition: Decipher SciFi

Support the show!