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"The SF approach: an awareness that things could have been different, that this is one of many possible worlds, that if you came to this world from some other planet, this would be a science fiction world."
- Neal Stephenson
 |
| Homeostatic Newspaper | ||
| An autonomous news-gathering and publishing entity; abbreviated as homeopape. |
In the story, representatives from CURB (Centaurus Urban Renewal Board) newly arrived from Proxima Centaurus try to make sense of what happened during "the Misadventure" - an atomic war that destroyed almost all life on Earth.
| "The structure," the minor CURBman said, "was once a great homeostatic newspaper, the New York Times. It printed itself directly below us... We haven't located the newspaper yet; it was customary for the homeopapes to be buried a mile or so down..."
"...the entire network of newspaper communication and news-creation has been idle since [the Misadventure]... Early the next morning the report from the corps of engineers reached Hood in his temporary office. The power supply of the newspaper had been totally destroyed. But the cephalon, the governing brain structure which guided and oriented the homeostatic system, appeared to be intact... |
| Technovelgy from If There Were No Benny Cemoli,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Galaxy Publishing in 1953 Additional resources -
|
The homeopape is also described as "a vast complex electronic organism buried deep in the ground, responsible to no one, guided solely by its own ruling circuits." The homeopape gathered information by utilizing "news-gathering services" and "news receptors."
Each edition of the homeopape is printed up and then delivered to a variety of outlets, including kiosks.
In this story, the homeopape begins to describe the political progress of a certain Benny Cemoli, a pre-Misadventure activist political figure who certainly no longer exists. However, the 'pape continues to chronicle his progress throughout the story.
In the story, Dick uses the idea of a newspaper that creates itself to mock our certainty that there is a single, shared sequence of objectively verifiable events. However, a homeopape is more than just a literary device; Google News, which is created without any human intervention, is certainly the first homeostatic newspaper.
PKD continued to work with this literary device; see the article on homeopape for more information.
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'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
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'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
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'Detailed plans for the construction of the Gundstetter-Halone warp drive were flowing.'
'Do not waste your priceless company on the unappreciative folds of a sleep pod...'
'...so we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
