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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
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| Famnexdo | ||
| A set of four simulacra, one adult male, one adult female and two children; the family next door. |
Are you concerned about moving to Mars, because it's still so empty; are you leaving your friends and relatives behind?
| ...at the far end, taking up most of the available space, he saw four simulacra seated in silence, a group: one in adult male form, its female mate and two children. This was a major item of the firm's catalog; this was a famnexdo...
A man, when he emigrated, could buy neighbors, buy the simulated presence of life, the sound and motion of human activity - or at least its mechanical near-substitute - to bolster his morale in the new environment of unfamiliar stimuli and perhaps, god forbid, no stimuli at all... The famdexdo were actually not next door at all, they were part of their owner's entourage. Communication with them was in essence a circular dialogue with oneself; the famdexdo, if they were functioning properly, picked up the covert hopes and dreams of the settler and detailed them back in an articulated fashion. Therapeutically, this was helpful, although from a cultural standpoint it was a trifle sterile. |
| Technovelgy from The Simulacra,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Ace in 1964 Additional resources -
|
Another great example of Dick's wit and vision; this is a sly commentary on the suburbanization of America in the 1960's.
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and Technology from The Simulacra
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Tech news articles related to The Simulacra
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Famnexdo-related
news articles:
- Japan's Humanoid Robot Moonbase Plan
| Tesla's Optimus Robot Now Sorts Objects (I've Got A Job In Mind) |
| CADRE Robots To Work In Teams On Other Planets |
| Robotic Hands Have More Than One Use |
| 'No, I'm Not A Robot' - Robot |
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'Then they press one of these here thirteen buttons...'
'You're a stable, rock-bottom mining robot, except that you're equipped to handle six subsidiaries in direct coordination...'
'The crawling, exploring object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
'It radiates outward in a cone which, by the time it has reached our section of space, is many lightyears across.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock.'
'... with a weird simulation of life, the ten forked ends of each arm commenced a rattling pressing of the buttons.'
'Each of the four areas is enclosed by a sonic wall...'
