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"As the rate of technological development speeds up, the gap between science fiction and what we’re living now is getting narrower all the time."
- Richard Morgan
 |
| Dr. Smile | ||
| A suitcase-sized analyst; a machine that served as a psychotherapist. |
Barney Mayerson had a problem. He was about to be drafted, which in this future Earth means
that he was about to be selected to be resettled on another world. How to avoid this miserable
fate? Figure out some way to be declared "4F"; he was determined to develop enough neuroses to
be undraftable. All he needed was a good coach...
It fits the Dickian world perfectly; a psychiatrist is used to increase the number of neuroses.
| And there in the next room by the sofa sat a familiar suitcase, that of his psychiatrist Dr.
Smile. Barefoot, he padded into the living room, and seated himself by the suitcase; he opened it, clicked switches, and turned on Dr. Smile. Meters began to register and the mechanism hummed. "Where am I?" Barney asked it. "And how far am I from New York?" That was the main point... The mechanism which was the portable extension of Dr. Smile, connected by micro-relay to the computer itself in the basement level of Barney's own conapt building in New York, the Renown 33, tinnily declared, "Ah, Mr. Bayerson." "Mayerson," Barney corrected, smoothing his hair with fingers that shook. |
| From The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Doubleday in 1965 Additional resources -
|
It should also be noted that this device is artificially intelligent and appears to be a distributed application, not merely a locally resident application:
Obligingly, the girl turned the psychiatrist on...
"I know a Mr. Bayerson," Dr. Smile said. "In fact I'm with him right now, via portable extension, of course, right in his office."
Later on, one of the characters has this to say about Dr. Smile:
It might be easier to talk to a machine about something embarassing; you might want to visit Sigfrid von Shrink (the automated therapist) from Gateway, by Frederic Pohl.
"A psychiatrist? From one of those big conapts? Is it working? Turn it on."
"That's not really Dr. Smile; it's just pretend, to keep us from loneliness. It's alive but it's not connected with anything outside itself; it's what they call being on intrinsic."
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Dr. Smile-related
news articles:
- SHUTi - Automated Online Insomnia Treatment
- SPARX Fantasy Game Helps With Depression
| Robot Journalists Join Associated Press |
| Tesla's Elon Musk Has Some Concerns About AI |
| Cortana, Your Personal Assistant |
| Will Autonomous Systems' Self-Preservation Lead To Dangerous Behavior? |
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