One thing PKD did that lends itself to moviemaking is just the fact that his novels are generally short and focus on quickly building a fantastic yet consistent world in the first few pages. Then he gives us a plotline that involves a conflict between the world he's built for us, and our common sense notions borne out of our experience in the "real" world.
The cherry on top is the denouement, where he asks us: are you sure your world is the "real" one?
I think this formula just really matches the pace and scope of a feature-length movie. Note that TV series based on his books have not been as numerous or successful. The best of the bunch may be "Man In The High Tower", but it massively diverges from the book not too far in.
Also, he was a f*king genius at predicting future memes.
One thing many do not appreciate, is that history is only linear, once its happened. Befor that, history is a tree.
Branches and subbranches of what could be, traversing them gains you ability and accumulates disabilitys, leading back to branches, that are similiar to the now (roots).
One can go high in the branches, accumulating very high propabilitys of catastrophic failures - like for example handing out nukes to every government on the planet. One can invest all into root hardening, such for example, recording a self explaining encyclopedia on a timeless media. (Youtubes primitve technology comes to mind).
Capabilitys worth is the sume of the abilitys and the disabilitys to get to them from the now. Some are worthier then others, some just postpone problems and accumulate dangers, making the high branches of the future, dangerous traps.
Luck, wishfull thinking and make-believe hope, is no solid basis for planning the future of a species. Even worser, but longterm better, shortterm suffering for longterm gains is worth alot of short term suffering.
Calculated morals from traversing such a scenario tree (drasil) and the decisions based upon it can seem very strange to our eyes.
PS: One also has to admire, how remarkably "exploration" has shifted from "high risk" ventures towards "stability" aka root hardening in recent history. Resource cheap entertainement and self surveilance are keys to a stability even during environment deterioration and crisis. Nextflix, cellphone selfies and chill in the refugee camp, instead of terrorism.
Whoever is lately pushing those decisions, clearly is aware of that.
I have read alot of scifi, both good and bad, but PKD stands apart not in competition but as his own category. Not in a literary sense but by practicing what one might call therapeutic philosophy that aims to sooth the lack of answers to eternal questions. Especially Man in the High Castle where he explores alternate "nearby" realities, our ability to sense them and in what sense we have agency to shape our destiny.
> Probably all we would have to go on would be vestiges of memory, fleeting impressions, dreams, nebulous intuitions that somehow things had been different in some way -- and not long ago but now. We might reflexively reach for a light switch in the bathroom only to discover that it was -- always had been -- in another place entirely.
One might imagine that if our past were altered such that a light switch were in a different spot, then our past experiences of flipping the switch on every morning would also have been altered, so we would not have any reflexive habit to reach for the wrong place. It seems that PKD is imagining some kind of great process of moving minds between parallel streams of the world, instead of imagining the world shifting underneath those minds.
This reminds me of the "parking ramp dinosaur" in Anathem.
Off topic, but the first illustration in the post is by Robert Crumb; for anyone who hasn't seen the documentary on him, titled "Crumb"[1], you're missing out!
What I find rather satisfying about this argument is that it rather neatly solves the problem of evil in a way which I don't believe the Catholic apologists managed. Clearly a complete genius, I should reread his books with an older head on.
How would we perceive such lateral
changes? What would we experience? What clues -- if we are trying to test out this bizarre
theory -- should we be on the alert for?
Ah yes, Douglas swinging that Mandella Effect broadsword before it was ever forged. How appropriate!
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The cherry on top is the denouement, where he asks us: are you sure your world is the "real" one?
I think this formula just really matches the pace and scope of a feature-length movie. Note that TV series based on his books have not been as numerous or successful. The best of the bunch may be "Man In The High Tower", but it massively diverges from the book not too far in.
Also, he was a f*king genius at predicting future memes.
One can go high in the branches, accumulating very high propabilitys of catastrophic failures - like for example handing out nukes to every government on the planet. One can invest all into root hardening, such for example, recording a self explaining encyclopedia on a timeless media. (Youtubes primitve technology comes to mind).
Capabilitys worth is the sume of the abilitys and the disabilitys to get to them from the now. Some are worthier then others, some just postpone problems and accumulate dangers, making the high branches of the future, dangerous traps.
Luck, wishfull thinking and make-believe hope, is no solid basis for planning the future of a species. Even worser, but longterm better, shortterm suffering for longterm gains is worth alot of short term suffering. Calculated morals from traversing such a scenario tree (drasil) and the decisions based upon it can seem very strange to our eyes.
PS: One also has to admire, how remarkably "exploration" has shifted from "high risk" ventures towards "stability" aka root hardening in recent history. Resource cheap entertainement and self surveilance are keys to a stability even during environment deterioration and crisis. Nextflix, cellphone selfies and chill in the refugee camp, instead of terrorism. Whoever is lately pushing those decisions, clearly is aware of that.
haven’t seen the movie, but on the book he mentions this.
One might imagine that if our past were altered such that a light switch were in a different spot, then our past experiences of flipping the switch on every morning would also have been altered, so we would not have any reflexive habit to reach for the wrong place. It seems that PKD is imagining some kind of great process of moving minds between parallel streams of the world, instead of imagining the world shifting underneath those minds.
This reminds me of the "parking ramp dinosaur" in Anathem.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109508/
Ah yes, Douglas swinging that Mandella Effect broadsword before it was ever forged. How appropriate!