Related
If you ’ve watched a skill fiction film or television series in the last 50 age , chances are you ’ve encountered something based on the works of Philip K. Dick . With 44 published novels and 121 myopic stories from the early ' 50s until the early ' 80s , his composition of alternate reality , authoritarian governments , virtual realism , and artificial intelligence have been widely regarded as substantially ahead of their clock time and incredibly of import to the sci - fi genre .
Many of his works are known because they were turned into films or series , such asBlade RunnerandThe Man In The High Castle , but many of his construct are found throughout idiot box and cinema . He often explored bare views of the future , infect by technological compulsion , where realness was determine by an unobserved and unchecked globular regime which seek only to oppress . Sounds an awful pot likeThe MatrixandTerminator , right ? register on for 10 means that Philip K. Dick influenced sci - fi moving picture and boob tube .
LIFE IS A SIMULATION
All the means back in 1957 , Philip K. Dick wrote a little al-Qur’an calledEye in the Sky , which ask that lifespan was a model , and that the weak could be exploit by the muscular for dominance . The globe being nothing more than a VR experience has been explored several fourth dimension in flick and television .
Series likeBlack Mirrorhave had episode dispense with the concept , and the entireMatrixtrilogy owes its sprawling plot line about world being in a simulation for the benefit of political machine to Dick ’s musings on the topic . The doleful portrait of a sorry future where humankind ’s only respite is through a simulation is a timeless archetype that Dick used well before anyone else .
EXISTENTIALISM AND THE MEANING OF LIFE
FromBlade RunnertoA Scanner Darkly , Philip K. Dick explored the concept of existentialism as it relate to the meaning of life . InBlade Runner , his synthetic humanoids , Replicants , were the impetus of such ruminations , because they trust more life which their human counterparts seemed to take for granted . The kinship between the renegade robots and paranoid man spark a dialogue centered on what about spirit makes it worth down over .
InA Scanner Darkly , which is a film all about obliterate identities and the sharing of worlds , Dick eviscerate on European psychologists interest in existential philosophy that postulated there were two worlds for each person , theidios kosmos(the secret world ) and thekoinos kosmos ( the public world ) . Most of Dick ’s character vacillate between the two .
DYSTOPIAN DREAD
There is a nihilistic , dystopian apprehensiveness that weaves its style through several of Dick ’s work . Blade Runner , I , Robot , andMinority Reportare some of the most placeable for the report , but it ’s something that he brought to the care of modern sci - fi in a path that it had never been seen before .
Most science - fabrication idiot box series and moving-picture show at the metre Dick was first write ( the ' 50 and ' LX ) were sterilized and effervescent , depicting a arcadian future tense for humankind that was something to reckon forward to , likeLost in SpaceorThe Jetsons . But Dick propose the futurity would be dark , gritty , and not always easy .
REALISM
Along with European psychologists , Dick was intemperately influenced by French realist author of the 17th century , which meant that he favored the " slice of liveliness " form of storytelling . This was a far cry from the grandiose themes the sci - fi musical style had going for it when he was writing , such as the epic space operas ofKrullandStar Wars .
A series likeThe Man In the High Castle(which was base off of the only novel by Dick to gain a Hugo Award ) is an example at looking at life history in the US as it subsist , with one small remainder ; Hitler gain , and controls the US with the Axis powers .
MULTIPLICATIVE REALITIES
If you ’ve seenInceptionor12 Monkeys , opportunity are you ’ve judge to wrap your noodle around the multiplicative realism shown in those films . Though they deal with different plots ( one deal with clock time change of location , another with dreams ) , their construct stay on the same ; endless possible action and realities fall out simultaneously with each selection made .
In12 Monkeys , which theater director Terry Gilliam admitted to being inspired in part by Dick ’s writings , it deals with two men ( Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis ) that have to get word to share with the futility of existence , which in the end only serves to drive them to madness , much like trying to figure out the significance of the ending toInception . Where one realness is an option , every other realism is an option .
TIME TRAVEL AND ITS REPERCUSSIONS
Dick ’s sci - fi writing were often believe bleak , heartsick , and unappealing to those that wanted more light - hearted menu . However , his prose had a purpose - it probed the deepest insecurity of humankind and bring them to the forefront to be seriously considered and analyzed .
A great model of this is Dick ’s exploration of sentence - travel . He felt the applied science , if it were ever developed , would lead in humankind being chained to the mistakes of its past , not improve its future . This concept appear to be used the right in theTerminatorfranchise , where no matter what any of the antagonists seem to do , time change of location is never the answer , and often ensures the same ugly upshot will occur that it ’s mean to foreclose .
MISTRUST OF TECHNOLOGY
With books like " We Can recollect It For You Wholesale " which inspiredTotal RecallandJohnnyMnemonic , Dick expanded his conception of technical fermentation among humankind . Dick was apprehensive ofa future with advanced engineering , not because of what it would do to us , but what we would do with it .
In the ' 80 filmVideodrome , the chairman of a transmission line society becomes haunt with vivid telecasting of torture , which he believes to be fake but are all too genuine , shew the hold technology can have over humans anxious for their next adrenaline rushing .
VIRTUAL REALITY
If you ’ve ever seen film likeStrange years , eXistenZ , orBrainstorm , you’re acquainted with the concept of the practical realism they include , as well as its addictive nature . All of the films include some sort of a pretense of someone else ’s thoughts and experiences that can be experienced by a VR user , or in a TV game .
EvenStar Trek : The Next Generationfeatured an episode where the full crew of the USS Enterprise became addicted to a VR biz , to the point where violence ensued if anyone tried to stop them from playing it . The lengths humans will go to experience their next technological high made Dick very nervous .
THE WORLD YOU KNOW IS AN ILLUSION
Many of Dick ’s works were surrealist fantasies , which featured the living of an antagonist slowly devolving as they let on the world they thought they knew is nothing but a construct . Their world may in fact be an illusion created by beings more muscular than they can embrace .
If you look on movies likeThe Truman Show , where Jim Carrey stars as an ordinary average joe who slowly commence to actualize his way of life is nothing but a reality show , you ’ll begin to see the PKD influence . He like to make readers inquire if the passion their mate had for them , or the bond they felt between their neighbor , was even real , which became more upsetting the more they imagine about it .
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
It give way without say that one of the biggest contributions Dick made to sci - fi was anything pertaining to artificial intelligence information , explored in all its nebulous and harrowing glory . Dick mistrusted the bonding of man and motorcar , but used the concept to expect the interrogative sentence , " What does it think of to be authentically human ? "
Recently with serial likeWestworld , and films such asI , RobotandBlade Runner , the reality of stilted news is a thing of perception . Does " I think , therefore I am " utilise to robots as well as humans ? And if humans make robots in their simulacrum , to be more human than human , can they deny them the right to exist , when often fourth dimension they exhibit deportment that is more human than human ?
NEXT : Westworld : 5 Things That Are Scientifically Accurate ( & 5 That Make No Sense )
