Tuesday, January 17, 2006

"you’d carry straight on talking about non-existent mutual friends and things that had happened you all knew about, because they were in the script."


Mes Amis

As some of you may well know I have a fondness for the works of Philip K Dick. What I didn't know was that in mid last year, an android was unveiled that was, well, a replicant of PKD. In a move reminiscent of something Dick might have envisioned, this Android has been programmed with all of Dick's works his recorded speeches and interviews and can carry on a limited kind of comversation while identifying different people in an audience. It also has its own 1970's living room in which to exist, meaning that the replicant Dick has a replicant world.

I'm not sure whether I'm in awe of or creeped out by the idea. But all the same, its a fascinating project.

Au revoir

Russel

2 comments:

JD Rhoades said...

Shall I be the first person to make the "mechanical Dick" joke?

Russel said...

It does have a kind of inevitability about it, doesn't it?

I must admit I had to fight hard to resist similar such temptations myself.