This week, I’m remembering Philip K. Dick who died after a series of strokes on March 2, 1982. I first read A Scanner Darkly in the early 1990′s. The book was written in 1977, but it takes place in the early 1990′s and I was dumbfounded at how Dick had predicted slacker culture nearly two decades out.
Dick was a prolific author, but he struggled through most of his career until film adaptations of his work brought him mainstream attention. The Wiki has a brief breakdown:
In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, eleven popular films based on his works have been produced, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, The Adjustment Bureau and Impostor. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.
After his death, Dick was treated to a bizarre tribute when some obsessive fans created his likeness in the form of a remote controlled android. The android was included on a discussion panel in a San Diego Comic Con presentation about the film adaptation of the novel, A Scanner Darkly. In February 2006, an America West Airlines employee misplaced the android’s head. It was never found. In January 2011, Hanson Robotics announced that it had built a replacement.
Here, that android jerks and blinks his way right to the bottom of the uncanny valley…
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