Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Is There a Warning in 'Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams'? (gizmodo.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the scanning-darkly dept.

An anonymous reader quotes io9: That signature feeling feeling of queasy, slow-burning tumult comes through in Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams, which originally aired in the UK last September, but is making its American premiere on Amazon Prime this Friday, January 12. The breadth of interpretations across the show's 10 episodes is the real draw for Electric Dreams. One episode will be set in something meant to recognizably stand in for the real world while others are trippy explorations into realities that could never exist. Unfortunately, Electric Dreams' episodes don't just vary in aesthetics; they vary wildly in quality, too...

When Electric Dreams fires on all cylinders, it energizes these short story adaptations by drilling down into the minutiae of how science fiction concepts would alter our everyday existences in real life. The series' common theme is how scientific and technological advancement shears the soul away from our bodies...Electric Dreams' most important task is to show both new viewers and conversant fans why Dick's oeuvre matters, which is hard in a world where we're eerily close to some of his fictional realities...

We're so busy trying to ground ourselves amid constant change that it can be hard to pull out and see society's sweeping shifts. In the '50s and beyond, Dick's science fiction writing mapped out the darker corners of where hi-speed techno-fetishes could take us. For all its unevenness, Electric Dreams adapts his work to show us where we are, relative to his prognostications. If you feel weirded out while watching, that just means the show is doing its job.

51 comments

  1. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Someone just redlined my pretentious-meter.

    1. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's, like, just your feeling feeling, man!

  2. PKD never concentrated on technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    He concentrated on the human experience having to live with the technology. It was never 'oh, that's cool.' It was always 'Why are we having to deal with this?"

    1. Re:PKD never concentrated on technology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's pretty much what everyone's thinking when having to deal with anything related to Microsoft.

    2. Re:PKD never concentrated on technology by HiThere · · Score: 1

      It wasn't even always very much to do with technology. In "Eye in the Sky" I think he only threw in enough technology to qualify it as Science Fiction, it was really more an exploration of some aspects of medieval theology: "Thou, O God, seest me.", as often illustrated by a picture of an eye hovering in the sky. Or Ubik. The technology is really just window dressing.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    3. Re:PKD never concentrated on technology by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      It wasn't even always very much to do with technology.

      Yes it was.

      But he didn't focus on the technology per se. His focus was on how that technology could influence our reality.

      And Ubik is a prime example. It was (ultimately) about a possible result of technology that could keep people "sort of" alive after death.

    4. Re:PKD never concentrated on technology by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 1

      Issac Asimov posited that there are three kinds of science fiction: gadget, adventure, and social. He gives a lovely example of the three kinds of story, were they written about a new invention called the 'automobile:

      Writer X spends most of his time describing how the machine would run, explaining the workings of an internal-combustion engine, painting a word-picture of the struggles of the inventor, who after numerous failures, comes up with a successful model. The climax of the yarn is the drama of the machine, chugging its way along at the gigantic speed of twenty miles an hour, possibly beating a horse and carriage which have been challenged to a race. This is gadget science fiction. (Asimov, "Social Science Fiction")

      Writer Y invents the automobile in a hurry, but now there is a gang of ruthless crooks intent on stealing this valuable invention. First they steal the inventor's beautiful daughter, whom they threaten with every dire eventuality but rape (in these adventure stories, girls exist to be rescued and have no other uses). The inventor's young assistant goes to the rescue. He can accomplish his purpose only by the use of the newly perfected automobile. He dashes into the desert at an unheard-of speed of twenty miles an hour to pick up the girl who otherwise would have died of thirst if he had relied on a horse, however rapid and sustained the horse's gallop. This is adventure science fiction. (ibid.)

      Writer Z has the automobile already perfected. A society exists in which it is already a problem. Because of the automobile, a gigantic oil industry has grown up, highways have been paved across the nation, America has become a land of travelers, cities have spread into the suburbsâ"and what do we do about automobile accidents? Men, women, and children are being killed by automobiles faster than by artillery shells or airplane bombs. What can be done? What is the solution? This is social science fiction. (ibid.)

      (I like the paraphrased version: Gadget sci-fi: Man invents car, holds lecture on how it works. Adventure sci-fi: Man invents car, gets into car to chase a villan. Social sci-fi: Man invents car, gets stuck in traffic in the suburbs.)

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
  3. What was the question? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sorry, I can't really find the question from the headline in the submission again? Is there something the author would like to discuss or know? Or is this just a reminder/slashvertisement that there is a new sci-fi series after some work by Philip K. Dick?

  4. Same old warning. by HornWumpus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Note how many of PKDs stories had no ending, note same thing in series (I've only watched the first 4, #3 had no ending). Then read PKDs later works, the ones turned into a pseudo religion, get the warning.

    Warning: DON'T USE SPEED! In the long term it will make you batshit! Minds need sleep.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    1. Re:Same old warning. by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      No, the warning is new, and reads:

      "BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL"

      The message gets a wee bit tiring after the third or fourth episode.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  5. I've got a feeling feeling... by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... that someone realized Black Mirror was popular and wanted to get on the gravy train.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:I've got a feeling feeling... by ITRambo · · Score: 0

      This seems to be the real reason the show is on. The first episode, the only one I've seen do far, was predictable in how it would end, and annoyingly far left-wing in it's use of characters

    2. Re:I've got a feeling feeling... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

      And that "someone" was Channel 4, who launched Black Mirror before losing it to Netflix.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    3. Re:I've got a feeling feeling... by HornWumpus · · Score: 4, Informative

      PKD was just ripping off 'GroundHog Day'...wait, it was the other way around.

      Phil's plots are constantly ripped off, unattributed.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    4. Re:I've got a feeling feeling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and annoyingly far left-wing

      not everything is about politics you idiot.

    5. Re:I've got a feeling feeling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And Black Mirror is a dark ripoff of The Outer Limits. But more cringeworthy imagery.

    6. Re:I've got a feeling feeling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Black Mirror is utterly disgusting. I gave it a chance based on a recommendation. Who wants to feel worse about themselves and society after watching a show?

      If Electric Dreams is similar, I will not watch it.

  6. There's a warning in everything. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here's a hint: Stories are dangerous.

    1. Re: There's a warning in everything. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Donald? Sarah?

  7. Good timing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is making its American premiere on Amazon Prime this Friday, January 12

    Posted January 14, Slashdot is as timely as ever.

  8. Same warning again, don't do tweak! by HornWumpus · · Score: 0

    Tweak will make you batshit, like PKD and parent poster.

    Trump was, in fact, a terrible candidate, the second worst in the election. We dodged a bullet.

    Poster: It's time you stepped up from smoking tweak to slamming it. Keep your energy up for the 'good fight'.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    1. Re:Same warning again, don't do tweak! by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      We dodged a bullet.

      We did indeed dodge a bullet, but in doing so we might have stepped into the path of a missile.

    2. Re:Same warning again, don't do tweak! by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Politics is the art of the possible, sure it would have been better if Vermin won.

      Uncertain missile is better then certain bullet.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    3. Re: Same warning again, don't do tweak! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uncertain missile is better then certain bullet.

      Bullet wounds are more survivable than missile strikes.

      Especially imaginary bullets exist as a function of your fantasies.

    4. Re: Same warning again, don't do tweak! by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

      Imaginary missiles on the other hand?

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    5. Re: Same warning again, don't do tweak! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They fuck with Hawaii.

  9. What's it like in the last days of Rome 2.0? by alternative_right · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well, you see, there's this queasy feeling that somehow life has gone off the rails, that our civilization is not a source of goodness, and that our future is in the hands of incompetents or sadists or maybe both. We have no expectation that we are part of something that makes us feel good to be alive, and are merely corporate stooges waiting out our days so that we can briefly entertain ourselves before passing into oblivion. PKD noticed this -- along with the other writers of his generation and the few before -- but by now, our society is so deeply in denial that we cannot even articulate what he saw. Instead, we just say that it makes us feel unsettled, as if we ate one too many Big Macs during our Soviet-style mandated 52-minute lunch at our mandatory jobs doing unimportant things so that we can all claim we are good workers contributing to the future, tovarisch.

    --
    Alternative Right.
    1. Re:What's it like in the last days of Rome 2.0? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We have no expectation that we are part of something that makes us feel good to be alive

      That's been the case for most of humaity throughout the ages. Most people do not derive a sense of meaning to their lives from the grand sweeping events of the day, instead they derive pleasure from the small things in life: seeing a good movie, enjoying a nice meal with friends, that trip to the Bahamas, an enjoyable hobby or your amateur soccer team's last match where you scored a nice goal. All pretty meaningless stuff. Which is fine as long as you don't let that bother you too much. If it does, you'll have to get off your arseL society is not going to provide your life with meaning, you have to do that yourself.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    2. Re:What's it like in the last days of Rome 2.0? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The cynicism in these two comments is breathtaking. No wonder birthrates are going lower.

    3. Re:What's it like in the last days of Rome 2.0? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The historical anomaly is that people would expect that their lives should be meaningful as part of sweeping society-scale changes for the better. Peasants didn't expect to sit at the table with the king and tribes didn't have much going on at any scale beyond what we'd today consider a tiny village. Life is better than ever, but expectations have risen to compensate.

    4. Re:What's it like in the last days of Rome 2.0? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ... society is not going to provide your life with meaning ...

      That's why religion is useful. It means people don't define their lives by their tiny effect on, and material existence in the world. An existence after death seems to resonate within the human psyche, becoming an ultimate expression of the ego. Religion also allows the ruling elite to set the base rules of society, elevating themselves and limiting the power of the poor. Being pious or heretical, was the first form of class warfare.

    5. Re:What's it like in the last days of Rome 2.0? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Think more of what well connected US academics got to see the US mil needed for the 1960-70's wars in and around Vietnam.
      What the US was using to track people of interest in Vietnam and what would later be used in the USA domestically.
      Voice prints, radio tracking, informants, party political management of a war.
      Scale that up and project it forward and the reality of war looks like predictive science fiction to later generations of readers.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    6. Re:What's it like in the last days of Rome 2.0? by sad_ · · Score: 2

      choose life.

      --
      On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
  10. Kill all others... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Should be slashdot motto!

    1. Re: Kill all others... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck me what is wrong with you people? Do you even know what im talking about? How about you go look at the episode from the series called "Kill all others" and maybe gain some insight. Or I guess you could keep masturbating that one neuron you have left that keeps worshipping some bizarre hate cult.

  11. Here's your warning... by Maltheus · · Score: 1

    ...the show is awful. Well, the first two episodes anyway. I hear the last two or three are worth watching. Tempted to just jump right to those.

    1. Re:Here's your warning... by Baron_Yam · · Score: 1

      Funny, because I found the first episode to be the only good one... in fact, with a very small amount of work I think it could have been worthy of theatrical release. Unfortunately, after that I found the episodes dragged a lot and didn't feel very 'sci-fi' OR 'PKD', and felt perhaps they would have been better either more heavily adapted or simply not made at all.

      I watched the first five, watched the sixth but skipped a lot, and will not seek out the next batch unless they get some major acclaim.

    2. Re:Here's your warning... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      It is basically Black Mirror but without a proper sense of direction, just a ready back catalogue of short stories to adapt. They'd be much better off using the same team to produce some original stories.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    3. Re:Here's your warning... by Blue+Stone · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I love Black Mirror and can tolerate the varying styles and 'quality' of episodes, even the ones I think are less successful I can appreciate because something different is being tried and I value the intention behind it all. Also I love the black humour.

      I watched the first three episodes of Electric Dreams and tapped out. It did just seem like an uninspired 'me too' cash-in on what BM is doing which is a damn shame. PKD's work can serve as great inspiration, but they need inspired work to translate them into a movie/TV show and the people behind this offering don't seem to have bothered.

      --
      Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
  12. UK's Channel 4 only showed 6 of the 10 episodes by rklrkl · · Score: 2

    UK viewers did get to see 6 episodes last year on Channel 4, but episodes 7-10 appear to be exclusive to Amazon Prime Video in the US (Amazon Prime Video in the UK bizarrely only seems to have episodes 5 and 6 and also wants to charge money for them on top of your Prime sub despite those two episodes having aired nationally for "free" in the UK!).

    I did find "Electric Dreams" to be quite variable over the 10 episodes (yes, as a UK viewer I had no choice but to source episodes from, ahem, "elsewhere"...and there was a total balls up with the episode numbering of downloads particularly for Autofac - which I thought was one of the better episodes - and "Safe and Sound").

    I did think some episodes just ended without tying up the storyline - almost as if they were trying to be a TV pilot or something. Still, a reasonable series overall - it's rare for a UK channel to bother with sci-fi drama, so Channel 4 should be applauded for that, even if they failed to air 40% of the episodes (maybe they'll turn up later this year?).

    1. Re:UK's Channel 4 only showed 6 of the 10 episodes by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

      True to PKDs short stories. About half don't have an ending.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re:UK's Channel 4 only showed 6 of the 10 episodes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, how did you get around the ahem, odd sources? Autofac is definately an odd one to track down with the overlapping numbers.

  13. but seriously... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exegesis_of_Philip_K._Dick

  14. Actually not by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    And that "someone" was Channel 4, who launched Black Mirror before losing it to Netflix.

    That's just the thing though, Black Mirror my have been popular but Channel 4 didn't seem to realize it, or else they would not have lost it/let it go in the first place.

    Netflix deserves a lot of credit for finding things that it realizes are actually popular, and rescuing them to give them a new home.

    However with Black Mirror in particular, I personally do not like it much. The warnings they give I think are good ones, but the actual episodes really seem like they should be 15 minutes each, not an hour. There is so much repetition and dead space in them... I have not watched the Amazon show yet but probably will give it a go at some point and see if it's any better.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Actually not by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      That's just the thing though, Black Mirror my have been popular but Channel 4 didn't seem to realize it, or else they would not have lost it/let it go in the first place.

      They're not made of money. They are, in fact, a public service broadcaster - albeit one funded largely by advertising, but even regardless of that fact, $40 million (which is what Netflix coughed up) is a lot of dough.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  15. Exist by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Of course they exist. Everything must exist.

  16. I'm enjoying it so far. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    While the plots aren't exactly new, or even that creative, the presentation is what really keeps me engaged (especially after a few bourbons ðY). Also, the background music is excellent. I'm on Episode 3, and I give it a 7 out of 10.