Holographic Computers and Self-Directing Bullets

Philip K. Dick was long viewed as a mere genre hack, although his fans always knew better of course. He used the medium of science fiction originally because it was the only way for him to make money as an independent author. His non-SF novels and stories (which have been published posthumously) would have been far more difficult to sell. And so he went and packaged his philosophical ideas into science fiction novels, which we can be eternally grateful for.

The man was brimming with ideas of what the future might look like. Hollywood has tried to bring some of them to the big screen in its adaptations of his novels (none of which Dick himself lived to see), such as e.g. the talking ads in “Minority Report”, which recognize every passer-by and address him by name. Modern-day internet advertising has already come close to this vision.

Visionary author Philip K. Dick: “There will come a time when it isn’t ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me’.”

Dick not only described a fantastic future and displayed an uncanny sense of the things that would one day become reality (the “internet of things”? Try the talking doors in UBIK, which ask apartment owners to deposit money before they will open for them!), he often wrote about a dystopian future in which all these fantastic toys would be abused by seemingly nigh omnipotent governments. The takeover of the US by a fascist government in “Radio Free Albemuth” that uses the alleged threat emanating from an entirely fictitious terrorist organization named “Aramchek” to introduce legislation that completely shreds the constitution and suspends the bill of rights is eerily reminiscent of present-day trends as well (although it was meant to satirize Nixon and McCarthy). The “Department of Homeland Security” and the “suspicious activity reporting” program that makes potential snitches out of the entire population are both foreshadowed in the novel.

Many of Dick’s novels deal with religious themes, alternate history and the bending of reality, often based on his personal experiences and his not inconsiderable paranoia. The main point we want to make is that both the technological and political trends which Dick speculated about in his SF novels are coming into ever sharper relief these days. We have recently come across presentations of two technological innovations that are both highly reminiscent of the Dickian world.

One of them is a “holographic computer” developed by Microsoft (apparently MSFT is still able to innovate after all). Here is a fascinating video of the presentation:

Microsoft’s holographic computer allows users to work and design in a virtual 3D space. NASA plans to control rovers with it starting this July.

Here is the full presentation of the Hololens

The other innovation comes courtesy of government-funded DARPA. This one is not so much about making life easier for designers, but is plainly aimed at the elimination of current enemies of the State and potential future “Aramchek” members. A self-directing bullet that literally makes it possible to shoot around corners and hence makes it very difficult for the targeted individual to take cover or otherwise avoid being shot. Small arms ammunition is about to make the transition to guided missile status:

A video showing how DARPA’s new self-directed bullets work.

Anti-Heroes Against Omnipotent Governments

The protagonists of Dick’s novels are as a rule quite different from their portrayal in the Hollywood adaptations of his work. Sometimes they are complete losers (for instance, bounty hunter Rick Deckard is only one of the protagonists of “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, a.k.a. “Blade Runner”. Dick puts a lot more emphasis on the adventures of the low-IQ “chickenhead” John Isidore, a driver for a robotic pets repair shop), but mostly they are just normal, “average” people, who try to master the vicissitudes of life as best as they can in the dystopian hell they often inhabit.

The conflict usually involves an intrusion into their lives by the faceless bureaucracy that forces them to take a stand they would rather avoid. Sometimes they end up losing, but sometimes their actions also end up bringing the oppressive police state down, often by quite unusual means. For instance, in the above mentioned novel Radio Free Albemuth, the leaders of the resistance to Ferris F. Fremont’s (FFF=666) fascist government end up being shot or interned in concentration camps. But before that happens, they succeed in bringing a popular record to market that contains subliminal subversive messages that will slowly but surely undermine support for the government.

Oh, and the Nexus 6 is definitely not a smart phone. It is actually the Rosen Association’s most life-like android yet.

Two Nexus 6 models confront Hannibal Chew in the workshop in which he makes their eyes.

Screenshot taken from ‘Blade Runner’

Conclusion

Computer technology in the widest sense (including everything that has sprung from it, such as the internet) is the one area of the economy in which innovation happens so fast that the State is simply too slow to regulate and tax it all to death before it becomes a reality. As Bill Bonner recently pointed out, as a rule “government is looking into the future to prevent it from happening”. Today the regulatory democracies have woven an impenetrable spiderweb of rules and regulations around the economy that has completely deadened progress in almost all fields not directly related to computer technology.

A few recent examples: For about 18 months photography with drones has been legal almost everywhere. Now it is forbidden almost everywhere (here are some of the amazing photographs that were made prior to the prohibition). How did we survive those dreadful 18 months? No-one knows.

Electronic cigarettes have saved countless smokers from having to inhale the more than 3,500 by-products contained in traditional cigarette smoke to get their nicotine fix. Big tobacco is busy lobbying for the most restrictive regulations imaginable for the industry in its quest to stifle competition from upstarts (see “Corporatism at its Finest: Tobacco Companies Suddenly Discover their Concern for Health”).

Under the cover of “saving the planet”, European lighting manufacturers have pushed through an EU-wide ban of the incandescent light bulb that forces people to use mercury-laden morgue lighting. If anything, it is likely to harm the environment a great deal more than the light bulb ever could, but it sure fills the coffers of said manufacturers (see “Saving the Planet one Slice at a Time” for details on this and other EU nannycrat interventions).

The entire economic system of the so-called “free world” is designed to suppress competition in favor of established industries, to reward cronies and reckless borrowers, while punishing savers and genuine wealth creators. In some regions such as e.g. the welfare States of Western Europe, it has become de facto impossible for people of modest means to accumulate a critical mass of capital.

As a result, anything related to computers and the internet is where it’s at these days for entrepreneurs. However, this also means that a lot of capital is attracted to the sector that would perhaps be better employed elsewhere, if not for the hampering of progress by the regulatory State. Naturally, none of this keeps governments from making use of the new technological possibilities on offer. The Stasi-like ubiquitous surveillance State that has been established is a recent pertinent example (as an aside: it has now turned out that a major goal of the NSA’s and “five eyes” surveillance activities is indeed old-fashioned industrial espionage, similar to the predecessor program Echelon).

However, just as in PK Dick’s novels, the State cannot win against the striving for liberty in the long run. This is at least what history suggests: in spite of frequently suffering major setbacks, the cause of classical liberalism has never been vanquished and can point to considerable long-run victories. In fact, in spite of the drift toward authoritarianism that has become rather obvious since the so-called “war on terror” began, the State is likely fighting a rear-guard battle. As powerful as it appears to be, its position is probably far more tenuous than is generally assumed.

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