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Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said August 31, 2006

The other book I finished today is Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick. PKD is best known for writing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was adapted into Bladerunner. Other movies based on PKD novels are Total Recall, Minority Report, and the recent A Scanner Darkly. I decided recently that I’ve read way too little PKD and this was my first act towards rectifying that situation.

The novel is set in a futuristic 1988 (published in 1974). I found it immensely amusing that everyone drives flying cars called “quibbles” and has phonograph players installed in them. Also, there are several mentions of quadrophonic sound systems which I’m sure were the ultimate back then but seem laughably quaint now.

However, this doesn’t much distract from the central aspects of the book which concern some interesting ideas around identity, perception, race, and police states. The book begins with Jason Taverner, a famous singer and TV celebrity. After some initial scene setting, he wakes up alone in a fleabag motel and his existence has been erased from the world – no one remembers him or his show. The rest of the book is essentially a journey to bring this crisis to a resolution.

The writing is great (as expected) and I found it to be a relatively fast and satisfying read. The world is effectively a police state, where citizens are constantly challenged for valid ID, everyone narcs on everyone else, and life for the average person is just one step away from a forced labor camp. The “race problem” was solved by enforcing a 1-child policy on blacks, effectively halving their population every generation such that they are slowly being removed from society. I found some of the identity card issues to be particularly interesting given the state of the world today and some of the UK’s moves towards a national ID policy (and persistent advocates here in the US).

Ultimately, the plot resolves in a bit of deus ex machina, but one that at least makes you think on the nature of perception.

In summary, a great read and highly recommended. I look forward to my next PKD selection.

Accelerando

I finished two science fiction books recently that I think deserve a mention here. (The very act of finishing any book may be something to note given the paucity of reading time these days.)

The first is Accelerando by Charles Stross. He’s a UK science fiction author being hailed as the successor to cyberpunk guys like Neal Stephenson and William Gibson. And in fact, if you like those guys, you’ll probably dig Accelerando. Personally, I thought it was terrific. If you’re interested (and want to read online), you can download the book from the web site above or of course, just buy a dead tree version like I did.

The story starts near-future (starting maybe 50 years out and going way out beyond that) and has as a backdrop what is known in some circles as The Singularity, or the point at which the first post-human intelligence is created.

There are two scenarios for this known as “hard takeoff” and “soft takeoff”. A hard takeoff postulates that the singularity could create a super-intelligence over a matter of hours or days (through recursion or bootstrapping). A soft takeoff would happen gradually and may not even be noticed for years.

Anyhow, Accelerando takes place as a soft takeoff is underway and there is some discussion in the book as to when and whether it has even taken place. The book is in three parts which correspond to three successive generations. By the third part, things are sufficiently far out that they are fairly weird (but really interesting). I found the first third to be an absolute blast as it is great near future stuff. There are uploaded lobster intelligences, software-based shell companies, dominatrixes, and more. Basically the fun of Snowcrash married with the cyberpunk geekiness of Neuromancer. I read this section on an airplane and emerged feeling highly non-linear and future-shocked.

In short, it’s worth your time. I have a couple more Stross books sitting in wait so I’m hoping they’re all as good.

Ella’s friend

The other day when Ella came home from pre-school she said she had made a new friend named Megan. That afternoon she made a bracelet for Megan and mentioned her a couple more times.

Today I took Ella to school and asked her what she wanted to do first. She said she wanted to play with Miss Debbie (the teacher) who was sitting on the floor playing with another girl. She went and sat down and I exchanged a few words with the teacher and then noticed that the other girl sitting there had her name tag on and was the famed Megan. Ella had the bracelet with her so I reminded her about it and she gave the bracelet to Megan who said thanks. I was so proud of my little girl.

Here’s a picture of Megan, Ella, and the teacher Miss Debbie (I happened to have a camera on me):

Mooch August 28, 2006

Just wanted to drop a quick plug for a new web site BookMooch. The basic premise is that you trade books and no money changes hands, you just pay to ship your books out. I’ve both sent and received several books through it in the last few weeks. So, it works. And it’s cheaper than buying books, even used. Slightly bigger hassle to ship the books, but so far I’m a fan.

Ella’s writing August 23, 2006

Ella has started to do some pretend writing, which is pretty exciting. She did this picture the other day by herself. She was doing pretend writing, then put stickers of vegetables over some of the lines.

She also has been starting to write her name. She insists that Mary draw the E, then she draws two l’s and the a. She draws the a as a circle and a line. Pretty cool stuff.