
How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later (1978) - daveloyall
http://downlode.org/Etext/how_to_build.html
======
ableal
_" I watch the children watching TV and at first I am afraid of what they are
being taught, and then I realise, They can’t be corrupted or destroyed. They
watch, they listen, they understand, and, then, where and when it is
necessary, they reject. There is something enormously powerful in a child’s
ability to withstand the fraudulent. A child has the clearest eye, the
steadiest hand. The hucksters, the promoters, are appealing for the allegiance
of these small people in vain. True, the cereal companies may be able to
market huge quantities of junk breakfasts; the hamburger and hot dog chains
may sell endless numbers of unreal fast-food items to the children, but the
deep heart beats firmly, unreached and unreasoned with. A child of today can
detect a lie quicker than the wisest adult of two decades ago. When I want to
know what is true, I ask my children. They do not ask me; I turn to them."_

They detect the first lie, yes, but what about the second lie?

~~~
colechristensen
There's an excellent point being made – if you try to engineer a world by
insulating children from the harsh realities of it, you'll make the next
generation extremely vulnerable to the simplest exploitation or difficulty.

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legomylibro
I really want to see that Paris TV interview with him and Norman Spinrad that
he talks about. I checked youtube, nothing. After some googling I found this
page[1] which notes that, "apparently a tape of this is available for viewing
at the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, in Paris".

So I searched the ina.fr site, but apparently they haven't digitized it. This
is a long shot, but does anybody who speaks French want to ask them? Their
contact info lists 'assistance@ina.fr'. It just sounds way too surreal and odd
to be hidden away forever.

[1]:
[http://2010philipkdickfans.philipkdickfans.com/frank/problem...](http://2010philipkdickfans.philipkdickfans.com/frank/problems.htm)

~~~
rafirafi
Here p.ex. [http://www.dickien.fr/dossiers/eantabi/Elizabeth-
Antebi.html](http://www.dickien.fr/dossiers/eantabi/Elizabeth-Antebi.html)

~~~
Intermernet
Wow, replete with Pink Floyd soundtrack!

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PhasmaFelis
> _It reminds me of a headline that appeared in a California newspaper just
> before I flew here. SCIENTISTS SAY THAT MICE CANNOT BE MADE TO LOOK LIKE
> HUMAN BEINGS. It was a federally funded research program, I suppose._

I really want to know what that was about.

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ttctciyf
Thanks for this.

It was particularly interesting to me how PKD's themes of simulacra,
Disneyland, and Watergate closely matched those of Jean Baudrillard who
wrote[1], somewhat more pessimistically but very much in the same vein as PKD,
in 1981:

    
    
      ... Watergate. You remember this. Nixon. Wiretaps in the
      plants. Deepthroat. All that jazz. Watergate was the exact
      same fucking thing as Disneyland—an imaginary thing whose
      only purpose is to distract us from the fact that every
      last thing is now imaginary. But where Disneyland is a
      fictional magic land, Watergate is instead a “scandal.”
      The real scandal beneath the surface is that there is no 
      difference between facts and bullshit. Both the CIA and
      the journalists from the Washington Post who broke the
      story use the same tactics. What Watergate did was create
      a fiction moral compass of sorts. All politics are
      permanently buttfucked, but if we occasionally point
      fingers at some buttfucker who is doing some serious
      buttfucking, it creates this sense that there are less
      serious degrees of buttfucking and even possibly regular,
      wholesome vagfucking. ...
    

[1] Kind of wrote - excerpted from a translation into modern vernacular of The
Precession of Simulacra at
[http://www.continentcontinent.cc/index.php/continent/article...](http://www.continentcontinent.cc/index.php/continent/article/view/91)

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daveloyall
TIL that Philip K. Dick had a touch of the Apophenia.

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hyperion2010
A highly related introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness.
[http://theliterarylink.com/leguinintro.html](http://theliterarylink.com/leguinintro.html)

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drumdance
This is the first thing I've ever read that makes a kinda sorta coherent
argument for Christianity. It's like the New Testament meets the Matrix.

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habitmelon
I love PKD's work, but every time I hear him talk, I become convinced he is
totally insane.

~~~
DanBC
A bit unpleasant to say that about someone we know had enduring mental health
problems - hallucinations and delusions, and some drug-related stuff too.

