Dick’s most shocking view was that the world was a “simulation,” an idea that crystallized most famously in the popular “Matrix” movie series.
Philip K. Dick, an American science-fiction writer, is not well known in the Persian-speaking world. But he is one of the most famous writers of the second half of the twentieth century, whose work has inspired enduring films such as Blade Runner and Minority Report.
During a prolific three-year career, Dick wrote countless 44 novels and short stories, the adaptations of which redefined science fiction on screen. Although Dick died forty years ago, his vision still shapes the world of science fiction in cinema, computer games, and many other media.
“Blades Runner” (1982), directed by Ridley Scott, based on “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, Depicts a bleak future in which man and technology are at war with each other, each striving for excellence.
“Absolute Remembrance” (1990), directed by Paul Verhoeven, based on “We Can Remember It All for You”, suggests that humanity may live in a “virtual reality” that creates an “illusion of reality.”
“The Man in the High Castle,” which Amazon recently turned into a popular series, is “a different kind of historiography,” imagining a situation in which Nazi Germany and Japan won World War II and divided the United States.
Dick had an amazing ability to predict the phenomena of the modern world. His stories in the mid-twentieth century predicted the pervasiveness of the Internet, virtual reality, face recognition software, driverless machines, and 3D printing.
He was also quite pessimistic about the existing “political apparatus.” His stories show that politicians and big business are constantly abusing their power, constantly monitoring people through rigorous surveillance tools.
Dick’s worlds are extraordinarily “commodity,” and its citizens are addicted to materialism, in which celebrities, the media, and politics combine to create nightmarish, authoritarian scenarios that are often overwhelmed by technocracy and bureaucracy.
Perhaps Dick’s most shocking view was that the world is a “simulation,” an idea that crystallized most famously in the popular “Matrix” movie series. Ilan Mask, the famous inventor and capitalist, recently caused controversy with this idea.
