Michael Barbella, Managing Editor04.01.15
Pity not the science-fiction protagonist, for he (or she) leads quite the coveted life. With an arsenal of mind-boggling technology at his disposal, the sci-fi hero’s world is a harmless, watered-down microcosm of manageable events—sans challenge, chaos and complication.
There are fixes for every conceivable threat to the human condition, from cancer, inebriation and insomnia to hunger, aging, even death. Ego-boosters such as physiognomic face-changing templates, designer eyes, false memory implants, and alternate realities are available as well.
Yet none of the elixirs are a match for the shape- shifting machine assassin featured in Philip K. Dick’s 1957 short story “The Unreconstructed M” (though a Crechepod full life-support device might have bought the victim some time). In the story, a machine the size of a Ritz cracker box breaks into an apartment and kills a man with an explosive pellet shot to the skull, then turns itself into a common household electronic to avoid detection.
“‘Get ready—he ought to still be here.’ Another voice, a man’s voice, like the first. The hall door wa
There are fixes for every conceivable threat to the human condition, from cancer, inebriation and insomnia to hunger, aging, even death. Ego-boosters such as physiognomic face-changing templates, designer eyes, false memory implants, and alternate realities are available as well.
Yet none of the elixirs are a match for the shape- shifting machine assassin featured in Philip K. Dick’s 1957 short story “The Unreconstructed M” (though a Crechepod full life-support device might have bought the victim some time). In the story, a machine the size of a Ritz cracker box breaks into an apartment and kills a man with an explosive pellet shot to the skull, then turns itself into a common household electronic to avoid detection.
“‘Get ready—he ought to still be here.’ Another voice, a man’s voice, like the first. The hall door wa
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