Boing Boing posted a link to a rare Philip K. Dick interview from 1977 on YouTube that was released as part of the Scanner Darkly movie hype. PKD talks about break-ins to his house by government officials, and the relative low-standing of science fiction in the literary community.

He particularly hates the “box” that SciFi was put in, in that it could only do things like space operas, or westerns set in the future, without sex, drama, etc. Clearly the cyberpunk movement of the 80s dramatically changed the rules. Since then, the entire genre has opened up. No longer are the SciFi/Fantasy shelves filled with mindless “Gonad the Barbarian” books, and literally everyone was forced to raise their game. Clearly, PKD was a precursor of this.

Mr. Roboto in the Meatspace (Forums) found this cool article on ZDNet about

Researchers from Australia announced last week that it is possible to guide people movements by remote control. This technique, known as galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS), is not new and has been demonstrated for the first time in 1999. But until now, this technique, which uses electrodes placed just below people’ ears to remotely stimulate their nerves, led people to lose their balance. As Technology Review reports, the researchers have found a way to avoid this feeling.

While Technology Review posits that this technique could be used “to make virtual reality environments seems more realistic or to help people with vestibular disorders,” I was actually more intrigued by Mr. Roboto’s take on this technology:

Though the technology is still in its infancy, can you imagine what could happen with remote-controlled people? Develop this alongside human clonning, theoretically, you can create and endless army of disposable “meatbots” to do your bidding.

This reminds me of the wonderful short, “Made out of Meat” by Stephen O’Regan. Perhaps they were in actuality just observing Mr. Roboto’s army!!