February 14, 2004
was calvin a precog?
The December issue of Wired Magazine features a story on Philip K. Dick, the sci-fi writer who's books are quickly being made into movies.
I remember philosopher Richard Purtill visiting Talbot and saying that science-fiction is the literature of ideas. Never really liked sci-fi myself, I can count the number of sci-fi books I've read on one hand, but still, some of the ideas that get batted around are interesting.
Philip K. Dick traded in some of the most basic questions: Minority Report's Calvinist challenge to free-will; Blade Runner and the limits of humanity; Total Recall and Paycheck both question whether the senses can be trusted.
It's heady stuff, and I'd like to know more. Pedagogically, science fiction seems like a gold mine; people seem much more likely to talk about ideas when couched in story form (maybe science fiction can be the parables of our time).
Posted by Tim at February 14, 2004 09:30 AM