6 ms·
Interesting writeup, and the modern surveillance state certainly has a lot of parallels to Philip K. Dick's world, although the personal flavor of the latter -
by photochemsyn 4y ago
Interesting writeup, and the modern surveillance state certainly has a lot of parallels to Philip K. Dick's world, although the personal flavor of the latter - i.e. the extensive use of undercover STASI-type operatives in A Scanner Darkly, characterized by the betrayal of trust in personal and intimate relationships, is not as much of an obvious general feature of Facebook-type data collection and NSA archival data tracking of both American citizens and non-citizens.
At least our current system is not (yet) a true panopticon, which is a system where the prison guards can see all the prisoners, all the time, but the prisoners cannot see or communicate with one another. People can still communicate with one another, but the expectation of privacy is almost entirely gone. Certainly the power structure can see who is communicating with who via metadata monitoring, even if strong encryption can hide the content of the communication in many cases.
The extent to which general knowledge of this constant monitoring changes mass social behavior isn't really known, but one imagines it's the kind of thing the research anthropologists in CIA Behavioral Studies programs - characters that populate many PKD works - are obsessed with.
Incidentally, PKD's drug-psychosis-theme in many of his works is most likely linked to amphetamine psychosis, a fairly well-studied and well-understood side effect of constant use of amphetamines and their derivatives or analogues (i.e amphetamine, (Adderall), methamphetamine, MDMA (Ecstacy), methylphenidate (Ritalin)). These widely prescribed, used and abused substances should be regarded with more caution, I think - particularly when it comes to ADHD diagnoses in children. Certainly the for-profit drug manufacturers shouldn't be trusted on this, nor the mass social behavior manipulation types.
Also, it's likely that Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, another vision of a drug-addled dystopian future (1932), was a major influence on PKD's dystopian works.
- myth_drannon 4y agoMost likely some of the communication moved or will move from online to in-person. Similar to Soviet like kitchen talks, far from KGB spies.
- barrysteve 4y agoThe breakdown of personal relationships has been influenced by Facebook style social media. We crested that wave back in 2012-2015 when politics roared across the web and split families, wives and husbands and laid the groundwork for making any form of verbal negativity a social faux pas. It is close enough to a true panopticon. Inside of any form of web communication, the compulsion to not say anything that rocks the boat too much is felt and seen clearly in people's behaviour. Even in "private" encrypted chat the culture is one of which we shouldn't say anything lest it be leaked, evidence of that outcome or not. Drawing conclusions from ADHD related diagnoses is difficult. The illness is incredibly poorly defined and the state-of-the-art biological research has yet to identify what the problem is, or who even has it. The waters are even muddier, ADHD is frequently diagnosed in the place of other hidden difficulties like narcolepsy, depression, thyroid problems, vitamin deficiency and more. I agree more caution is warranted and also more research. Psychologists operate in a grey area where they can prescribe and hide more than is arguably justifiable.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y agoI don't like this fearmongering about central stimulant treatment of ADHD in children. Stimulant treatment in childhood is the best verified psychiatric treatment we have, period. Long term studies have shown a significant reduction of neurological abnormality and executive dysfunction. Remember, ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Treating it early can be the difference between a good life and a life plagued with comorbidity, unemployment and poor executive function. Don't be so hasty to condemn kids to this miserable existence based on some vague worries about stimulant psychosis, which is very rare with current treatment protocols and most cases are due to abuse.
- photochemsyn 4y agoA few things to keep in mind: 1) ADHD diagnoses are a relatively new phenomenon, which did not exist before the early 1980s. The fact that these diagnoses created a multi-billion dollar market for amphetamine manufacturers can hardly be ignored when discussing this issue. 2) A specific neurological problem is very hard to diagnose accurately, and there's no independent biochemical/molecular test for ADHD. Assuming real examples of ADHD do in fact exist, massive levels of overdiagnosis are entirely possible. 3) It's entirely possible that some people do find these drugs helpful in their day-to-day lives, even if they have nothing like 'clinical pathology' to excuse or justify their use of such substances. For example, caffeine is not considered an ADHD treatment, although it may help with focus for some people.
- cafard 4y agoThey didn't use the term in the 1960s, but they did talk about kids who could not sit still in the classroom. And they didn't, as far as I know, use speed then, but they did try other stuff. Sorry for no details, but I was a kid myself.
- mtlmtlmtlmtl 4y agoIt was known as Minimal Brain Dysfunction in the original DSM(1952) and Hyperkinetic Reaction of Childhood in DSM-II(1968). But in fact use of amphetamine as a treatment goes all the way back to the 30s! And Ritalin(methylphenidate) appeared in the 1950s.
- jacquesm 4y agoAnother book in the same vein but much lesser known is This Perfect Day by Ira Levin. Recommended.