Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I received a nice letter the other day from the Dalai Lama. He had read 'The Nine Billion Names of God'. It is about a computer at a Tibetan monastery."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Substance D | ||
| An addictive, psychoactive drug. |
Also referred to as "Slow Death".
| Fred said, "So what does this mean?" "I'm sure you know already," the psychologist to the left said. "You've been experiencing it, without knowing why on what it is." "The two hemispheres of my brain are competing?" Fred said. "Yes." "Why?" "Substance D. It often causes that, functionally. This is what we expected; this is what the tests confirm. Damage having taken place in the normally dominant left hemisphere, the right hemisphere is attempting to compensate for the impairment. But the twin functions do not fuse, because this is an abnormal condition the body isn't prepared for. It should never happen. Cross-cuing, we call it. Related to splitbrain phenomena. We could perform a right hemispherectomy, but--" "Will this go away," Fred interrupted, "when I get off Substance D?" "Probably," the psychologist on the left said, nodding. "It's a functional impairment." The other man said, "It may be organic damage. It may be permanent. Time'll tell, and only after you are off Substance D for a long while. |
| Technovelgy from A Scanner Darkly,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Doubleday in 1977 Additional resources -
|
Here's more information about Substance D's effect on the brain.
Back at Room 203, the police psychology testing lab, Fred listened without interest as his test results were explained to him by both the psychologists.
"You show what we regard more as a competition phenomenon than impairment. Sit down."
"Okay," Fred said stoically, sitting down.
"Competition," the other psychologist said, "between the left and right hemispheres of your brain.
It's not so much a single signal, defective or contaminated; it's more like two signals that interfere with
each other by carrying conflicting information."
"Normally," the other psychologist explained, "a person uses the left hemisphere. The self-system
or ego, or consciousness, is located there. It is dominant, because it's in the left hemisphere always
that the speech center is located; more precisely, bilateralization involves a verbal ability on valency
in the left, with spatial abilities in the right. The left can be compared to a digital computer; the right to
an analogic. So bilateral function is not mere duplication; both percept systems monitor and process
incoming data differently. But for you, neither hemisphere is dominant and they do not act in a
compensatory fashion, each to the other. One tells you one thing, the other another."
"It's as if you have two fuel gauges on your car," the other man said, "and one says your tank is
full and the other registers empty. They can't both be right. They conflict. But it's--in your case--not
one functioning and one malfunctioning; it's . . . Here's what I mean. Both gauges study exactly the
same amount of fuel: the same fuel, the same tank. Actually they test the same thing. You as the
driven have only an indirect relationship to the fuel tank, via the gauge on, in your case, gauges. In
fact, the tank could fall off entirely and you wouldn't know until some dashboard indicator told you
or finally the engine stopped. There should never be two gauges reporting conflicting information,
because as soon as that happens you have no knowledge of the condition being reported on at all.
This is not the same as a gauge and a backup gauge, where the backup one cuts in when the regular
one fouls up."
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from A Scanner Darkly
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to A Scanner Darkly
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Substance D-related
news articles:
- Purdue Pharma Ready To Profit From OxyContin Use Or Addiction Recovery
| MouthPad Supports Head And Tongue Tracking |
| Drug Induces Hibernation-Like State In Humans |
| Drug To Regenerate Teeth In Humans |
| Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
