JF Ptak Science Books Post 1981
“The most ignorant person at a reasonable charge, and with little bodily labor, may write books in philosophy, poetry, law, mathematics, and theology, without the least assistance from genius or study.” Jonathan Swift, in Gulliver’s Travels (Actually, Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships). 1726.
I've produced the beginning of an alphabet of --Punkisms for variations of robot.machine/computer past and futures, science fiction indicators of possibility. Why should we stop at "Steampunk" when there's FuturePunk and DeadPunk and such to be had? So, please find folllowing a few possibilities, and accept them in the playful way in which they are offered--also, the very abbreviated descriptions of the science fiction works desscribed are open to interpretation. And please give this a "pass" for the over-abundance of hyphens.
A
ActorPunk: Walter Miller, 'The Darfsteller' (1954), human actors are replaced by robots on stage, as compared to being replaced by digital figures online. Some steps have been made with great care over the years by “perfecting” the imaging of women in magazine advertisement—in this way even the models who appear in the ad and are modified find it impossible to live up to the expectations of what their ads depict.
Anti-technologicalPunk-topia: Samuel Butler, Erewhon, (1872).
AutomatoPunk: Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano (1955), like Brazil and 1984, but with machines.
B
BiologoPunk: Philip K. Dick, 'Autofac' (1955), machines find that they can reproduce themselves in a '50's iron-bio kind of way.
BrainPunk: Miles J. Breuer, 'Paradise and Iron' (1930).
C
ConsciousnessPunk: Philip K. Dick, Vulcan's Hammer (1960) and the development of computer consciousness. Also David Gerrold, When Harlie Was One (1972);
Frank Herbert, Destination Void (1966); Harlan Ellison, 'I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream' (1967); Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966), and many others.
CreativePunk: J.G. Ballard, 'Studio 5, The Stars' (1961), in which machines finally
get the hang of the creativity thing and produce literature. Kurt Vonnegut, 'EPICAC' (1950), where machines can generate poetry, which is how I thought it was done, anyway. C. M. Kornbluth, 'With These Hands' (1950); sculpture by machine. Clifford D. Simak, 'So Bright
the Vision' (1958), machine-produced lit, as with Ballard. Isaac Asimov, 'The Jokester' (1956), much to the consternation of dead Freud, a computer discovers the origin of jokes. Robert Silverberg, 'The Macauley Circuit' (1956), music is created by computers independent of users.
CuriousPunk: Isaac Asimov, 'Reason' (1941) in which a robot questions the reason for its
own existence.
D
Dependent-Tech-Punk: H.G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (1905), visionary and a little naïve view of a society dependent upon its technology, even more so than today.
DystoPunk: E.M. Forster, 'The Machine Stops' (1909), probably the first techno-dystopia. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932), dystopian rejection of techno-'progress'.
DystopianiaPunk: George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949); Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953).
F
FrankenPunk (Making living things from dead things): Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818), some of the first steps in the Singularity, and also one of the earliest scifi novels.
Factory-as-Society (FactoryPunk): Edward Bellamy, Looking Backwards (1888).
G
GodPunk: Fredric Brow, 'The Answer' (1974), the computer spells itself as “g o d”; Arthur C. Clarke, 'The Nine Billion Names of God' (1953), computer come to the anti-rescue of everything. And Isaac Asimov, The Last Question' (1956).
GuvmentPunk: Lord Dunsany, The Last Revolution (1951), simply put--a revolution of the machines.
J
JurisprudencePunk: Issac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, codified in "Runaround"
(1942).
M
Machine-produced-literature (Academy of LagadoPunk): Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels 1726.(Academy of Lagado: satirized inventors and anticipated machine-produced literature).
Machines-against-Humans-Punk: Ambrose Bierce: 'Moxon's Master' (1893); also Jack Williamson, 'With Folded Hands' (1946), robot doctors master the use of lobotomies for the
more-perfect human.
Machines-against-Themselves-Punk: Harl Vincent: 'Rex' (1936), robot Rex takes over the world but commits suicide in a fit of overtaking-the-world-suicidal-lust.
Machine-OverlordPunk: Modern Times (1936), Charlie Chaplin in the teeth of the beast, trying to come to grips with what machines think that they think they want.
MessyPunk: Philip K Dick: We Can Build You (1966), wherein it becomes messy and fuzzy in determining the line between mechanism and biological unit. Philip K. Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?(1968).
P
Pastoral Fantasy Utopia Punk (PFU-Punk): William Morris, News From Nowhere (1890).
S
ShrinkPunk: Frederik Pohl: Gateway (1974), the 50-minute hour becomes meaningless when robots become psychiatrists. Of course Philip K. Dick is there earlier, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1956).
T
Treating-People-as-Machines-by-Machines-Punk: Karel Capek, R.U.R. 1921
Treating-People-as-Machine-Punk: Yevgeny Zamiatin: We (1920).
Treating-People-as-Objects-Punk: Fritz Lang: Metropolis.
U
UtopiaPunk: H. G. Wells: The Shape of Things to Come (1933).
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