I came across this bit of ephemera today. Pixar has created of website for a fictional box store, Buy n Large, for an upcoming animated movie that looks like it will be a satire of Wal-Mart style consumerism. The website is a cross between the dark vision of people ingesting Can-D in Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and the exuberance of a shopping site like drugs.com. The main advertisement on Buy n Large promotes a happy drug called Xanadou. My favorite item is in the world news section, which reports on technology: "Robot Expresses First Emotion: Thoughtfulness." Toward the bottom of the report, experts suggest that perhaps thoughtfulness isn't the best trait to emerge in a robot's learning behavior. It will get in the way of repetitive tasks.
The image that I still think about from time to time, from Dick's novel (described by Wikipedia): "Can-D [is] an illegal but widely available hallucinogen that allows the user to 'translate' into Perky Pat (if the user is female) or her boyfriend Walt (if male). This allows colonists to experience an idealized version of life on Earth in a collective unconscious hallucination."
On my earth, AO's work has slowed down a little bit, and we had lunch together today. Very nice. I also made it to the library to try to jump start my work. I hate being in the quicksand of a half-written chapter, but my wife is on a holiday high. It all helps.
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