Philip K. Dick predicted ChatGPT and its grim ramifications
salon.com
salon.com
Also PKD's Ubik (1969) came pretty close to anticipating the newsfeed with his "homeostatic newspaper" or homeopape idea ("homeostatic" stood for "self-maintaining", I think.)
> In a corner of the large room a chime sounded and a tinkling mechanical voice called, "I'm your free homeopape machine, a service supplied exclusively by all the fine Rootes hotels throughout Earth and the colonies. Simply dial the classification of news that you wish, and in a matter of seconds I'll speedily provide you with a fresh, up-to-the-minute homeopape tailored to your individual requirements; and, let me repeat, at no cost to you!"
The process is presented as a performance... the voice actors act, and on the screen visuals appear that are entire generated by the computer. No rigging models and rendering. No drawing. Just dialing up the amount of "serpent" on a character in one scene, or dialing back on a character's age briefly.
As the protagonist describes it:
> It was watched in silence, and Willard said, "It was good, but I think you'll grant it was not good enough. I'm going to ask you all to listen to me, so that I can explain what we're trying to do. Computerized theater is not new, as you all know. Voices and images have been built up to beyond what human beings can do. You don't have to break your speechifying in order to breathe; the range and quality of the voices are almost limitless; and the images can change to suit the words and action. Still, the technique has only been used, so far, for childish purposes. What we intend now is to make the first serious compu-drama the world has ever seen, and nothing will do—for me, at any rate—but to start at the top. I want to do the greatest play written by the greatest playwright in history: King Lear by William Shakespeare.
and later
>"The snake motif," said Willard. "Give me some of that and there can be less hiss in Lear's voice. Of course, I don't want you to show a snake. The too obvious doesn't work. I want a snake there that people can't see but that they can feel without quite noting why they feel. I want them to know a snake is there without really knowing it is there, so that it will chill them to the bone, as Lear's speech should. So when we do it over, Meg, give us a snake that is not a snake."
The Ganymede takeover (co wrote with ray Nelson)
Time out of joint
A scanner darkly
The three stigmata of palmer eldritch
The man in the high castle
Do androids dream of electric sheep
And I started reading the transmigration of Timothy archer but put it down because my gf gave me a copy of brodsky's watermark because she wants me to take her to Venice but I should read the book first.
Anyways, There's so much more to read. And everything has many layers. I just absolutely love all his writing. Most of his writing is questioning what is reality? How is reality shared? How do we communicate what reality is? How do we take advantage of the disparity of different realities all people seem to live in.