5 Predictions From Science Fiction Author Philip K. Dick That Came True

Scroll through some of the greatest sci-fi movies and shows in history and there’s a good chance you’ll see Philip K. Dick’s name in the credits. “Total Recall,” “Minority Report,” and the pinnacle of cyberpunk splendor, “Blade Runner,” are all a reality because they came out of the author’s head a long time ago. But in building these worlds, Dick also filled them with technologies that, at the time, were fantasy. From inventing advanced means of transportation and even going so far as to create new methods of marketing for the average citizen of tomorrow, Dick truly had it all planned. But these weren’t just crazy ideas on the author’s part. These were predictions about what awaits humanity in the coming years.

Some of Dick’s best ideas have come to fruition, while others are in their infancy in recent years. Between dystopian futures and revolutionary computer improvements, there were nuggets of what tomorrow could look like if we tried hard enough. But what were the best predictions that Dick was right with surprising accuracy, and in which beloved stories did they appear? Here are five different ways that prove Dick was ahead of the curve and how close they are to bridging the gap between reality and futuristic fiction.

One Philip K. Dick creation that is certainly gaining speed in recent years is that of self-driving cars. Contrary to what television might tell you, the idea of ​​a car that didn’t need someone behind the wheel went back further than David Hasselhoff in a ride that resembled Mr. Feeney from “Boy Meets World.” Instead, driverless cars were a crazy concept that originally came to life in his 1966 novel, “We Can Remember If For You Wholesale,” which would eventually be adapted by Paul Verhoeven in “Total Recall.”

In the original book, Douglas Quail is driven by a then-unnamed robot taxi driver, who would become Johnny Cab in the 1990 film. Voiced by Robert Picardo, he was an animated android-like driver who got caught up in the mind-blowing conspiracy of Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Quail (Quail from the book). Although Johnny may seem a little old fashioned now, he was certainly on the right track for what we ended up with. Not only is Waymo becoming an increasingly important mode of transportation (London being one of the most recent to test it), but even basic cars can now park themselves, proving that Dick certainly had the right idea about where we’re ultimately headed.

There’s an argument to be made that while it’s an enhanced experience thanks to the variety of headsets that have become available, virtual reality, like self-driving cars, isn’t as popular as it seems in Dick’s stories, even gathering dust for some users. The first time the author put it into action was in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Dick introduces the reader to “The Empathy Box”, a contraption that, if the user stays in it long enough, would be unable to determine the difference between the technological illusion into which he has been drawn and the real world from which he has spent so long away.

Now, while it’s not advisable to keep a VR headset on for too long, Dick plays with the idea of ​​escapism and, thanks to this very advanced form in the “Blade Runner” source material, it becomes as believable as androids designed to blend into society. Fast forward to now, and the fact that this is even a thing now proves once again that the sci-fi aficionado’s foresight was correct here. The only worry is that in years to come, people won’t become as obsessed and addicted to this particular area of ​​technology as in Dick’s story. Addicted to technology? Nowadays ? Surely that couldn’t happen.

Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn are considered the fathers of the Internet (with help from Tim Berners Lee later in creating the world’s first web page). However, if Dick’s foresight proves anything, it’s that he should have a name somewhere on the Internet family tree, having come up with his own version in 1969 with his novel “Ubik.” The story follows Joe Chip, who, while working as a technician for a psychic agency (like you), begins to see changes in reality and resorts to using the titular substance to reverse them.

Although this part relies heavily on the “fi” in “science fiction”, one crazy idea Dick had in mind was the “Internet of Things”, which as everyone knows, turned out to be a real thing. Of course, Dick was not the first to come up with the idea of ​​an online highway; George Orwell, Mark Twain, and Isaac Asimov all had plans for what would become the Internet. Even so, this is another frightening and integral part of human history that Dick has somehow seen in the future, even going so far as to include online subscriptions that exclude consumers. So complain all you want about the abundance of subscriptions, but just know that Dick warned everyone about Netflix decades ago. Somehow.

Oh yes. The big one. In the case of artificial intelligence, Dick included it in various stories, the most notable being the source material for “Blade Runner”, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” The story saw Rick Deckard attempt to track down a band of runaway replicants (androids) who have eschewed their primary duty and are hoping to hide in plain sight from the rest of humanity. Although civilization is nowhere near the level of advancement of the Nexus-6 models that are fleeing from man ready to “retire” them, the terrifying concepts put forward by Dick do not seem impossible.

Much like Scott’s film, Dick’s 1968 novel highlights the dangers of creating something to imitate ourselves and the repercussions that come with it. Sure, humanity is still at the stage where robots are kicking their CEOs, but this disturbing story is about testing to determine who is and who isn’t an android because they act and look so human, as well as the idea of ​​breeding even extinct animals. Do you need synthetic toads, let alone humans? Probably not. But the way things are going, the future will almost certainly resemble the stories of Dick’s past, and there’s not much we can do about it.

The next time you see an item from your Amazon Save List appear in a banner ad, you can attribute the purchase to Philip K. Dick. One of the author’s simplest yet alarmingly accurate predictions appeared in his 1954 short story, “Sales Pitch.” The story takes place in a world bombarded with advertising and products do everything they can to sell themselves to potential customers. The book’s main character faces the unfortunate problem of being constantly harassed by a robot who is doing everything it can to become his next purchase.

Fortunately, society isn’t yet at the stage where robot vacuums are going to be knocking on your doors to find a place in your shopping cart, but given that cookies and browsing information can be sent to various websites to tease you with the best buys, it’s clear that Kirk had something to say. Coincidentally, the closest people have come to futuristic marketing literally shoved in your eyes is in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of “Minority Report,” which saw Tom Cruise’s character plagued by holographic advertisements tailored to him. Give it a few decades or so, and you can bet this far-fetched idea won’t be far from coming true.