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Amnesia Moon
''Amnesia Moon'' is a 1995 novel by Jonathan Lethem. Lethem adapted the novel from several unpublished short stories he had written, all about catastrophic, apocalyptic events. When Tor Books published the second edition in 1996, they commissioned Michael Koelsch to illustrate a new cover art; Koelsch had previously illustrated Lethem's previous book cover art ''Gun, with Occasional Music''. Plot The protagonist is a survivalist named Chaos, who lives in an abandoned megaplex in Wyoming after an apparent nuclear strike. The residents of his town of Hatfork are reliant on a sinister messianic figure named Kellogg for food. Kellogg also has powerful dreams, which he transfers into the minds of others. Chaos's mind is especially receptive, making him reluctant to sleep. Both Lethem and Chaos abandon this premise early on, and Chaos also goes by the name of "Everett Moon", depending on where he is. The novel plays with several other dystopian and post-apocalyptic setups. One are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Allen Lethem (; born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His first novel, ''Gun, with Occasional Music'', a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. In 1999, Lethem published '' Motherless Brooklyn'', a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel that achieved mainstream success. In 2003, he published '' The Fortress of Solitude'', which became a ''New York Times'' Best Seller. In 2005, he received a MacArthur Fellowship. Since 2011, he has taught creative writing at Pomona College. Early life Lethem was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Judith Frank Lethem, a political activist, and Richard Brown Lethem, an avant-garde painter. He was the eldest of three children. His father was Protestant (with Scottish and English ancestry) and his mother was Jewish, from a family with roots in Germany, Poland, and Russia. His brother Blake became an artist involved in the early New Yo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vacaville, California
Vacaville is a city located in Solano County in Northern California. Sitting approximately from Sacramento and from San Francisco, it is within the Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, Vacaville had a population of 102,386, making it the third largest city in Solano County. History Prior to European contact, the indigenous Patwin tribe lived in the area with the Ululato tribelet establishing a chiefdom around the Ululato village in what is now downtown Vacaville along the Ulatis Creek. The early settler pioneers of the land were Juan Manuel Cabeza Vaca and Juan Felipe Peña who were awarded a Mexican land grant in 1842. The same year in 1842, Vaca and Peña's families settled in the area of Lagoon Valley. Peña's Adobe home is the oldest standing building, built in 1842. Discussions for the sale of a portion of land to William McDaniel began in August 1850. A written agreement was signed on December 13, 1851, forming a township, nine square miles of land were dee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simulated Reality
The simulation theory is the hypothesis that reality could be simulated—for example by quantum computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds that may or may not know that they live inside a simulation. This is quite different from the current, technologically achievable concept of virtual reality, which is easily distinguished from the experience of actuality. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be hard or impossible to separate from "true" reality. There has been much debate over this topic, ranging from philosophical discourse to practical applications in computing. Arguments Simulation argument A version of the simulation hypothesis was first theorized as a part of a philosophical argument on the part of René Descartes, and later by Hans Moravec. The philosopher Nick Bostrom developed an expanded argument examining the probability of our reality being a simulation. His argument states that at least one of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charisma
Charisma () is a personal quality of presence or charm that compels its subjects. Scholars in sociology, political science, psychology, and management reserve the term for a type of leadership seen as extraordinary; in these fields, the term "charisma" is used to describe a particular type of leader who uses "values-based, symbolic, and emotion-laden leader signaling". In Christian theology, the term appears as ''charism'', an endowment or extraordinary power given by the Holy Spirit."Spiritual gifts". ''A Dictionary of the Bible'' by W. R. F. Browning. Oxford University Press Inc. ''Oxford Reference Online''. Oxford University Press. Accessed 22 June 2011. Etymology The English term ''charisma'' is from the Greek (''khárisma''), which means "favor freely given" or "gift of grace". The term and its plural (''charismata'') derive from (''charis''), which means "grace" or indeed "charm" with which it shares the root. Some derivatives from that root (including "grace") have sim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eye In The Sky (novel)
''Eye in the Sky'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, originally published in 1957. After an accident at the Belmont Bevatron, eight people are forced into several different alternate universes. These ersatz universes are later revealed to be solipsistic manifestations of each individual's innermost fears and prejudices, bringing the story in line with Dick's penchant for subjective realities. As well as his future discussions of theology and fears about McCarthy-era authoritarianism, the novel skewers several human foibles. The title refers to the eye of God, who appears as a character in the universe of religious fundamentalist Arthur Sylvester. Plot summary While on a visit to the (fictional) Belmont Bevatron in the 1957 novel's near-future year of 1959, eight people become stuck in a series of subtly and not-so-subtly unreal worlds. The instigating incident is a malfunction of the particle accelerator, which places all of the injured parties in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solipsism
Solipsism (; ) is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind. Varieties There are varying degrees of solipsism that parallel the varying degrees of skepticism: Metaphysical Metaphysical solipsism is a variety of solipsism. Based on a philosophy of subjective idealism, metaphysical solipsists maintain that the self is the only existing reality and that all other realities, including the external world and other persons, are representations of that self, and have no independent existence. There are several versions of metaphysical solipsism, such as Caspar Hare's egocentric presentism (or perspectival realism), in which other people are conscious, but their experiences are simply not ''present''. Epistemological Epistemological solipsism is the variety of ideali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alien Invasion
The alien invasion or space invasion is a common feature in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial lifeforms invade the Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under an intense state, harvest people for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether. The invasion scenario has been used as an allegory for a protest against military hegemony and the societal ills of the time. H. G. Wells' novel ''The War of the Worlds'' extended the invasion literature that was already common when science fiction was first emerging as a genre. Prospects of invasion tended to vary with the state of current affairs, and current perceptions of threatening, duress, and terrorism. Alien invasion was a common metaphor in United States science fiction during the Cold War, illustrating the fears of foreign (e.g. Soviet Union) occupation and nuclear devastation of the American people. Examples of these stories include the short story ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch
''The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch'' is a 1964 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1965. Like many of Dick's novels, it utilizes an array of science fiction concepts and explores the ambiguous slippage between reality and unreality. It is one of Dick's first works to explore religious themes. The novel takes place in a future 2016 where humankind has colonized every habitable planet and moon in the Solar System. To cope with the difficult life away from Earth, colonists rely on the illegal hallucinogen Can-D, secretly distributed by corporate head Leo Bulero. New tensions arise with the rumor that merchant explorer Palmer Eldritch has returned from an expedition in possession of a new alien hallucinogen to compete with Can-D. Plot summary The story begins in a future world where global temperatures have risen so high that in most of the world it is unsafe to be outside without special cooling gear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hallucinogenic
Hallucinogens are a large, diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mood, and perception as well as other changes. Most hallucinogens can be categorized as either being psychedelics, dissociatives, or deliriants. However, certain hallucinogens such as Fly agaric as well as other gabaergic hallucinogenics are more often considered to technically be hypnotics, therefore indicating another separate subcategory of drugs which can substantially alter visual perception. Etymology The word ''hallucinogen'' is derived from the word ''hallucination''. The term ''hallucinate'' dates back to around 1595–1605, and is derived from the Latin ''hallūcinātus'', the past participle of ''(h)allūcināri'', meaning "to wander in the mind." Characteristics Leo Hollister gave five criteria for classifying a drug as hallucinogenic.Glennon RA. Classical drugs: an introductory overview. In Lin GC and Gl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th most populous in the United States, with 815,201 residents as of 2021. It covers a land area of , at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City, and the fifth most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 91 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income (at $160,749) and sixth by aggregate income as of 2021. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include ''SF'', ''San Fran'', ''The '', ''Frisco'', and ''Baghdad by the Bay''. San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area are a global center of economic activity and the arts and sciences, spurred ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Lottery
''Solar Lottery'' is a 1955 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was his first published novel and contains many of the themes present in his later work. It was also published in altered form in the UK as ''World of Chance''. The main story is about a man named Ted Benteley who lives in a strange world, dominated by percentages and the lottery. Lotteries are used to choose the next leader as well as a new assassin, whose job is to try to kill the leader or "Quizmaster". Everybody in society has the opportunity to be selected as a leader or an assassin. Benteley unexpectedly gets chosen to be a member of the committee trying to assassinate the new Quizmaster and he must decide what he is going to do. Plot summary ''Solar Lottery'' takes place in a world dominated by logic and numbers, and loosely based on a numerical military strategy employed by US and Soviet intelligence called minimax (part of game theory). The Quizmaster, head of the world government ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Marin
West Marin is the largest rural region of Marin County, California. The West Marin Chamber of Commerce includes seven unincorporated communities in its definition of West Marin: Point Reyes Station, Olema, Stinson Beach, Bolinas, Tomales, Dillon Beach, and Inverness. West Marin is generally considered to be west of Muir Beach and Nicasio on the Pacific Ocean side of Mount Tamalpais. The '' Point Reyes Light'' is a weekly newspaper covering West Marin, and the website of the ''Marin Independent Journal'' has a category for West Marin news. And KWMR is their public radio station. West Marin landscape Unlike the rest of the county, which is served by Golden Gate Transit, West Marin is served only by Marin Transit, which connects to Golden Gate Transit lines at Marin City and in the San Geronimo Valley, among other locations. ThEnvironmental Action Committee of West Marin active since the 1970s, focuses on environmental issues such as preserving open space and protecting vulne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
