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Design

Did Philip K. Dick Dream Of An Android Head?

Possibly. After the permanent decapitation of his robotic self, a new head has been built and mechanical Phillip K. Dick lives on.

Philip K. Dick is an author known for mind-bending sci-fi novels and short stories set in meta-realities that take place in paranoid futures where reality is something that mutates and changes with every page turn. His novel Ubik (like many of his others) raises questions about the nature of perception. The mystifying plot penetrates deep into the human psyche and prods at the existentially raw nerves with a hot stick of abhorrence, unsettling the reader as the characters find themselves in a decaying half-life anti-world traveling back in time. Plus, you know, it’s thoroughly entertaining, amusing, and gripping. Along with his avant-garde narratives, he’s also famous for writing the story that formed one of the most celebrated—both visually and conceptually—sci-fi films of all time: Blade Runner. It’s a a neo-noir sci-fi film that looks at the Frankenstein complex and the nature of robotics and human consciousness. So, it’s fitting that at the NextFest 2005 event his robotic self was unveiled, in what was a bizarre but apt tribute.

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The plot thickened when the android head of Philip K. Dick was lost after being left in an overhead luggage compartment on an intercontinental flight in 2006, the occurrence even inspiring a BBC radio play, Bring Me The Head Of Philip K. Dick, which turned the head into a futuristic weapon. Dark days for lovers of able-bodied autonomous dead sci-fi writers, but now the story has reached its happy ending because the head has been rebuilt (above) by Dallas-based Hanson Robotics, meaning this interactive philosophical sculpture lives on.

Recent twitpic posted by @HansonRobotics captioned “Phil hanging out, having a chat.”