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In this book, Patricia Warrick examines over 200 short stories and novels written between 1930 and 1977 which portray computers as robots, as "thinking machines," as heroes and villains, gods and demons. The works are discussed according to a unique paradigm that divides them and the fictional worlds they create into closed, open, or isolated systems. Warrick analyzes recurring patterns and images, noting how these change (or fail to change) over time and how they relate to real technological developments.

While focusing on a particular genre within science fiction, the book seeks to answer broader literary questions—Should the abundant body of work spawned by the science fiction imagination be taken seriously? Has it climbed up from its humble American beginnings in the pulp magazines? Does it do more than entertain? Has it accomplished the task of mythmaking which literature has traditionally done? And will it ultimately replace the realistic novel as the chief literary form by the end of this century? An aesthetic of complementary perception is defined, and Warrick concludes with a look into the electronic future, a condemnation of the pessimism and poor science she has found in much of post-World War II writing, and a proposal for revitalizing the cybernetic imagination.

Among the writers whose work is examined are Brian W. Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, John Brunner, John W. Campbell, Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Crichton, Samuel R. Delany, Lester del Rey, Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, Harry Harrison, Robert Heinlein, James Hogan, Fritz Leiber, Franke Herbert, Fred Hoyle, Stanislaw Lem, Anne McCaffrey, Michael Moorcock, Frederick Pohl, Robert Silverberg, Clifford Simak, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and Jack Williamson. The book includes extensive fiction and nonfiction bibliographies and an index. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Early cybernetic visions
The booklet looks like a couple of vanity press scientific articles until you actually read it.It's instructive to remember, once you do read it, that it was written while Richard Nixon was still in office, when ARPAnet was getting its bottom spanked on its way out of the Military-Industrial womb, and when computer games were little more than an idea.Brand's interviews with cybernetics pioneers and then-20-something compunauts (now pushing retirement) make clear in retrospect that the age that began in the late 60's is still the one we're in now.The cultural puzzles of deepening computer interaction started *there*.This engaging snapshot of personalities in context, mixed with Brand's pre-2001 spin on what computerization could mean to culture, should be required reading.

Fast Forward Retro Vision for the Digital Age
This is one of those books that I've periodically pulled off the shelf again and again over the years. Stewart Brand's journalistic foray into (what was then) pre-Internet, hacker/computer culture shows us theroots/rock/reggae of an earlier generation of programmers and designers whowere busy creating a new world minus the hype, marketing and IPO fever.Re-viewing this book over the years since it was first published alwaysgives fresh insight into where we've been.(Gosh nose where we are going.)Worthy of reprinting and rediscovery in the 21st century. Thank you, Mr.Brand... ... Read more

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In light of the enormous interest in building intelligent systems, this volume blends theory, applications, and methodology of cybernetics taking it out of the realm of the abstract and explaining how cybernetics can contribute to an improved understanding of intelligence. Among the topics of the 17 ... Read more

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Self-Congruity provides a comprehensive understanding of the self-concept, integrating the many references to it in the psychological literature. Using his previous findings, the author considers cognitive-versus-affective phenomena, and intrapersonal, interpersonal, situational, and analytic modes. He then applies his integrated theory to the problem of change in self-concept and behavior. ... Read more

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This book deals with automatic responses such as pain,fear, anxiety, the symptoms of primary mental disorders, dreams,repression, hypnosis, laughter, tears, response to stage and screenplays, structural responses such as cerebral lateralization, and soforth. The reason why all those phenomena are studied together isthat, according to the theory presented in this book, all suchautomatic responses have adaptive, self-protective functions thatcontribute to the realization of survival, and that most of them seekto protect not only all sorts of interests and the physical health ofthe person but also, and primarily, his or her mental health. Inreality, this statement about the general function of automaticresponses is almost a tautology, because they all are created byevolution, and evolution is directed to realize adaptation, success,and survival; moreover, proper mental functioning is necessary forrealizing survival. Therefore the real problem is to understand theparticular self-protective functions of particular automatisms and howthey discharge those functions, not that they have suchfunctions. Despite this fact, for example, the symptoms of primarymental disorders are considered by the authors of the DSM and byeveryone else as harmful manifestations of unknown dysfunctions, andtheir self-protective functions are totally ignored. It is shown inthis book that the harmfulness of symptoms is due to their sideeffects.

Mental disorders, dreams, and other automatic responses areinsufficiently, or even not at all, understood, because (1) mentalprocesses cannot be observed and are even unconscious to a greatextent, (2) the experimental causation of mental disorders isethically unfeasible, and (3) psychologists do not try to constructtheories because they do not know how to do it and are alsodiscouraged by the fact that Freud's theories turned out to beunscientific.

Newton explained the method that he used in constructing his theory ofmechanics thus: "Propositions [that constitute the basic principles oftheories] are deduced from the phenomena and made general throughinduction." He integrated such "propositions" with empirical andsemi-empirical knowledge to explain and predict many mechanicalphenomena and thus proved that his propositions were correct. This isthe method used in this book to construct a theory of automaticresponses and to test it.

A theory is empirically proved to be correct, or viable, by itsusefulness in explaining, predicting, and controlling the phenomena inits field of validity. In this book, (a) the functions of severalautomatisms that are either discovered through research or areconsidered normal components of everyday behavior are explained on thebasis of the theory, (b) the meanings and functions of about 500symptoms and 200 dreams are likewise explained in detail, (c) the lifeexperiences of those who produced them are predicted in general terms,(d) the particulars of those experiences are exposed, (e) the causalrelations between those experiences and the resulting automatisms areexplained, and (f) many examples of eliminating the symptoms and theirharmful side consequences are presented, which constitute successfulcases of psychotherapy. All these detailed explanations, predictions,and controls of particular phenomena constitute more than 2000empirical proofs of the theory about the general function ofautomatisms. No other theory in the history of science has been putforth with so many empirical proofs. Future generations will havedifficulty in understanding why the functions of automatic responseshave not been understood earlier. ... Read more

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This study of "Billy Budd" examines the novel in light of the scientific revolution marking both the setting of the story (the late-18th century) and Melville's own age a century later. The author argues that this revolution, made manifest not only in the ever greater hegemony of the machine but in the written expression of the times (the utopian novel, science fiction), provided a backdrop for Melville to address not so much the plight of an innocent seaman or the relevance of Christianity, as the infiltration of science into the province of art and, by extension, the writing of fiction "calculated to ...egregiously deceive." This perspective can best resolve all the seeming ambiguities of the narrative, as we read beneath the surface to discover who (or what) Melville's Handsome Sailor really is: an ingenious token of aesthetic deception meant to gull all who witness amid a "willful suspension of disbelief." ... Read more