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Authors literature Novelists Philip K Dick photography Sci-Fi

Philip K. Dick, and Valis.

“I term the Immortal One a plasmate, because it is a form of energy; it is living information. It replicates itself β€” not through information or in information β€” but as information. The plasmate can crossbond with a human, creating what I call a homoplasmate. This annexes the mortal human permanently to the plasmate.”

“Pascal said, ‘All history is one immortal man who continually learns.’ This is the Immortal One whom we worship without knowing his name. ‘He lived a long time ago, but he is still alive,’ and, ‘The Head Apollo is about to return.’ The name changes.”

“The changing information which we experience as world is an unfolding narrative. It tells about the death of a woman. This woman, who died long ago, was one of the primordial twins. She was half of the divine syzygy. The purpose of the narrative is the recollection of her and of her death. The Mind does not wish to forget her. Thus the ratiocination of the Brain consists of a permanent record of her existence, and, if read, will be understood this way. All the information processed by the Brain β€” experienced by us as the arranging and rearranging of physical objects β€” is an attempt at this preservation of her; stones and rocks and sticks and amoebae are traces of her. The record of her existence and passing is ordered onto the meanest level of reality by the suffering Mind which is now alone.”

“Out of itself the Brain has constructed a physician to heal it. This subform of the Macro-Brain is not deranged; it moves through the Brain, as a phagocyte moves through the cardiovascular system of an animal, healing the derangement of the Brain in section after section.”

“β€˜Salvation’ through gnosis β€” more properly anamnesis (the loss of amnesia) β€” although it has individual significance for each of us β€” a quantum leap in perception, identity, cognition, understanding, world- and self-experience, including immortality β€” it has greater and further importance for the system as a whole, inasmuch as these memories are data needed by it and valuable to it, to its overall functioning.”

“But we cannot read the patterns of arrangement; we cannot extract the information in it β€” i.e. it as information, which is what it is. The linking and re-linking of objects by the Brain is actually a language, but not a language like ours (since it is addressing itself and not someone or something outside itself).”

from Valis, 1981, by PKD.

“Dick claimed that Valis used “disinhibiting stimuli” to communicate, using symbols to trigger recollection of intrinsic knowledge through the loss of amnesia, achieving gnosis.

Drawing directly from Platonism and Gnosticism, Dick wrote in his Exegesis: “We appear to be memory coils (DNA carriers capable of experience) in a computer-like thinking system which, although we have correctly recorded and stored thousands of years of experiential information, and each of us possesses somewhat different deposits from all the other life forms, there is a malfunctionβ€”a failureβ€”of memory retrieval.”

—-per Wikipedia.

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Actors photography Sci-Fi Star Trek TV

Star Trek: The Amok Time.

One of the canonical Trek episodes, in which Kirk and Spock find themselves battling to the death. Guest characters include T’pring, the great Stonn, and the indomitable T’pau.

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Actors Film photography Sci-Fi

Robocop 2 {1990}.

This Sci-Fi Adventure film depicts the battle between the mostly mechanical police officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) and archvillain drug lord Cain (memorably portrayed by Tom Noonan). A certain mayor (Willard E. Pugh) may also momentarily almost lose his composure.

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Actors photography Sci-Fi Star Trek

Trek {Star}: Vol. 3.

More immortal Star Trek highlights, from Return of the Archons, Day of the Dove, and A Taste of Armageddon.

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Actors Elisha Cook, Jr. Obsession photography Sci-Fi Star Trek TV videos

Star Trek: Court Martial.

Richard Webb {as Ben Finney} and the renowned Elisha Cook, Jr. {Samuel T. Cogley} both give standout performances in this Trek episode, which focuses on a curious concept: Justice.

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Actors Actors of Greatness Brad Dourif epoch-defining Film Geniuses performers Photo-Editing photography Police Procedurals Predators Psychopaths Sci-Fi serial killers TV X-Files

The X-Files: Beyond the Sea.

The brilliant actor Brad Dourif gives a mind-boggling portrayal of convicted—and soon to be executed—serial killer Luther Lee Boggs. In this story, there’s a catch—a quite big one—in that the murderer claims to have acquired psychic powers, and might be able to help capture a predator who has abducted two people, and has killed ritualistically in the past. Mulder (David Duchovny), for one, is less than convinced.

In these two subsequent scenes, firstly… although Agent Scully would dearly love to converse with her recently deceased father, it’s quite possible that Luther Lee Boggs’ (Brad Dourif loses his mind, in the best possible way) intense aversion to the electric chair has even greater motivational potency. Lastly, in the poignant, haunting final scene (the final scene *we’re* going to present…), the correct warning Boggs had given to Scully ended up saving her life, and convinces her that he’s been telling the truth. He’s only willing to convey her father’s message if she is his witness when he’s strapped to the chair in a few hours. Is this one last trick, one potential last act of cruelty? Or does he truly value the agent whose life he saved? This ambiguity is part of what makes him such an intriguing character…and Dourif’s masterful performance makes Boggs truly indelible.

Amen. Simply one of the greatest performances I’ve seen, ever.

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Actors Actors of Greatness epoch-defining photography Sci-Fi Star Trek TV videos William Marshall

Trek {Star}: Vol. 2.

Three of the Highest Echelon: The Ultimate Computer; Where No Man Has Gone Before; and The Man Trap.

Towering genius Dr. Richard Daystrom, in the midst of further un-understanding, plans to β€œshow” Leonard McCoyβ€”plans to show everyone, in factβ€”and delivers, in his stentorian manner, a powerfully declamatory oration, all the while teetering on the very brink of sanity/insanity. 

In trying earnestly to persuade the well-nigh legendary (and Great) M5 Multitronic Unit (which displays its textbook Uncompromising Stance) to do, and to not do, certain things, the mighty and almost eternal Dr. Richard Daystrom begins an ill-fated rumination on his life and work, and the all-too-prevalent injustices therein. A last, desperate, titanic, paradigmatic, Γ¦on-defining manifestation of wild grandiosity brings with it predictable results. 

Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) employ a potent cocktail of chicanery and subterfuge to subdue the solitude-defending archaeologist, Professor Robert Crater (Alfred Ryder). They proceed to interrogate him vigorously, mainly/entirely concerning the whereabouts of his wife.

Gary Mitchell leaves little doubt of his seriousnessβ€”he is most certainly *not* jokingβ€”with Lee Kelso. He then ruminates, with ever-increasing wonder, about his newly found, awesome, and steadily burgeoning powers. Gary Lockwood delivers a masterful performance as the metamorphosing Mitchell.