Futurology Conference reading notes

preface

This book is a series of science fiction books by Lem, which came out in Chinese this year. By chance, I got the first legal edition (the price of 200 sets is relatively painful), but the content is good, a very easy to understand book in science fiction.

In addition, the translation of this book is ok, at least the author wants to express the meaning is translated. In addition the book by liu dawei, and can clearly see from the book “three body” refer to content of the book, the novel such as the leading role in order to treat disease by hibernate the way to the future world (and logic), such as the theme in the book again a population explosion caused by the global crisis is also reflected in the three body.

Read this book in the past week or so, later the book lent to a colleague to read, the result colleague home something to take home a week…..

Author overview:

  • Polish science fiction master: Stannislaw Lime

  • Release date: 1971

  • The authors introduce

    • Worked as an electrician, welder, love robots

    • Jews, who had lived through World War II and the Cold War, chose to live in anonymity because of the persecution of their identity

    • He became an author and eventually a Titan of science fiction

Links to resources

It will only be published in Chinese in August 2021, sorry…..

Recommended language

Not a good book to recommend, because the physical book is really too expensive, also not recommended to buy, can only wait for online streaming. “Future study” is the range of a book about the earth in the past, only about 2039 because of the population explosion cause global catastrophe, leading experimental drugs ingested “dream act the role ofing treasure” into the fantasy world, in a fantasy world, ruler, decide on all the human use “the dream” (the name translation is not very good, A fantasy drug to solve the problem of population explosion, people are addicted to the constructed fantasy world, and the protagonist is constantly searching for reality in the dream-within-a-dream world.

Recommended level

4 star, worthy to be praised liu very imaginative evaluation, on the level of imagination is like three body that a great work, it is hard to imagine that this is a book of the last century, in the book the author predicted the future time, certain content is quite correct, one is the car of the future’s still on the ground to walk, Human technology and the author’s age have not changed dramatically, but there are many changes in medical technology that the author did not expect.

Mind mapping

Too lazy to read the writing, see a mind map: www.mubucm.com/doc/5UCsaXc…

Personal assessment

Science fiction books I rarely take notes, because write down the contents of the book not to look at the original shock, so more details from the book to see global, and are combined with the author s to think about how the author escapist fiction world, art originates from life, sci-fi can also reflects the author’s experience and background.

Personal feelings

  1. The book is filled with satire, and its depiction of a fantastical future world is vivid and deeply gripping.
  2. The whole story is full of 1984 flavor, everyone is “free”, but the freedom is constructed in the unreal world, facing the global problem of population explosion, human finally chose to compromise and delay, finally can only make one mistake after another irreparable. In addition, the final scene is a struggle between the author and the big brother of futurology Conference. When the protagonist jumps off the cliff and chooses to face down all illusions, it is really cinematic.
  3. The story is similar to a dream dream inception, from a personal point of view, when the actors for the first time in drinking water in the room when the wonderful feeling, this time he actually saw the thing has been completely is dreamland content, although the author broke through the dream, but because of the liquid medicine is experimental, likely to lead back to reality with more miserable reality.
  4. There is also a passage in the book in which the main character travels to the future world through hibernation to cure incurable diseases. If you have seen trisomy, you will know what I am talking about. I want to say that Liu Cixin was undoubtedly influenced by this novel.
  5. I am very impressed by the author’s imagination. Although it is not as shocking as the death of trisolaran, it does belong to the existence no less than trisolaran in my mind as a science fiction.
  6. Anyway, this 200 yuan set of books from the first impression, seems to be not the wrong money ha.

The story line

Here is a brief overview of the story line of the book:

  1. The protagonist waits for the “futurology Conference” to be held in the dream building of the “hanging garden” which can meet all the needs of people. The protagonist enters the beginning of the fantasy world. + The protagonist drinks tasteless water with hallucinatory effects and begins to enter the fantasy world (the words “water is poisonous” suddenly come to mind) + he encounters all kinds of strange people in the building, including submissive people, violent people, and neurotic people. + encounter the “professor” in the building, and discuss the problem of population explosion with the professor, which is also the core of the book.

  2. Soon the building is attacked by the “opposition”, the “realist” and the “escapist” fight begins, and in panic the protagonist escapes from the building.

  3. During the struggle, the protagonist was abducted by “reactionaries”, and his organs were dismembered and burned. The special identity of the protagonist was exposed, and the “Futurology Congress” sent someone to protect the protagonist.

  4. The futureology conference decided to escape and cover up the reality of the population explosion at the critical moment, and launched “dream ornaments” to scatter to the world. The beginning of human degeneration, the situation is gradually irreversible.

  5. Rescue after the leading role of the preserved, only the brain be transplanted into a black woman’s body, but because the body cannot afford to various chemical attack, coupled with the current “escape” the strength weak, be forced to “hibernation” into the future of 2039 + start here whether the dream is a dream, into the future is the second layer dreams and visions

  6. After being treated by future medicine, the protagonist and professor Xiang understand the future world, everyone in this world is equal, everyone’s work and life can be obtained through “pills”, people do not need to work hard only need to take medicine can complete everything. (Highlights of the book)

The world of Dreamware:

  • Knowledge doesn’t take time, it takes medicine to learn
  • Hate a person does not need to start, just need to take medicine can kill through the mind world.
  • Everyone can be a genius, as long as the medicine can have the inspiration of genius, everyone can create a masterpiece
  • You can take pills if you want to be rich; you can take pills if you want to be happy; you can take pills if you want to be sad.
  1. In the follow-up life, the protagonist found something wrong and found out that the world was a hoax composed of dream act the role of treasure through a conversation with the professor. The world had already been caused by the population explosion and the lack of living area, and everyone was living in a fantasy world
  2. The protagonist realizes that this is a dream world through his own feelings. Although everything is too real, the protagonist still chooses to go to the real world. In fact, all the dreams are for the protagonist to accept everything
  3. In the final chapter on the oaks, the protagonist chooses to face reality, jumps up and jumps back to the real world.

Excerpts from personal notes:

In the original book, the protagonist eats hallucinogens in the building waiting for the 8th Futurology Conference, enters a dream world and finally passes many tests to return to the real world.

In the dream world, it tells a world where resources are scarce due to the global population explosion. In the process of choice, human beings choose a way to escape and deceive themselves constantly. However, the protagonists of this story choose to face the difficulties instead of living in a dream of being controlled and deceiving themselves. Leading from the past to the future, see in the future the dream act the role of the treasure under the deception of the “paradise”, can learn to take medicine, dreams can take medicine, the rich can take medicine, even can meet their sin by taking medicine, the whole story similar inception, hero broke through the layers of “dreams”, before the false and reality, finally he who sees through all the fog, Break free from the control of Dreamwork and face the tragic reality!

With the identity of the author

A welder turned novelist

It can be seen that the author loves machines, and machines and artificial intelligence are everywhere in the article. For example, the spraying of potions is operated by robots. In the book, there are also various machine tools such as rocket vehicles and spacecraft. Lyme’s novels are bound to be full of machines.

I lived through World War II as a Jew

Hero is all in all kinds of temptation or torture, such as being in the body, drank the hallucinogenic drugs mixed with water, and was constantly attack, people also gradually degenerate, here can see the author roughly with a sense of being persecuted jewish people and history experience for reference, so the whole very real feeling.

Hanging gardens

In the real world, there are really scientists experimenting, which is similar to the “artificial earth” in the past. The whole idea is to build a 1,000-story building, which can meet all the physiological needs of people, similar to building a time in the building

It is true that New York in the 1960s had serious smog, so it was understandable that the sky outside the skyscrapers at the beginning was cloudy. However, the air quality was always good after the subsequent rectification by the US government, which also showed the author’s concern about the future environment of human beings.

Dreams act the role of treasure lies

At one point in the book, the supply of “dreambobs” is not nearly enough to withstand the population explosion, so to sustain the world of lies, scientists have come up with the following method:

Bliss inversion

It refers to making the original desire for wealth become an extreme desire for poverty. Human beings are proud of being poor and take living conditions as the United States. Finally, the effect of dream ornaments is removed.

Bigger lies

It means that humans “wake up” to the fact that they are in a lie, and then blind themselves to a reality with a bigger lie, typical dream within dream within dream. (Infinite dolls)

The brain transformation

(The most thoughtful and terrifying way)

People only need to keep their brains, and all their personal needs can be fulfilled by infusion + fantasy medicine, for example, people’s desires can be fulfilled by fantasy medicine, and if they have a need for freedom, they can assemble their own bodies mechanically, and they can change them at any time when they are not satisfied. Yeah, in a cyberpunk kind of way, yeah, it’s extreme, it’s just the brain. And maybe it’s all an artificial illusion.

The robot sprayed the dreamware

In the dream world, people drive all kinds of sports cars, while in the real world, everyone is grabbing the air to simulate the appearance of driving, which is very pictorial. Two lovers walking on the road, look happy, in fact in the real world is holding each other, clothes are fragmented, it is very funny.

Work in a fantasy world

As a hallucinogenic agent, this section describes the dreaming-treasure, which must be maintained by sober people, such as daily life and production. It is impossible for people to live by eating air, so this section is specially explained in the book: At the gate of the workshop on powder, that can see the real work at the same time into the fantasy world of gorgeous workshop, however, are cement, actually small and dirty (believe the picture have) when people work, spray forgotten after completing a job agent forget yourself, then you will want to, so dirty how could anyone want to work, Don’t you want to run away? At this point, the author goes out of his way to explain your inner joke. The answer is that you will be proud to work harder if you encounter a powder that loves your work before entering the workshop.

Reading this text is like watching a horror movie…

conclusion

On the day of writing, I specially searched for a movie with the same name. Although the main idea is the same, the form of expression is quite different. Interested readers can go to see it.

Write in the last

Another long article, hard to see you now, what ideas are welcome to exchange and discussion.