Side Note
These are just a few things I was thinking of in class the other day. The most interesting aspect of The Futurological Congress to me was whether the new world even has humans. It seemed that they were basically constructed like robots and much less “human” physically than the “robot” clones of R.U.R. Even if they are people, they have to be completely different than before. Because of all the pills and drugs, whatever is left of their brains must not feel, act or think like the person that they once were. Also, their bodies are in such bad condition that I do not understand how they are reproducing at such a fast rate either.
Another issue I had was why there were so few people in the street when he saw the real (?) world; do only some people show up in the real world? Are some of the people just part of the hallucinations and don’t actually exist in a physical form?(maybe there’s still limited resources, just not overcrowding? But that seems to contradict everything else he described)
It seems like the people would be able to realize that something is amiss; I kept thinking of car wrecks and whether imaginary cars would show damage (since you have to be able to see other people’s cars to know where to drive, presumably)
-Nicole
Hey Nicole,
, just kidding, but not really. I’m serious that it is very difficult to know what exactly is supposed to logically follow and what is supposed to be holes that his brain didn’t fill in when it made up the world for him.
You picked at some interesting things in Futurological Congress. My only answer would be that it was all a dream
When it comes to the robots taking drugs and practically not being human anymore. I’d argue, as I have before, that in that case, they are people but perhaps not human. If human requires a certain amount of physical continuity. (although drawing that line would be difficult). But the people are certainly having experiences, even if only produced by the chemicals they are consuming. Lem does not seem to think that experiencing non-reality can be enough, and Tixi seems to have to deal with the sort of dream-state that non-reality induces, I’d argue that experiences such as pain and love, regardless of their existence in the “real” world are pretty much all that is required to make us people.
Back to the story. You’re right. They probably couldn’t have driven cars, unless they were all mentally connected in some way that made their day dreams coincide with each other in a useful way.
I have no explanation for the growing population complaint, maybe they remembered that problem but it had already gone away due to the lifestyle.