Saturday, June 24, 2006

Bring Me the Head of Philip K. Dick

According to The New York Times, Philip K. Dick's head is missing. You probably have to register to read the article, and it's certainly worth reading, but here's the gist of it:

Last year an admiring doctoral student and evident computer whiz, David Hanson, built a life-size facsimile of Mr. Dick, using the latest artificial intelligence technology, robotics and a skinlike substance he calls "frubber."

. . . . . . .

. . . Warner Independent Pictures, which on July 7 is releasing the film, an experimental, animated thriller directed by Richard Linklater, had intended to send the robot on a promotional tour to promote the film.

That is, until its head went missing.

. . . Mr. Hanson, the robot maker . . . left the head on an America West flight from Dallas to Las Vegas in December.
. . . . . . . .

"They woke me up, I got my laptop from under my seat, and being dazed, I just forgot that I had the robot in there," said Mr. Hanson, referring to the head in a black, American Tourister roller bag, left in the overhead compartment.

After landing in San Francisco, he notified the airline, whose officials apparently found the head in Las Vegas, packed it in a box and sent it on the next flight to San Francisco. Mysteriously, it never arrived.

4 comments:

Graham Powell said...

I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to Linklater's film. A SCANNER DARKLY was always my favorite PKD book.

Unknown said...

Ebert and Roeper give it two thumbs up.

Anonymous said...

I understand PKD lost his head on several occasions

Jan Burke said...

The exact same thing happens to me whenever I fly America West.

But it's probably in Fresno dreaming of electric sheep.