High on the Hibrane

A couple of weeks ago, Nanotext mentioned that any good Science-Fiction is more about the present than the future. I had never really realized that, but it immediately made sense. So upon beginning Postsingular, I was excited to find that the issues in the book reflected issues that are interesting to me and are hardly ever considered in novels.

The first topic I would like to discuss is the theme of drugs in Postsingular. Big Pig seems to serve as a good metaphor for Hallucinogenic substances. Those who log into the Big Pig are able to think about complicated scientific and philosophical endeavors far beyond anything humans had yet discovered. However once they get off the pig, they can't remember exactly anything from their experience, yet know that it was fantastic. I find this to be very similar to hallucinogen's because like with the pig those who use them often feel as though they develop a deep cosmic bond with the universe, yet upon coming down from their experience, have only a faint memory of it, and tend to feel slightly stupefied for a while.

The non-pig user in Postsingular is often characterized by Sudocoke usage. I find this interesting because the term sudocoke implies synthetic, which in turn implies that pharmaceutical companies create the drug in a future where corporations have finally been able to openly cash in on addiction. While still addictive, Postsingular society seems to see sudocoke addiction as good entertainment, and not reason for intervention, while those on the Big Pig are offered help. This could be related to the way we view addicitons to narcotics as opposed to alcohol in today's society. While any sort of drug use which is not allowed by the state is deemed 'abuse,' binge drinking is viewed as good entertainment (e.g. any reality show ever except maybe 'Meet the Mormons').

I also found it interesting that Postsingular made use of the 'nano.' With pop culture, it is easy to imagine future robots as large human sized things, while in fact they will most likely be microscopic, yet far more frightening. It is the same way we viewed computers in the fifties. Imagining room sized mechanisms, while in present day, most of us carry computers smaller than our fists around in our pockets.

Perhaps as has happened in the past, the future will look nothing like how we imagined it, but our ideas on how society would function given new technologies is a direct critique on the way we view ourselves and the issues of our time.