The Futurological Congress is like one long trip. While reading, I felt like I was having a vivid dream, and upon waking up I questioned what was real and what was not.
To me, the most interesting part of the novel was the heavy use of drugs throughout. From the beginning, there were people using marijuana, LSD, and opium among other drugs common in our society today. This was rather normal, yet soon things took a turn in a different direction. Riot control and even large-scale wars began being fought with narcotics and hallucinogens. Before long, all of humanity was kept in a constant drugged state to the point where humanity existed in its own artificial reality.
This made me wonder: what is real, and does reality matter? Much like the movie, The Matrix, if one lives happily in an artificial reality, must they really ever be bothered with reality? I believe The Futurological Congress argues that perhaps it does not matter. By the end of the novel, humanity seems doomed as glaciers are approaching and there is nothing they can do. Whether the world was sober or not, there is nothing they could do about this. In addition, the novel seems to suggest that there is no way to guide ourselves into the future. The book seems to mock futurologists, showing that the future is such a vast unknown, we can never know what way things will go. For this reason, it really does not matter if we are aware of "reality" because we really are powerless anyway.
While you make a valid point about significance of reality, I disagree. The truth will always be more powerful than fiction because of the simple fact that it is true. Despite the consequences of the truth, one can always take solace in the fact that at least you know the truth. If your girlfriend or boyfriend cheats on you, wouldn't you like to know? With knowledge, one can always make decisions and feel good about the fact that your fate is in your own hands, not in someone else's (or in this case, in a drug).
ReplyDeleteI agree and disagree with parts of the arguments you guys made. First, I agree with Alex (and disagree with Matt) that the quest to find the true meaning of "reality" is useless because it would always bring along illusions of choice, just like "perception", "hallucination", and "happiness".
ReplyDeleteIn other words, "reality" is superior to neither "perception" nor "hallucination". Yet we as a historical species tend to fashion a hierarchy in which "reality" sits atop of the rest. This is because we tend to believe history as a linear progression wherein temporal and spatial dimensions uphold and do not collapse, meaning there is clearly a past, a present, a future, a here, and a there. Framed within this mode of thought, we then further believe by making our own decisions, we can set our own lineage, determine our own future, a future where, in our best of hopes, at least we ourselves die with a smile on our face. Favoring "reality" over any other phrases reflects this desire of ours to take control of our pursuit of "happiness".
Yet, all these phrases, "happiness", "reality", "perception", "hallucination", are inherently and similarly loaded. Admittedly if I were to draw on definitions from any of the more popular dictionaries, these phrases are clearly not interchangeable. But this is purely and simply a linguistic technicality. From a philosophical standpoint, however, they are but one and the same; all these phrases are neither absolute nor objective. My happiness isn't your happiness. My reality isn't your reality. My self-conviction isn't any worthier than yours. The list goes on. And so everything is compounded. Dimensions collapse. And nothing is static.
This is the uncomfortable truth the novel reveals, and I would argue so does the entire genre of sci-fi. However, I disagree with Alex on how the novel ends. It didn't end on a pessimistic tone. Yes, it warned us about the illusion of choices of "reality", of the danger in attempting to define the undefinable vastness that we hope to grasp. But, Tichy, and consequently the readers, was given a chance to do over. I would look at this as an advice to tread lightly as we move forward into the unknown future ahead, to always keep in mind that nothing is ever to be blindly believed in, for nothing is ever absolute.