Negotiating Subjectivity within Simulation: The Posthuman in Philip K. Dick’s Ubik

2021 ◽  
pp. 89-104
Author(s):  
Piotr Płomiński
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Symbolic Exchange ◽  
Constructive Interaction

The aim of this paper is to offer a reading of P. K. Dick’s Ubik which investigates the possibility for a representation of posthuman subjectivity in the novel. The forming of a sustainable posthuman subjectivity occurs in the novel against the backdrop of what might be described in Baudrillardian terms as hyperreality. The use of Baudrillard?s idea of hyperreality may not only guide the analysis towards uncovering the circumstances facilitating the emergence of posthuman subjects in Ubik, but also reveal an illustration of the dialogue between the postmodern and the posthuman positions. Ultimately, I contend that Dick’s novel depicts the emergence of posthuman modes of subjectivity in a process which is facilitated by the context of hyperreality. This unexpected coincidence occurs through a positive, constructive interaction with the environment, bestowing, through symbolic exchange, sustainability to the inhabitants of unstable reality.

The novel steroidal glycoside from the dried bulb of Allium Macrostemon Bunge inhibits platelet activation

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. S33-S33
Author(s):  
Wenchao Ou ◽  
Haifeng Chen ◽  
Yun Zhong ◽  
Benrong Liu ◽  
Keji Chen
Keyword(s):  
Platelet Activation ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Steroidal Glycoside ◽  
Allium Macrostemon

The Involuntary Capture of Attention by Sound

2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrice B. R. Parmentier ◽  
Pilar Andrés
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Mismatch Negativity ◽  
Visual Task ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Auditory Oddball ◽  
Current Trial ◽  
Electrophysiological Responses ◽  
Electrophysiological Studies ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Task Sets

The presentation of auditory oddball stimuli (novels) among otherwise repeated sounds (standards) triggers a well-identified chain of electrophysiological responses: The detection of acoustic change (mismatch negativity), the involuntary orientation of attention to (P3a) and its reorientation from the novel. Behaviorally, novels reduce performance in an unrelated visual task (novelty distraction). Past studies of the cross-modal capture of attention by acoustic novelty have typically discarded from their analysis the data from the standard trials immediately following a novel, despite some evidence in mono-modal oddball tasks of distraction extending beyond the presentation of deviants/novels (postnovelty distraction). The present study measured novelty and postnovelty distraction and examined the hypothesis that both types of distraction may be underpinned by common frontally-related processes by comparing young and older adults. Our data establish that novels delayed responses not only on the current trial and but also on the subsequent standard trial. Both of these effects increased with age. We argue that both types of distraction relate to the reconfiguration of task-sets and discuss this contention in relation to recent electrophysiological studies.

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