MovieChat Forums > Passengers (2016) Discussion > Similar science fiction short story in a...

Similar science fiction short story in an 80s Playboy Magazine

posted 8 years ago by jeffyoung1
10 replies | jump to latest

Believe it or not, Playboy Magazine has always tried to feature quality editorials, short stories, prose, and infomercials.

I came across a 80s Playboy Magazine that featured a science fiction short story. It had a similar theme to PASSENGERS.

The background is similar. The future presumes that faster-than-light space travel is not possible. We have to make do with high-tech ion engines and nuclear fusion engines. So space travel takes up the better part of a century to get anywhere.

On a long-term, deep-space colonists space ship which will take 70 years to reach its destination, hundreds of Earth colonists slumber in stasis, or, suspended animation. Some sort of technical malfunction awakens the brain of one of the colonists. His body is still in stasis but his mind is aware. Fortunately, an advanced artificial intelligence computer operates the spaceship and monitors the colonists.

The intelligent computer immediately communicates the gravity of the situation to the colonist's brain. The colonist, a middle-middle-aged man, asks the computer to fully waken his body and allow him to roam the spaceship. The computer has to give him the bad news. There is no air and no food in the spaceship. There is food in storage for the colonists upon arrival but there's no dining facility or means of obtaining the food for consumption during the long-travel.

The computer informs the colonist that he will have to allow his body to remain in stasis for his own survival but the computer has to prevent the colonist's brain from vegetating due to lack of real-life stimulation. To accomplish this, the computer will feed into the man's brain, visual imagery and communication, largely drawing upon the man's memories, past, and thoughts. It turns out to be a difficult task for the computer, who seems to have its own personality by inwardly bemoaning the situation. It appears the colonist has a bunch of childhood and young adulthood hang-ups, insecurities, phobias, you name it, which interfere with the intelligent computer's attempt to feed the man's mind production imagery. The man's hang-ups mess up and twist the computer's imagery feed into more bad experiences for the man. If the computer had eyeballs, it would be rolling them.

To make a long story short, both colonist and computer are stuck with each other for a long 70 years. The colonist will seem to experience 70 years of life while his body remains the same in stasis. The story's end is okay, sort of. The spaceship reaches its destination, the colonist staggers out of his chamber, okay but the worst for wear after 70 years of imperfect mental entertainment. The intelligent computer feels the same mental distress.

[–] SnarkyYarbles 8 years ago

Who wrote that?

[–] emvan 8 years ago

Philip K. Dick. See my reply to the O.P.

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

[–] SnarkyYarbles 8 years ago

Thanks, emvan. Thought that sounded like a P.K.Dick story. I have a thee book set that supposed to be all his short stories collected. Haven't read them in a while. Now I'll have to dig them up and re-read them. Dick is my second favorite sci fi author. larry Niven being the first.

[–] mark-mattox 8 years ago

I don't remember that short story, but my suspicion is that this film was inspired (at least in part) by Allen Steele's novel "Coyote" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_(Steele_novel)

[–] emvan 8 years ago

Another good call in terms of spotting a well-known story with the key plot element of too-early awakening from suspended animation. But the Phil Dick story is probably better known, and I think it's likely that Allen had read it. I think I'll e-mail him and ask him (and whether he's aware that the idea is cropping up again here).

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

[–] emvan 8 years ago

I actually came to this message board to see if anyone had spotted the similarity to this story. It's amazing that you remember it so well.

It was published as "Frozen Journey," but it has been republished ever since by the author's preferred title, "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon." In fact, that was the title of his last short story collection.

The author is Philip K. Dick. It's one of his best and most important stories, which is saying a lot, since he's the best sf writer of all time.

It's funny that you've forgotten the big twist ending, perhaps because it's so heartbreaking. Many of his memories center around a relationship that failed, despite the fact that he had loved the woman and vice versa. When he arrives, we discover that the ship / computer has asked the woman to join him, correctly believing that the man's mental health was endangered and that he might need the woman's presence to maintain his sanity. But the man believes that he has not actually arrived yet, that the woman isn't real, that he is still stuck in the computer's simulations.

It's an important story for PKD because, at its end, it asserts that there is an objective reality, and that it is important to believe that there is one, something he often challenged in his fiction. One of the last bits is our hero's attempt to prove to the woman that he is still in an unreal environment; he says "Look, I'll put my hand through this wall." Dick, as author, reports that his hand didn't go through the wall (although the man believes it does) "because hands do not go through walls." As someone who had been reading PKD for years (and who would later end up helping his literary estate), that was a mind-blowing admission.

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

[–] jeffyoung1 8 years ago

Hi emvan.

Thanks so much for your literary assistance. Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread. I'm not surprised that the short story was the work of the brilliant, late Philip K. Dick. His best sci-fi movie adaptation comes from, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" That book title already tells you just how fertile his imagination was and while I can write well, I don't have that kind of imagination and skill to create stories.

Emvan, perhaps you and the others can help me identify this mystery book.

In late 1984, I read a book review of an upcoming science fiction book that was supposed to be published in 1985. The given title in the review was, THE ENTROPY PUMP. I have not been able to locate any such book by that title so it must have been a working title.

The book review summarized the storyline this way.

The storyline takes place in the future, in a post-apocalyptic United States. There is description of a scene that takes place in the, "...ruins of Albuquerque". (The book's author amazingly foretold the future of flying military drones.)
Above the empty, bombed-out ruins of Albuquerque, New Mexico, slowly circles an advanced military drone aircraft. (It was not identified which side the drone originated from.) The drone must have had an advanced on-board computer with near-artificial intelligence. The drone takes advantage of the uplifting air currents and drafts to stay aloft without using up valuable fuel for its prop motor. The drone only turns on its prop engine in order to stay aloft in the air currents.
Far below, a military convoy enters or approaches the city limits. (It was not identified which side the military convoy originated from.) The drone's sensors identified the military vehicles as the enemy. The drone powers on its prop engine to max power and dives towards the convoy. I don't remember if the book review describes any on-board weaponry or if the drone was a flying bomb itself.
The military convoy is not without air defenses. Detecting the diving enemy drone, an anti-aircraft fighting vehicles raises its cannon tube and fires a specialized munition. As the munition approaches the diving drone, it explodes into a bee-like swarm of sharp sub-munitions, possibly flechettes. The drone flies through the cloud of metal and is instantly shredded.

That was all I remember of the book review.

I have searched the Internet in vain all these years for this book. I am certain it must have been published but I do not know the author or the real title. I've Googled, the title, "The Entropy Pump", in vain. It appears the author did not want his book's actual title revealed prematurely, for some reason.

[–] emvan 8 years ago

That story doesn't ring any bells at all, alas. However, there were only a few hundred sf novels published in English in 1985.

Here's a link to a complete list. It doesn't work if you click on it, but if you go into the address bar and go to the end and delete the four weird characters after Title, it will. Or, you can copy it and paste it into the address bar.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/adv_search_results.cgi?USE_1=title_copyright&OPERATOR_1=exact&TERM_1=1985&CONJUNCTION_1=AND&USE_2=title_ttype&OPERATOR_2=exact&TERM_2=NOVEL&CONJUNCTION_2=AND&USE_3=title_language&OPERATOR_3=exact&TERM_3=English&ORDERBY=title_title&START=0&TYPE=Title

Click on titles that sound like they might be appropriate and/or author names that ring any kind of bell, and then you can click on reviews which should mention the plot.

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

[–] jeffyoung1 8 years ago

Hi emvan. Thanks for the info. -Jeff

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]