Ergo Proxy

I just finished watching the first episode of Ergo Proxy, and already want to highly recommend it to all anime fans -- particularly Carter and Dog.

Ergo Proxy is set in a futuristic utopian society, whose androids are being infected by the Cogito Virus, symptoms including an interest in prayer.

As I said, I've only watched one episode, but it's already made references to Turing, Michelangelo, and at least four philosophers (references I wouldn't have understood without the notes at the end of the episode).

One of the philosophers, George Berkeley, I'm going to have to learn more about. The notes at the end of the episode describe him as having advanced the notion of "subjective idealism," which he summarizes as Esse est percipi (To Be Is To Be Perceived).

That particular phrase might just end up getting tattoo'd on me somewhere, or possibly just embroidered on my clothing.

Ergo Proxy, more

More referential tidbits from watching Ergo Proxy.

"Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967) is celebrated as the father of modern science fiction. His novel, Ralph 124C41+: A Romance of the Year 2660, is considered to be the first pure work of science fiction."

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Gernsback :

"The Science Fiction Achievement award, given to various works each year by vote of the members of the World Science Fiction Society, is named the "Hugo" after him. He was one of 1996's inaugural inductees into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Before creating a literary genre, Gernsback was an entrepreneur in the electronics industry...."

That last sentence, right there. The opening phrase. Gods, what a legacy, what a memorial. "Before creating a literary genre." This is the sort of thing I always wished I pursued on my own, I've always wanted to be the sort of person who digs into ideas like that, simple questions like "why is it called the Hugo, anyway?"

I think, at it's heart, this was the reason I first fell in love with (f)AD. She has always been exactly that sort of person.

I've watched far too much TV in the last few days. In particular, I watched Clerks 2, which was depressingly bad. I mention this because the plot of the movie, however poorly executed, is a striking contrast to discovering the name Hugo Gernsback.

These thoughts have led to the notice of the following wiki pages, which may be of interest to others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Bester (author I've read, but I've not explored his personal biography before)

There's a particularly relevant question asked in Bester's work, The Demolished Man, which the wiki article asks with a clarity I had not attained. "Do we blame the man for breaking the law or do we blame the man for the law he broke?"