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[Tore Rye Andersen]

Laura:
 
> If we were all "immachinated" during the Cold War, are we still in that condition following the Cold War? I'd argue that we're not. Does anyone think the Cold War's still on? 
 
I certainly don't think so, but machines come in many guises, and the ICBMs of the Cold War
have been replaced by other machines (e.g. the Tube which plays so prominent a part in Vineland,
not to mention the machine you're all sitting in front of right now), and the immachination
theme in GR also extends to such machines. Think of Father Rapier's sermon on p. 539 of GR:
"Once the technical means of control have reached a certain size, a certain degree of being 
connected one to another, the chances of freedom are over for good." Or think of the very
Matrix-like fantasy on pp. 698-99 of a futuristic Electroworld:
 
"Maybe there is a Machine to take us away, take us completely, suck us out through the 
electrodes out of the skull 'n' into the Machine and live there forever with all the other
souls it's got stored there."
 
The theme of immachination, of the marriage between men and machines, is pervasive in GR,
right from the information on p. 5 that Pirate's "skull feels made of metal" to Gottfried's
final descent, and it is as relevant today as it was in 1973, in the shadow of the Bomb. 
 
/Tore
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