I remember reading this book as a kid about a post-apocalyptic world. In it, people found relief from these machines that would inject them with some sort of drug. The drug would cause them to have intense visualizations of whatever they wanted to see and they got to feel that experience for a limited time. Of course, it wouldn’t last so people got addicted and wasted away.
It was an intense read for me at the time. I can’t remember the name of the book and I’d love to read it again. There was something about a utopian city that the kid in the book was trying to get to, if that helps anyone identify it.
Nobody around here reads anymore. Why bother, when you can just shoot all the images and excitement straight into your brain? I’ve heard of books, but they were long before I was born, in the backtimes before the Big Shake…
“So how did they end up being defeated?”
“Well, we pacified them by giving them the love and affection that they refused to give each other.”
“Wait really?”
“Yes, the majority were so starved for an emotional connection that they preferred us.”
“Where are they now?”
“The majority are withering away in VR warehouses, living ‘happily ever after’.”
I remember reading this book as a kid about a post-apocalyptic world. In it, people found relief from these machines that would inject them with some sort of drug. The drug would cause them to have intense visualizations of whatever they wanted to see and they got to feel that experience for a limited time. Of course, it wouldn’t last so people got addicted and wasted away.
It was an intense read for me at the time. I can’t remember the name of the book and I’d love to read it again. There was something about a utopian city that the kid in the book was trying to get to, if that helps anyone identify it.
I found it! It’s called The Last Book in the Universe. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/924194.The_Last_Book_in_the_Universe
This is the line that grabbed me.
This is also the premise of the drug Tek in William Shatner’s TekWar series.
They’re–well, they’re novels.