"The pen is mightier than the sword."
Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, Richelieu, II. ii
Home Through the years we received several passionate, thoughtful letters from visitors challenging some aspects of the Phrenicea scenario.

Because the primary function of the Phrenicea website is to stimulate thought and discussion about the future as well as the present — we WELCOME contrary viewpoints. It is not our intention to persuade, but to stimulate thought and discussion. Here are shining examples of our success:

K.L. writes:
YOU ARE NUTS! But then you knew that before I typed this.
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How's that for setting the tone?!


"ThePreacher" on AntiOnline writes:
@%$&!* Phrenicea!!!!! It sounds worse than my visions of hell.

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Perhaps that means we're hot?


"Humbug" on StumbleUpon writes:
What a crock!
If this is supposed to be humor, it's lost on me.

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Bah, humbug!


Darryl writes:
I'm still trying to figure out whether your site is a joke for entertainment purposes or is an actual attempt at predicting a plausible future. If the former assumption is correct, then you've done a great job!

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Ouch!


"Loach" writes:
Well any future that bans live pets would suck completely....count me out :(

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OK :(


D.R. writes:
WHO WROTE THIS SCARY #$*% ?

WHAT YOU ARE PROPOSING IS THAT A COLLECTIVE GROUP OF MORONS TAKES CONTROL OF THE REST OF THE MORONS. I HOPE THIS FANTASY IS WRONG ABOUT THE WAY THE 21st CENTURY UNFOLDS!

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Well, we won't argue that some aspects of the Phrenicea scenario are scary. The world has been — and is now — a scary place.

For example, there are efforts underway by researchers to simulate the human brain with computer technology. Also, now that the human genome has been mapped, biologists — flush with success, are toying with the creation of new life forms from scratch, using basic DNA building blocks. And of course there's the technological empowerment of the individual.

These are scary developments, likely to take us "where no one has gone before." The Phrenicea scenario may or may not be accurate. Whether we're right or wrong will only be determined with the passage of time. However, if we have piqued your interest in what is going on now and where things might lead, then we have approached our goal.


R.S. writes:
While your website is interesting and entertaining there are a couple of fundamental flaws.

Your logic is good but I don't agree with your conclusions.

I for one have no desire to eat a nutritious glop for three meals a day. I like flavor. I like texture. I like different and new foods. We now have artificial foods that mimic flavor and texture of certain foods. These were developed in order to provide people with healthier or cheaper equivalents. I've noticed that the market for the real foods in these cases has not declined.

I for one am not going to give up sex. Once again, there's nothing like the real thing. And by the way, people have been prophesying for at least 40 years that marriage and the traditional family is going away. I don't foresee that happening ever, certainly not in the next 40 years. People who make such predictions don't understand marriage.

Many of your conclusions assume that everyone will have the same wants and feelings. That is just not so. There are lots of folks who never tire of seeing what's around the next bend. Not knowing, wanting to see major motivators in the advertising industry. Mitsubishi says "Wake up and drive!" You say driving is too dangerous, go back to sleep. I don't think so. In Europe, public transportation is so developed in some countries that no person is more than a 5-minute walk removed. They pay over $2 a gallon for gas, have to turn their engines off at certain intersections, and still a significant majority drive enthusiastically. I think the future will hold more in the way of built-in automotive safety controls like proximity sensors and smart roads than abolishing private conveyances.

For almost every conceivable problem we have in the world today there are people thinking about and working on solutions. I believe the solutions that survive will be palatable and marketable. I don't believe that any government which steps in and makes life unbearable will survive.

That's all I have time for now...
rs

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Excellent letter indeed. Why not put in your "Two Cents"!


Brian R. (Cosmo) writes:
I was happily amazed at the subtle references in the Phrenicea scenario that point to many of today's problems. I think much of the negative emails received at Phrenicea are based mostly on fear. Most people avoid the truth because it is ugly and unpleasant. We willingly choose to be ignorant. The focus of Phrenicea is to break down this cultural and sociological "wall" that shelters us from the truth. Let's break down that wall and create another destiny.

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Hey! How did this one get in here? Quick! Find the webmaster...!


"heralias" on StumbleUpon writes:
Ok...I kinda DON'T like this site...but I kinda doooo...???

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Well, at least you're still "on the fence"!


J.J.P. writes:
Sirs:
What an absolute load of Dystopic [sic] nonsense! It is a pity that your "Phrenicea" site will be completely forgotten rather than become the proper target of ridicule by the time its "predictions" are supposed to take place. Though, that places far more importance on what you say than it merits.

I think whomever put this together should watch less TV and read much
What a waste of bandwidth by all of us!
more, preferably novels and not "books of information" (re: C. S. Lewis- do you even know who he was?). Also, you should stop watching the movie "The Matrix" over and over and over and over again. Your limited imagination (fixated as it is on your biologically improbable Phrenicea brain computer) was completely trapped by what you saw in that film.

Though I admit I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, the glop food thing was proof of this. I was also reminded of the pills that in the early- to mid-part of the 20th century that were supposed to replace all normal food. The Three Stooges properly ridiculed that biologically unsound idea in at least one of their short features.

What an absolute load of self important, derivative drivel on your site.

Your reply to someone as foolish as I am to waste time to offer a
What an absolute load of self important, derivative drivel.
critique of your "vision" was simply hilarious when you prattled on about how your predictions are consistent with the laws of nature and Mr. atomic space ship guy was not. However I was taken aback in horror by your response that suggests that you REALLY do believe your predictions will come to pass. Whoa, take a pill dudes!

About the only prediction you made that I think will happen is that many of our 20th century popular composers will be considered classical geniuses. After all, this exactly happened to the Strauss brothers. And any fool can see that Mozart in his time had far more in common with Prince in our time, than have either with the sterile drones of "modern classical music." Tough call that! I give you half points on the music prediction.

What a waste of bandwidth by all of us!
jjp

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The fact that we instigated such a passionate email is proof that this is NOT "a waste of bandwidth."

So, what's your "Two Cents"!

The Future — It's All In Your Head! ®


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