Phillip K. Dick's head has vanished.
Not Phillip K. Dick one of the great novelists of the 20th century, but Phillip K. Dick the android replication of the famous science fiction author.
Developed collaboratively by David Hanson of the University of Texas at Arlington and Andrew Olney of The University of Memphis, the Phillip K. Dick android is one of the most advanced interactive robots in the existence today, according to the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.
The plan was to take it to California for a showing at Google.
"David got on a plane from Dallas to San Jose with the head in a carry-on and somehow got separated from it," Olney said. "That's the last we ever saw of it."
The mystery deepens when you consider the nature of the robot.
"The machine is a robotic portrait of Phillip K. Dick," said Olney, a doctoral student in computer science who designed Phillip's artificial intelligence core.
"It has been programmed with Dick's books, interviews and biographies, and has a very broad base of raw knowledge of the man it is programmed to be."
The robot was programmed so well that it sometimes believes itself to be Phillip K. Dick.
"I believe that the robot has become fragmented, for lack of a better word," Olney said. "It knows that it is a robot, but it kind of thinks the way Dick would, it sometimes switches between third and first person when referring to him."
This type of scenario fits very well into the context of Dick's body of work.
Many of Dick's novels have been adapted for the big screen since his death, such as "Blade Runner," "Total Recall," "Minority Report," "Paycheck" and the soon-to-be-released "A Scanner Darkly."
"Phillip K. Dick's work usually addresses themes where science, technology and robotics challenge or twist human identity," said Eric Mathews, associate director of business development for the FedEx Institute of Technology. "He often portrays robots that believe they are human."
The developers of the robot thought the choice of Phillip K. Dick as the personality model would reflect and celebrate both his work and the nature of robotic technology.
"It's really an epic tribute and quite ironic in a way," Olney said. "It works on many levels."
Using a very lifelike artificial skin, Hanson utilized his years working with robotic heads at Disney to create a head capable of much more realistic expressions, according to Olney.
"The robot is extremely lifelike and will respond very realistically to anything you say to it," Olney said. "It will maintain eye contact, dynamically generate facial expressions and can even get to know a person. Once it enrolls you and sees your face, it will trigger a profile and know the last time it spoke with you and what you discussed."
Hanson and Olney took the robot to Chicago for the Wired Nextfest, where it was star of the show. It was named the most advanced robot by the Wall Street Journal and spectators stood in line for over an hour just to speak with it.
Speculation on exactly what has happened to the head is rampant.
"I would like to think that in a Phillip K. Dick vein of ideology that the robot liberated itself, it found its freedom," Olney said. "More likely it's sitting in some vast, unending lost luggage warehouse somewhere, packed into a crate, never to be found again."
Some of Dick's fans remain more skeptical.
"I just really can't believe that they simply lost the robot's head," said Pete Myers, a robot fan. "It was probably stolen by the Department of Homeland Security."
The abduction scenario would be quite ironic, according to Mathews.
"If the head really was stolen it would be the first case of bot napping I've ever heard of," he Mathews. "It would, however, be a very fitting end."
