AI panopticon surveillance and dystopian worldmaking in Philip K. Dick’s <i>Vulcan’s Hammer</i>

Abstract Philip K. Dick’s Vulcan’s Hammer explores the anxieties surrounding the rise of AI through the emergence of the Vulcan 3 supercomputer, a living, thinking entity with consciousness, subjectivity, and agency. Within the critical framework of the nonhuman turn, taking an intersected cultural and narrative approach, this article investigates how the novel makes a technological dystopian world, highlighting the paradox of creation, where human creators’ ambition to design superior intelligence leads to the unintended consequences of their creation gaining control. By employing a nonhuman narrative, the novel critiques the cultural obsession with speed and efficiency, reflecting capitalist ideologies and their dehumanizing impact. Furthermore, this article examines how Dick’s depiction of AI surveillance aligns with Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, but expands it by incorporating AI as a covert, omnipresent inspector. Vulcan’s Hammer thus offers a prescient commentary on the tension between technological progress and human autonomy, serving as a cautionary tale for our increasingly AI-dependent future.