Abstract: ‘Ancient instincts, modern hardware: the vestigiality of paranoia and its reanimation in the context of modern medical surveillance technics’
Paranoia, said Philip K Dick, is “a modern-day development of an ancient, archaic sense...a lingering sense that we had long ago, when we were...very vulnerable to predators…” Reflecting on Dick's theory, this paper offers a psycho-ontological interpretation of paranoia in which bio-organic and medical surveillance technics are themselves 'paranoiacally' understood (or surveyed) as predatory.


