A Scanner Darkly

Dick’s fictional brain monitoring device allows users to see their own brainwave patterns. It is a recreational device, and Arctor and his roommates use it to unwind and destress while stoned. It is a crucial part of their routine, apparently, because Arctor devotes a good deal of time and energy trying to figure out who damaged it and if it can be repaired. In terms of personal value, he places it almost on par with his car (in fact, it is his second most valuable possession). Both, it seems, are necessary for survival in the user’s world.

The drug agency’s scramble suits use tiny mirrors to reflect projected images around the wearer’s body at a rapid pace. The effect is to blur the person’s identity to the outside world. The suits are used to mask agents’ identities from each other (ostensibly for protection). They also serve a larger narrative purpose—they are the physical embodiment of Dick’s theme of Loss of Identity. When Arctor can’t see—or know—his coworkers, he begins to question how he is perceived and how he perceives the world. These questions lead him down a rabbit hole of self-doubt and identity confusion.