What’s a ubikcan?

This blog is named after the famous novel by Philip K. Dick, Ubik. The novel features a can of Ubik as shown on the cover (illustrated below).

While it’s clear what a can of Ubik might be, what Ubik is itself is not so clear. A strong clue of course is given on the cover, where the language evokes that of the Bible: “I am.” But it’s doubtful that Ubik is only the I am. Notice that this blog is not named after Ubik itself, but the idea or conceit of a can of Ubik. It’s certainly not a way of saying “I am God” but who knows, it may be a way of saying “I am.”

“I am Ubik.
Before the universe was I am.
I made the suns.
I made the worlds.
I created the lives and the places they inhabit; I move them here, I put them there.
They go as I say, they do as I tell them.
I am the word and my name is never spoken, the name which no one knows.
I am called Ubik but that is not my name.
I am.
I shall always be.”

Which is reemphasized in Dick’s last novel:

“And God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God.”…

The first Hebrew word is anokhi or anochi and it means “I”–as in “I am the Lord thy God.”

…

Another Jewish writer, Hermann Cohen wrote:

God answered him thus: “I am that which I am. So shalt thou say to the children of Israel: “I am” has sent me to you…. the name of God is “I am that which I am.” This signifies that God is Being, that God is the I, which denotes the Existing One.

(From The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, pp. 63-4.)