In the future, the "Minimax Game" runs society. New mind technologies are used to take randomization stategies to previously unsuspected heights, in order to get an edge in the Game.

Explicit mentions are made of game theory and von Neumann. Dick views game theory (and von Neumann!) as inherently ominous and dangerous, going so far as to include a preliminary note to the reader citing von Neumann's appointment to the Atomic Energy Commission as cause for alarm. The modern reader may want to laugh this off as a bizarre strand of Dick's paranoia, but at the time von Neumann was urging, based on 2x2 games, a first strike against the Soviets.