I just read through this thread, not carefully mind you, and was surprised how popular this album is with the fans here.  I thought there would be more "if they had only..." povs, but generally there is strong, if qualified support.  This is a great album in my opinion, and is in many ways the apex of Kilby's decadent period.  I love the science fiction movie for which this provides the soundtrack.  One of the earlier comments referred to Philip K Dick, and I heartily concur, in how the theme of alienation is expressed in many forms. The future is dystopian, but superficially pleasant.  What is real, or human becomes an elusive quest, as technological perfection masks and mimics the beauty and ugliness of existence.  Dick wrote about drugs quite a bit as well, and I don't think you can remove that vibe from GAF; they are a refuge and a barrier to clear perception.  In this kind of world, however, clear perception may induce madness.

Another writer that comes to mind, not only on SK's songs at this period, but throughout the entire arc, is Paul Bowles.  They both have the sensation of being outside conventional experience, of being distant strangers first and foremost, whether at home or abroad.  The desolate deserts and poisonous jungles that Bowles' protagonists wander off into offer the same timeless doom and ecstasy that Kilby finds in his sonic voyages.  The derangement of the senses is a logical response to the inexplicable or impossibly foreign, yet remaining in the mundane world is ultimately more horrific than the danger and isolation of being forever outside of it, so derangement it shall be.