His world is under observation
We monitor his station
Under faces and the places
Where he traces points of view
Okat, that clearly means that people watch him, what he knows and does and all that. And that he listens to other people and how they think and he tries to fit in the company.
He picks up scraps of conversation
Radio and radiation
From the dancers and romancers
With the answers but no clue
That is that he listens to what people say in Radio and Television (Radiation). Dancers and romancers is clearly meaning movies, he listens what people say in Television, Radio and movies and he takes these things and tells them to other as his own. With the answer but no clue must be something about knowing things, but doesen't know what those things are based on.
He'd love to spend the night in Zion
He's been a long while in Babylon
He'd like a lover's wings to fly on
To a tropic isle of Avalon
That whole verse mean he would want to stop gathering the endless information and take some time off in a really nice place.
His world is under anesthetic
Subdivided and synthetic
His reliance on the giants
In the science of the day
That means he is clearly starting to chance in to something whole different and he just listens to scientist telling about science.
He picks up scraps of information ---
He's adept at adaptation
'Cause for strangers and arrangers
Constant change is here to stay
Now he has changed. He adpats from adaptions. 'Cause for strangers and arrangers, that's something i haven't really figured out.
He's got a force field and a flexible plan
He's got a date with fate in a black sedan
He plays fast forward for as long as he can
But he won't need a bed ---
He's a digital man
Now everything he does is pre-palnned, all the social life goes by with "Fast forward" to get back to gather the info. He won't need a bed 'cause he just became a Digital Man.
Or this all could just tell about some supernatural Digital Man. A reason to love lyrics by Neil Peart is that they always mean more than what you can see.
SUMMARY: Guy with no life at all...