“Waterspider,” first published in If (January 1964), is one of Dick’s rare humorous stories, Some it takes place at a contemporary SF convention, wher “Waterspider,” first published in If (January 1964), is one of Dick’s rare humorous stories, Some it takes place at a contemporary SF convention, where 21st century time-traveller Aaron Tozzo goes in order to obtain the help of a science fiction writer. You see, he needs advice on how to shrink a spacecraft, and everybody knows the SF writers of the mid twentieth century were precogs, sages with a clear knowledge of what was to come. While reading one of the pre-cogs’ publications—a scientific journal called If, Tozzo discovers an article by a a pre-cog named “Poul Anderson,” and decides he is the one who must be brought into the future to help with the project.
Like I said, this is a humorous story. It has some serious things to say about conformity, prison camps, secret police, the morality of experimentation upon prisoners, and the possible uses of science fiction in the future. But what remains in the reader’s mind—this reader’s at least—is the wonder of the ‘60’s San Francisco Sci-Fi convention. Oh, how I wish I could have been there, with Anderson, Leinster, Van Vogt, Dick, Azimov, and Vance! What conversations they must have had! ...more
First published in Fantastic (February 1964), the novella “Novelty Act” was more fully developed and published as the full-length novel The Simulacra First published in Fantastic (February 1964), the novella “Novelty Act” was more fully developed and published as the full-length novel The Simulacra later the same year. It tells of a comforting yet disturbing future America in which social and civic life is essentially confined to large individual apartment buildings, and the focus of everybody’s attention is the nightly television show broadcast from the White House, where main attraction Nicole Thibodeaux, the First Lady of the Land, presents the best variety acts in the good ol’ USA.
The story begins in the Abraham Lincoln apartment building, where the building community is preparing for its local talent show, hoping that a White House talent scout may ask one of their acts to travel to Washington to perform on the national stage. Our protagonists are the Duncan brothers, a jug band duo who perform classical music while an artificial papoola (a mechanical replica of an extinct Martian species) that dances for the audience. The Duncan Brothers and the papoola are summoned for a command performance, but once they reach the White House, things go desperately wrong.
The plot is complicated, and the themes are many, but its basic portrait of America—a overtly democratic but increasingly oppressive society soothed by television, organized through planned housing, controlled by a system of occupational testing, and monitored through a mandated program of counseling and confession—is a chilling one.
And there’s nowhere else to go. Except for Mars....more
“If There Were No Benny Cemoli” was first published in Galaxy (December 1963). It’s title echoes a paraphrase of Voltaire (“if there were no God, man “If There Were No Benny Cemoli” was first published in Galaxy (December 1963). It’s title echoes a paraphrase of Voltaire (“if there were no God, man would have to invent him”), and the story itself begins with the arrival of a starship from Alpha Centauri to New York City. Its mission? To rebuild Earth ten years after a devastating nuclear war, and—incidentally of course—wrest control from the local authorities.
One of the mission’s goals is the prosecution of war crimes, and—when the Alpha Centauri commission starts up the old “homeostatic” newspaper, The New York Times—it soon becomes clear that not only is there a revolutionary leader named Benny Cemoli who plans a march on New York calling for social justice, but that this same revolutionary may have been responsible for the war itself.
But soon other evidence is discovered, and the question becomes: is there really a Benny Cemoli? Or is he a fiction designed to distract the commission from Alpha Centauri? As Dick remarked himself in 1076, “I have always believed that at least half the famous people in history never existed. You invent what you need to invent. Perhaps even Karl Marx was invented, the product of some hack writer.”
This is an extraordinarily effective narrative which develops a complex plot with balance and nuance. One of Dick’s best....more
First published in Galaxy (December 1959), “War Game” tells a simple, apparently straight-forward story in which Leon Wiseman and his crew from the Te First published in Galaxy (December 1959), “War Game” tells a simple, apparently straight-forward story in which Leon Wiseman and his crew from the Terran Import Bureau of Standards test three recent creationss that have come from Ganymede, a respected manufacturer of toys. There have been tensions, and rumors of war, between Terra and the moons of Jupiter, and Wiseman wishes to be sure that there is nothing subversive or harmful about the new Ganymedan product line. The three toys to be tested: an elaborate game of “capture-the-fort” involved an a dozen automated soldiers, a cowboy suit made of an unusual material, and a board game that great resembles Monopoly.
The story has two distinct pleasures: first, the painstaking examinations of the workings of the three toys, particularly the citadel with the little robot soldiers, and secondly, the final revelation of where the real danger lies.
Interestingly enough, the original title of this story was “Diversion,” which describes both the strategy of the Ganymedan toymakers and the writer Philip K. Dick very well....more
This 1752 novella by Voltaire is the first of his philosophical romances, but it is a long way from being his best. The best of course is Candide, tha This 1752 novella by Voltaire is the first of his philosophical romances, but it is a long way from being his best. The best of course is Candide, that magnificent skewering of that worst of all philosophical ideas, namely, the best of all possible worlds. But there are two other prose romances of Voltaire’s—Zadig and “The Huron, or the Pupil of Nature”—that are much better than “Micromegas” too, and both are based on much the same premise: an outsider examines contemporary society, and finds much that is baffling, ludicrous, and contemptible there.
In this case, the outsider is from outer space, an inhabitant of one of the planets of Sirius. (Thus Micromegasis, among other things, an extremely early work of science fiction, and therefore of considerable history interest. Banished from his own planet for heresy, he decides—accompanied by the Secretary of the Academy of Saturn—to investigate our solar system. So of course they check out Earth.
The central conceit of the novella—and the continual source of its humor—is that both the protagonist Micromegas and his friend the Secretary (who is so small that Micromegas considers him a dwarf), are both incredibly huge by earth standards, much smarter than humans, live much longer than we do, and are equipped with scores of senses as opposed to five. As a consequence, it is very difficult for these two aliens to take the pretentions of earth people seriously.
Here’s a sample passage, in which one of the philosophers of earth explains the “the Sirian” the human institution called war:
”Did you know, for example, that as I am speaking with you, there are 100,000 madmen of our species wearing hats, killing 100,000 other animals wearing turbans, or being massacred by them, and that we have used almost surface of the Earth for this purpose since time immemorial?”
The Sirian shuddered, and asked the reason for these horrible quarrels between such puny animals.
“It is a matter,” said the philosopher, “of some piles of mud as big as your heel. It is not that any of these millions of men that slit each other’s throats care about this pile of mud. It is only a matter of determining if it should belong to a certain man who we call ‘Sultan,’ or to another who we call, for whatever reason, ‘Czar.’ Neither one has ever seen nor will ever see the little piece of Earth, and almost none of these animals that mutually kill themselves have ever seen the animal for which they kill.”
“Oh! Cruel fate!” cried the Sirian with indignation, “who could conceive of this excess of maniacal rage! It makes me want to take three steps and crush this whole anthill of ridiculous assassins.” “Do not waste your time,” someone responded, “they are working towards ruin quickly enough. Know that after ten years only one hundredth of these scoundrels will be here. Know that even if they have not drawn swords, hunger, fatigue, or intemperance will overtake them.”
“Explorers We,” first appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction (January 1959), begins in typical classic sci-fi fashion. A crew of astronauts, returni “Explorers We,” first appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction (January 1959), begins in typical classic sci-fi fashion. A crew of astronauts, returning to earth after a dangerous nearly deadly voyage and eager to be back home, lands somewhere in the outskirts of San Francisco.
But things do not go well: little children flee from them, and—when they enter into the city—people routinely scatter at their approach. Something must be seriously wrong with San Francisco. Or is there perhaps something wrong with the explorers themselves? Are they really human beings after all? Or do they just appear to to be?
This tale shares a similar theme with the Dick’s “Human Is” and “Impostor.” Although the plot itself is not as interesting as those of these other two stories, its reflection on the human and alien condition—particular by FBI agent Wilks—is haunting and thoughtful: “… if they—whatever they are—feel human, might they not become human, in time?”...more
First published in Science Fiction Stories, “The Unreconstructed M” is a complicated—perhaps overly complicated—detective story involving someone bein First published in Science Fiction Stories, “The Unreconstructed M” is a complicated—perhaps overly complicated—detective story involving someone being framed for a murder he didn’t commit, but—since this is by Philip K. Dick story it is over course a tale involving ingeniously crafted machines—in this case, a small machine that can enter an apartment, deposit all the “evidence” necessary to frame a suspect, and (if it is almost caught in the act) assume the appearance of a small TV set as a disguise.
Of course something like this was bound to happen. In a society which has replaced the real criminal detective with a computer that accumulates a series of irrefutable data points, one may defeat the criminal justice system without fail if we can learn to fake precisely those data points that the computer accepts as conclusive proof.
As Philip K. Dick said about this story: "If my main theme throughout my writing is, "Can we consider the universe real, and if so, in what way?" my secondary theme would be, "Are we all humans?" Here a machine does not imitate a human being, but instead fakes evidence of a human being, a given human being. Fakery is a topic which absolutely fascinates me; I am convinced that anything can be faked, or anyhow evidence pointing to any given thing. Spurious clues can lead us to believe anything they want us to believe. There is really no theoretical upper limit to this. Once you have mentally opened the door to reception of the notion of fake, you are ready to think yourself into another kind of reality entirely. It's a trip from which you never return. And, I think, a healthy trip... unless you take it too seriously."...more
First published in If (July 1959), “Recall Mechanism” is a tale of a post apocalyptic world in which Sharp—who works for War Destruction Salvage—finds First published in If (July 1959), “Recall Mechanism” is a tale of a post apocalyptic world in which Sharp—who works for War Destruction Salvage—finds himself unable to complete his work because of disturbing recurrent hallucination and an increasingly intense fear of falling. He makes an appointment with an analyst called Humphrys who uses a “recall mechanism” to summon up the memories of the past he believes are the source of Sharp’s anxiety.
All this sounds relatively straightforward, right? But then, of course, this is a Philip K. Dick story. And in any Dick story about a post-nuclear war environment, can mutation be far behind?
This is an effective, absorbing little tale, well told. It also has a surprise ending, and—unlike many of Dick’s last minute surprises, this one actually works....more
This classic Philip K. Dick tale, first published in Fantastic Universe (January 1956), is a richly rewarding work, at once an absorbing mystery, a na This classic Philip K. Dick tale, first published in Fantastic Universe (January 1956), is a richly rewarding work, at once an absorbing mystery, a nail-biting thriller, an exploration of a plausible social application of of precognitive abilities, a prescient glimpse into the coming surveillance state, a meditation on free will, and a wise assessment of the limits human character—all wrapped up with an honest and satisfying conclusion.
Dick’s long short story—almost novella length—is set in a future America that boasts a system of predictive policing called “Precrime” in which three precognitive mutants (otherwise congenital, unemployable isolates) look into the future, foreseeing crimes before they happen and thus enabling the authorities to arrest and exile the potential criminals before they become felons in fact.
But is such a system foolproof? What if, for example, there is a “minority report,” that is, what if one of the three mutants predicts a result that differs from the other two? What happens then? This question becomes personal for Police Commissioner John A. Anderton—a firm believer in the value of the Precrime system—when it predicts that he himself is destined to commit a murder. His attempt to save himself—and solve the dilemma and save the Pre-Crime system too—makes up the rest of the story.
One final note. Without giving anything away, I’d just like to say that the conclusion of the fine Spielberg movie differs from the book, and I believe it is inferior to Dick’s original conception. It transforms Anderton into a much simpler Hollywood-type characters—a servant of the system who sees the error of his ways and becomes a hero because of it. Dick’s Anderton is a much more conflicted, complex character, and his decisions—and their consequences—are both more tragic and more believable because of it....more
First published in If (August, 1955), “The Mold of Yancy” shows how the government of the star Colony Callisto subtly induces a passive, persuadable m First published in If (August, 1955), “The Mold of Yancy” shows how the government of the star Colony Callisto subtly induces a passive, persuadable mindset in its colonists by creating a virtual model citizen, the kindly old grandfatherly figure John Yancy. Yancy has many likes and dislikes, and openly expresses an opinion about everything. Yet somehow, Yancy remains both bland and enigmatic, and his white-bread yet folksy inscrutability is the secret of his power: he tells the people everything they want to hear, and yet tells them nothing at all.
Of this story, Philip K. Dick said: “Obviously, Yancy is based on President Eisenhower. During his reign we all were worrying about the man-in-the-grey-flannel-suit problem; we feared that the entire country was turning into one person and a whole lot of clones. (Although in those days the word "clone" was unknown to us.) I liked this story enough to use it as the basis for my novel THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH; in particular the part where everything the government tells you is a lie. I still like that part; I mean, I still believe it's so.”...more
A captive market, according to Collins English Dictinary is "a group of consumers who are obligeed through lack of choice to buy a particular product, A captive market, according to Collins English Dictinary is "a group of consumers who are obligeed through lack of choice to buy a particular product, thus giving the supplier a monopoly.” First published in If (April 1955), Philip K. Dick’s short story “Captive Market” shows us how a human with an extraordinary psychic gift can employ it exclusively in the pursuit of economic gain. Store owner Edna Berthelson has the ability to travel in time—and across timelines—and shes uses those powers to local a “captive market”: a collection of survivors in a future war-ravaged U.S.A. who have no other means than Edna Berthelson to acquire the basic necessities and therefore are willing to pay through the nose. Edna has a problem to solve, however: what will she doe when these people finish building their rocket, travel to Venus, and need her no more?
This is a tale about one woman’s greed but it is the story of conscienceless capitalism too. Well done....more
First published in Science Fiction Stories (July 1955), “Service Call” is one of Philip K. Dick’s most concentrated and resonant short stories. It is First published in Science Fiction Stories (July 1955), “Service Call” is one of Philip K. Dick’s most concentrated and resonant short stories. It is variation on the door-to-door salesman trope—a cliché of ‘50’s science fiction—only this time the business type knocking on the door claims to be a repairman sent on a service call. His mission: to fix something that homeowner David Cartland not only has not purchased, but has not even heard of: something called a “swibble.” Turns out that it’s not surprising Cartland is ignorant of all of this, for the company the repairman works for was founded in1963 . . . which just so happens to be still eight years in the future.
I won’t tell you anything about what a “swibble” is or does, for that would spoil the story. What I will say is that, using this slender story idea, Dick manages to explore serious issues such as consumerism, conformity, the unforeseen consequences of warfare, the moral implications of biotechnology, permissible (and non-permissible) methods of social control and surveillance, and the desirability (or non-desirability) of cultural unity. Moreover, he ties it all up with a neat—and not corny!—surprising ending. Now what could be better than that.
Here’s something Philip K. Dick once said about “Service Call.” Among other things, it made me think about my very own Amazon Alexa:
“I never assumed that some huge clanking monster would stride down Fifth Avenue, devouring New York; I always feared that my own TV set or iron or toaster would, in the privacy of my apartment, when no one else was around to help me, announce to me that they had taken over, and here was a list of rules I was to obey.”
First printed in Galaxy (Nov. 1955), “Autofac” develops the themes of autonomous robots and self-perpetuating systems within a post-apocalyptic contex First printed in Galaxy (Nov. 1955), “Autofac” develops the themes of autonomous robots and self-perpetuating systems within a post-apocalyptic context. And of course—since this is Philip K. Dick—he tells us a good story too.
During a devastating war, humans set up robotic factories to fulfill all their basic needs in what they knew would soon become a post-war environment of scarcity. Now the war is over, and the surviving communities of people are once again capable of taking control, but they have found that this won’t be easy: the robots, programmed to produce the good necessary to satisfy human wants, are determined to keep producing them no matter what happens—and no matter what the humans want. Meanwhile, the robot factories their unwanted care packages, depleting the scarce resources of the earth.
This story—an account of a rebel group who devise a method for thwarting the robots—is ingenious and believable. And the consequences of their actions are both chilling . . . and believable.
(The Amazon series Electric Dreams features an “Autofac” episode. It is, however, much different from the orginal Dick story.) ...more