Week Ten: The Fiction of Ideas

      For this week, I wanted to take a look back at a short story I had to read last semester because I feel it is relevant. Second Variety by Philip K. Dick is a story about a future landscape that has been overrun by killer robots that have become so advanced it is hard to tell them apart from people. This story was written during the 50's, and the Cold War was going strong. People feared nuclear technology and everything that had to do with it. It brought forth intense questions such as the worth of such weapons and if we can properly control them.


    The narrative of this story in incredibly strait forward (and a bit clique at this point) but I think it really does personify the situation modern Sci-fi was born under. It portrays a bleak future or post apocalyptic look inspired by modern technology. People also really didn't understand the after-effects of nuclear technology and how the radiation affected people. This story plays on those fears about senseless violence to create a compelling look at what our future could be. It is possible to control such a dangerous invention, or will it be our doom?

   This story also explore human nature in how it uses empathy as a weapon and the violent after effects of our wars. It ends on a chilling note talking about how the machines already started to build machines to destroy each other. I think this especially works well when one thinks about how many of our weapons today are designed. Automatic assault rifles are not created to use when hunting food or protecting oneself. They are designed for one purpose: to take human life. It's really scary to think about why we need these weapons at all if we hope for future peace, let alone make them readily available on the gun market for everyday use. Humankind has really not changed much in the past 50 years (or 5000 years for that matter). We are still the same war hungry animals we alway were but not we have fancier toys, and this story really brings that point across.