The Electric Ant

The Electric Ant is a short story by Philip K. Dick. Garson Poole, the owner of Tri-Plan Electronics, wakes up in the hospital missing his right hand after losing it in an accident while flying his "mercantile squib". In this future it's apparently possible to graft on new hands, but the doctor tells him they can't do it here because he's an "electric ant" -- an "organic" robot with flesh covering the electronic components. This revelation is understandably disturbing, and after that point things get pretty weird.


 * Androids Are People, Too: One theme of the story. Judging by Poole's behavior, electric ants are just as much "people" as anyone else, but they are often owned by humans and used for various purposes without their knowledge.
 * Flying Car: The squibs, which appear to have replaced regular cars.
 * Future Slang: As well as the titular "electric ants", "going splunkishly" apparently means going well, and science fiction TV shows are called "captain kirks". "Robot" is often shortened to "roby".
 * It Is Dehumanizing: At the end when the POV switches to Sarah, she and Danceman refer to Poole as "it" in their conversation and her internal monologue. Their apparent lack of care for him at this point is slightly jarring given that earlier in the story their behavior implies that they do value him as a person.
 * Ridiculously-Human Robots: Poole is such a convincing mimicry of a human that he can drink and smoke and had no idea he was a robot until he was told.
 * Tomato in the Mirror: Poole finding out he's a robot, though it's fairly early on and most of the story comes afterward.
 * Video Phone: Everyone seems to use these instead of the other kind. They're called "fones".
 * Zeerust: Robots run on rolls of futuristic punched tape.