The Electric Ant
| Written by: | Philip K. Dick |
|---|---|
| Central Theme: | What is reality? |
| Synopsis: | |
| First published: | October 1969 |
"The Electric Ant" is a short story by Philip K. Dick, originally published in the October 1969 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine.
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.
Tropes used in The Electric Ant include:
- Bittersweet Ending: When Poole cuts his "reality tape", he does indeed get to experience everything at once, but it also kills him. Only then is it implied that Sarah is, in fact, not real; after he dies, she and her surroundings fade away.
- Fictional Currency: They spend "frogs" now.
- 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.
- No Antagonist: The conflict consists mainly of Poole trying to decide what to do now that he knows what he is. The other characters don't exactly have his best interests in mind, but they don't directly clash with him much.
- Oppressive States of America: Implied briefly by a line about the government shutting down independent TV channels. The treatment of the robots isn't that great either.
- 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. He's even partly made of real flesh and blood.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Poole finding out he's a robot, though it's fairly early on and most of the story comes afterward.
- Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Maybe. The actual time period is never stated.
- Video Phone: Everyone seems to use these instead of the other kind. They're called "fones".
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: A secondary 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.
- Zeerust: Robots run on rolls of futuristic punched tape.