#49 Second Variety- Philip K. Dick
In an alternate Cold War outcome, the earth has been mostly
destroyed by nuclear bombs. Two sides
still battle on “terra” near Normandy, France.
The Americans have designed AI creatures called “claws” that have decimated
the Russian defenses. In a familiar arms race refrains they justify it by:
“If we hadn’t invented them, they would have.”
“It was interesting, the use of artificial forms of warfare.
How had they got started? Necessity.”
We learn that the Claws have started designing their own AI
machines that can’t or don’t care to discern between American or Russian troops,
and will kill any human they find. The first variety is The Wounded Soldier
designed to make real living soldiers open the bunkers for the Claws. The third variety looks like a human child
and is called David Edward Derring (D.E.D or dead). As they wonder what the
missing Second Variety is, the trapped humans turn on each other in a paranoid
state.
There is a lot of Cold War symbolism in this story,
marveling at the chilling effectiveness of the robots, a Russian solder says:
“It only takes one of them. Once the first one gets in it admits the others.
Hundreds of them, all alike…Perfect socialism…the ideal of the communist state.
All citizens interchangeable.” A perfect statement of the communist stereotype
that American’s feared during the “Red Scare.”
There was a nice symbol of the gray lizard that masked
itself as the color of the ash, calling it the “perfect adaptation.” Overall a
good story, extremely predictable now, but I’m sure less so in 1953. It
probably could have been 20 pages shorter.
Notable Passage: “Your creations are your greatest
achievements.”
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