Drabblecast episode 273, The Electric Ant, by Skeet ScienskiThis episode of the Drabblecast brings you a very special presentation of “The Electric Ant” by the one and only Philip K. Dick!

Garson Poole wakes up after a flying-car-crash to find that he is missing a hand. He then finds out that he is an ‘electric ant’ – an “organic” robot. He further finds out that what he believes is his subjective reality is being fed to him from a micro-punched tape in his chest cavity.

Yeah, it gets weird in perfect Philip K. Dickian fashion!

Story Excerpt:

At four-fifteen in the afternoon, T.S.T., Garson Poole woke up in his hospital bed, knew that he lay in a hospital bed in a three-bed ward and realized in addition two things: that he no longer had a right hand and that he felt no pain.

They had given me a strong analgesic, he said to himself as he stared at the far wall with its window showing downtown New York. Webs in which vehicles and peds darted and wheeled glimmered in the late afternoon sun, and the brilliance of the aging light pleased him. It’s not yet out, he thought. And neither am I…

Without further ado, please enjoy:

Drabblecast # 273 – The Electric Ant