Name: Second Variety
ISBN: 9781723838439

Second Variety

"Second Variety" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Space Science Fiction magazine, in May 1953. A nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the West has reduced much of the world to a barren wasteland. The war continues, however, among the scattered remains of humanity. The Western forces have developed "claws", which are autonomous self-replicating robots to fight on their side. It is one of Dick's many stories in which nuclear war has rendered the Earth's surface uninhabitable. The story was adapted into the movie Screamers in 1995.

What Hacker News says

TeeverMay 2023

Dick also wrote the fantastic short story 'Second Variety'[0] which has a similar theme, but involves autonomous, self-replicating robots that serve as a sort of intelligent mine field that separates warring factions on a the moon or an alien planet in the 1995 movie with the same name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Variety

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stevenwooOct 2022

The writer talks about Ubik but does not mention the pervasiveness of corporate power/role in the daily life described (at least from my interpretation), this is well portrayed in Total Recall, also based on a Philip K. Dick story which varies enough from the movie to be read as separate work.

Short story not mentioned but is worth reading if one has not, Second Variety.

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pmoriartyOct 2022

"Short story not mentioned but is worth reading if one has not, Second Variety."

The movie The Terminator has some similarities to Second Variety, and I wouldn't be surprised if the movie was somewhat influenced by the story.

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anigbrowlOct 2022

Ubik is hard, I'm rather surprised this writer recommended it as she did. I always suggest people just start out with short story collections to get used to his weirdness and the various sci-fi tropes he reuses a lot (eg 'homeopapes' that printed newspapers on demand). Pick a collection that includes Second Variety.

Flow my Tears is probably his most accessible novel. Do Androids Dream is very disorienting if you were expecting a novelization of Blade Runner and that probably puts a lot of people off him.

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stevenwooSep 2021

old but good short stories The Defenders by Philip K. Dick a different take - Second Variety by Philip K. Dick.

Not totally omniscient AI but running large ships and space stations - Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie

AIs with personality running almost every machine and helping rule the empire in the Culture series by Iain Banks.

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dugditchesMay 2017

"Second Variety"(short story, worth a quick read) by Philip K. Dick was adapted into a film called 'Screamers'.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32032/32032-h/32032-h.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screamers_(1995_film)

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