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The Electric Ant
The Electric Ant is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. First published in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine in October 1969.
In 2010 Marvel Comics adapted "The Electric Ant" as a limited series. The comic books were produced by writer David Mack (Daredevil) and French artist Pascal Alixe (Ultimate X-Men), with covers provided by artist Paul Pope (THB).
In 2010 Marvel Comics adapted "The Electric Ant" as a limited series. The comic books were produced by writer David Mack (Daredevil) and French artist Pascal Alixe (Ultimate X-Men), with covers provided by artist Paul Pope (THB).
15 pages
Published October 1, 1969
2 people are currently reading
169 people want to read
About the author
Philip K. Dick
2,018 books22.6k followersPhilip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction author whose work has had a lasting impact on literature, cinema, and popular culture. Known for his imaginative narratives and profound philosophical themes, Dick explored the nature of reality, the boundaries of human identity, and the impact of technology and authoritarianism on society. His stories often blurred the line between the real and the artificial, challenging readers to question their perceptions and beliefs.
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a
Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existential and psychological inquiry. Over his career, he authored 44 novels and more than 100 short stories, many of which have become classics in the field.
Recurring themes in Dick's work include alternate realities, simulations, corporate and government control, mental illness, and the nature of consciousness. His protagonists are frequently everyday individuals—often paranoid, uncertain, or troubled—caught in surreal and often dangerous circumstances that force them to question their environment and themselves. Works such as Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, and A Scanner Darkly reflect his fascination with perception and altered states of consciousness, often drawing from his own experiences with mental health struggles and drug use.
One of Dick’s most influential novels is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which served as the basis for Ridley Scott’s iconic film Blade Runner. The novel deals with the distinction between humans and artificial beings and asks profound questions about empathy, identity, and what it means to be alive. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Man in the High Castle, each reflecting key elements of his storytelling—uncertain realities, oppressive systems, and the search for truth. These adaptations have introduced his complex ideas to audiences well beyond the traditional readership of science fiction.
In the 1970s, Dick underwent a series of visionary and mystical experiences that had a significant influence on his later writings. He described receiving profound knowledge from an external, possibly divine, source and documented these events extensively in what became known as The Exegesis, a massive and often fragmented journal. These experiences inspired his later novels, most notably the VALIS trilogy, which mixes autobiography, theology, and metaphysics in a narrative that defies conventional structure and genre boundaries.
Throughout his life, Dick faced financial instability, health issues, and periods of personal turmoil, yet he remained a dedicated and relentless writer. Despite limited commercial success during his lifetime, his reputation grew steadily, and he came to be regarded as one of the most original voices in speculative fiction. His work has been celebrated for its ability to fuse philosophical depth with gripping storytelling and has influenced not only science fiction writers but also philosophers, filmmakers, and futurists.
Dick’s legacy continues to thrive in both literary and cinematic spheres. The themes he explored remain urgently relevant in the modern world, particularly as technology increasingly intersects with human identity and governance. The Philip K. Dick Award, named in his honor, is presented annually to distinguished works of science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. His writings have also inspired television series, academic studies, and countless homages across media.
Through his vivid imagination and unflinching inquiry into the nature of existence, Philip K. Dick redefined what science fiction could achieve. His work continues to challenge and inspire, offering timeless insights into the human condition a
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 18, 2022
Another devastating short story by the brilliant and unique Philip K Dick. In this one, a Mr. Poole finds out that he is actually a robot, after losing his hand in an accident.
The discovery fills Mr.Poole with suicidal thoughts. He also suspects his reality is not real and that it's created by a device in his chest cavity. An intelligent robot, Mr. Poole tampers with the device and finds out that his suspicions are true. I won't spoil the ending. But there is a short and shocking aftermath in which Mr.Poole's mistress who thinks of herself as real is in for a rather nasty surprise.
The Electric Ant is only 15 pages long. But damn it's so clever and melancholic without using any flowery language. It's a bit rough with it's lack of character development and gets technical in the middle. But the ending is worthy of Shyamalan. What am I even saying? I bet that hack also stole from PKD.
The discovery fills Mr.Poole with suicidal thoughts. He also suspects his reality is not real and that it's created by a device in his chest cavity. An intelligent robot, Mr. Poole tampers with the device and finds out that his suspicions are true. I won't spoil the ending. But there is a short and shocking aftermath in which Mr.Poole's mistress who thinks of herself as real is in for a rather nasty surprise.
The Electric Ant is only 15 pages long. But damn it's so clever and melancholic without using any flowery language. It's a bit rough with it's lack of character development and gets technical in the middle. But the ending is worthy of Shyamalan. What am I even saying? I bet that hack also stole from PKD.
June 26, 2020
“An inanimate object mimicking an animate one.”
What a suggestive title! Before reading The Electric Ant, a short story PKD published in Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1968, I was expecting something along the line of tiny artificial insects being constructed with a view to spying on people or as “intelligent” bombs (if a bomb can ever be intelligent). Instead, I got a highly philosophical story, which, for all its brevity, centres on two topics – one, the essence of being human, and second, the question how our perception of the world around us may be the result of some programming.
After an accident in which he loses his hand, the successful businessman Garson Poole awakes to the fact that he is no human being, but an android, or, as they call it, an “electric ant”. The company he is running is not actually his own but the property of a married couple who uses him as a figurehead, a stand-in, feeding Poole’s partner Danceman with commands that Danceman cleverly gets Poole to accept as his own ideas. When he comes to realize this sobering truth, Poole sets out on a journey into the land of perception by starting to experiment with the reality tape inside him – a device that is responsible for the way he conceives the world around him. The possibilities unfolding before him appear to be endless because after all, his android brain is much more capable of dealing with impressions and information than a human one, but is there not also the danger of destroying reality as such?
Dick already dealt with a similar idea in his short story The World She Wanted, and frankly speaking, there was another detail that intrigued me much more: Imagine one day, you suddenly realized that all your assumptions about who you are, what place you hold in the world are blatantly erroneous and you had to re-define yourself from scratch! Poole has always considered himself an autonomous individual; in fact from his status as a successful businessman, he was entitled to draw the conclusion that he was a person of independence, someone who even had other people at his command, and now he comes to realize that he is actually owned by people he has never seen, that he is a highly developed machine, but still a machine, programmed to work and perceive and think in certain ways. On a philosophical level, this scenario may make us doubt whether we humans are not also biological machines, at the mercy of the electric and chemical processes taking place in our bodies and making us think and feel and act in certain ways. An extremely sad thought, in a humiliating sort of way.
However, we needn’t go into the depths of philosophy to find this story hauntingly depressing because we might also consider ourselves ants on a more social level. Poole finds out that he is actually something that is the property of other people, something that they can use and make function at their own will, never mind that all the while he has had the impression of taking his own decisions. Even his partner, allegedly in a slightly inferior position, now turns out to be part of the plot and to have functioned as some kind of prompter to induce him to act the way he was expected. In fact, Poole is owned by the system in which he runs, by the duties he has, the desires and dreams he cherishes and the position he occupies, and in all this, he is something that other people profit from. The term “electric ant” is probably a mixture of “electric” and “ᾰ̓νδρός” (the genitive of the old Grecian word for “man”), a rather roundabout way of expressing a flat truth, but then the play on “ant” is brilliant because is modern society not making ants of us in a way? Are we not more or less satisfied with fulfilling our respective roles, trusting in the government, or supernational organizations, to sort it all out for us as long as we play our part? We may be extremely hedonistic and shopping-mad ants, but that makes us ants none the less, contently plodding along the ant trail that we call our lives.
What a suggestive title! Before reading The Electric Ant, a short story PKD published in Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1968, I was expecting something along the line of tiny artificial insects being constructed with a view to spying on people or as “intelligent” bombs (if a bomb can ever be intelligent). Instead, I got a highly philosophical story, which, for all its brevity, centres on two topics – one, the essence of being human, and second, the question how our perception of the world around us may be the result of some programming.
After an accident in which he loses his hand, the successful businessman Garson Poole awakes to the fact that he is no human being, but an android, or, as they call it, an “electric ant”. The company he is running is not actually his own but the property of a married couple who uses him as a figurehead, a stand-in, feeding Poole’s partner Danceman with commands that Danceman cleverly gets Poole to accept as his own ideas. When he comes to realize this sobering truth, Poole sets out on a journey into the land of perception by starting to experiment with the reality tape inside him – a device that is responsible for the way he conceives the world around him. The possibilities unfolding before him appear to be endless because after all, his android brain is much more capable of dealing with impressions and information than a human one, but is there not also the danger of destroying reality as such?
Dick already dealt with a similar idea in his short story The World She Wanted, and frankly speaking, there was another detail that intrigued me much more: Imagine one day, you suddenly realized that all your assumptions about who you are, what place you hold in the world are blatantly erroneous and you had to re-define yourself from scratch! Poole has always considered himself an autonomous individual; in fact from his status as a successful businessman, he was entitled to draw the conclusion that he was a person of independence, someone who even had other people at his command, and now he comes to realize that he is actually owned by people he has never seen, that he is a highly developed machine, but still a machine, programmed to work and perceive and think in certain ways. On a philosophical level, this scenario may make us doubt whether we humans are not also biological machines, at the mercy of the electric and chemical processes taking place in our bodies and making us think and feel and act in certain ways. An extremely sad thought, in a humiliating sort of way.
However, we needn’t go into the depths of philosophy to find this story hauntingly depressing because we might also consider ourselves ants on a more social level. Poole finds out that he is actually something that is the property of other people, something that they can use and make function at their own will, never mind that all the while he has had the impression of taking his own decisions. Even his partner, allegedly in a slightly inferior position, now turns out to be part of the plot and to have functioned as some kind of prompter to induce him to act the way he was expected. In fact, Poole is owned by the system in which he runs, by the duties he has, the desires and dreams he cherishes and the position he occupies, and in all this, he is something that other people profit from. The term “electric ant” is probably a mixture of “electric” and “ᾰ̓νδρός” (the genitive of the old Grecian word for “man”), a rather roundabout way of expressing a flat truth, but then the play on “ant” is brilliant because is modern society not making ants of us in a way? Are we not more or less satisfied with fulfilling our respective roles, trusting in the government, or supernational organizations, to sort it all out for us as long as we play our part? We may be extremely hedonistic and shopping-mad ants, but that makes us ants none the less, contently plodding along the ant trail that we call our lives.
October 20, 2021
I love these kinds of stories that question what it means to be or not to be human; this short story theme reminded me a lot of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Measure of a Man, one of my faves!
February 1, 2020
Without words... Such a terrifying and dramatic story. His theme of unstable subjective perceptions of realities is overwhelming in this one. He explained it as 'How much of reality is actually out there or rather within our own head?'
What are our reality tapes hiding from us? Do we even exist in other people's reality tapes?
Do we even exist at all?
What are our reality tapes hiding from us? Do we even exist in other people's reality tapes?
Do we even exist at all?
November 24, 2018
To be honest, I thought it would end up that he would get turned back on or something else stupid. The fact that it ended the way it did is... interesting. Taking the question of "how do we know that reality exists when we aren't looking?" to one of its logical conclusions... with science!
January 9, 2019
Interesante reflexión sobre nuestra realidad y cómo la concebimos
May 16, 2020
Un relato que me sigue fascinando casi tanto como la primera vez que lo leí.
¿Dónde existimos? ¿Existimos en el universo o es el universo el que existe dentro de nosotros?
¿Dónde existimos? ¿Existimos en el universo o es el universo el que existe dentro de nosotros?
December 11, 2017
“The Electric Ant” (1969)
Similar to 'Imposter' in that the protagonist discovers (in this case in the opening sequences) that he is in fact not human but a robot.
Frightening end, rushing wind, the sound of emptiness and the final fate of the world itself.****
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. He experiments on this tape by adding new holes, which adds things to his reality. Convinced that his entire reality is constrained by the tape, he makes a major change to it, with a major effect on his reality. The change affects everyone else he interacts with, which raises the question of whether any of them – or he himself – are "real" at all.
- - -
An 'Electric Ant' is an 'organic robot'.
- - -
“I'm a freak, he realized. An inanimate object mimicking an animate one. But – he felt alive. Yet … he felt differently, now. About himself. Hence about everyone ...”
“I am not free. I never was, but now I know it; that makes it different.”
- - -
* encephalic = relating to, affecting, or situated in the brain.
- - -
[This was published in 1969. The character and story is happening on November 4, 1992. A quarter of a century to the exact date later I'm reading it.]
- - -
* homeostatic = homeostasis can be defined as the stable condition of an organism and of its internal environment; or as the maintenance or regulation of the stable condition, or its equilibrium; or simply as the balance of bodily functions.
- - -
Similar to 'Imposter' in that the protagonist discovers (in this case in the opening sequences) that he is in fact not human but a robot.
Frightening end, rushing wind, the sound of emptiness and the final fate of the world itself.****
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. He experiments on this tape by adding new holes, which adds things to his reality. Convinced that his entire reality is constrained by the tape, he makes a major change to it, with a major effect on his reality. The change affects everyone else he interacts with, which raises the question of whether any of them – or he himself – are "real" at all.
- - -
An 'Electric Ant' is an 'organic robot'.
- - -
“I'm a freak, he realized. An inanimate object mimicking an animate one. But – he felt alive. Yet … he felt differently, now. About himself. Hence about everyone ...”
“I am not free. I never was, but now I know it; that makes it different.”
- - -
* encephalic = relating to, affecting, or situated in the brain.
- - -
[This was published in 1969. The character and story is happening on November 4, 1992. A quarter of a century to the exact date later I'm reading it.]
- - -
* homeostatic = homeostasis can be defined as the stable condition of an organism and of its internal environment; or as the maintenance or regulation of the stable condition, or its equilibrium; or simply as the balance of bodily functions.
- - -
September 16, 2022
Se trata de una historia altamente filosófica que, a pesar de su brevedad, se centra en dos temas: uno, la esencia del ser humano y, segundo, la cuestión de cómo nuestra percepción del mundo que nos rodea puede ser el resultado de alguna influencia.
Leyendo esta historia inquietantemente deprimente también podríamos considerarnos hormigas en un nivel más social. El protagonista descubre que él es en realidad algo que es propiedad de otras personas, algo que pueden usar y hacer funcionar a su propia voluntad, sin importar que todo el tiempo haya tenido la impresión de tomar sus propias decisiones. Nos hace cuestionarnos si la civilización humana no está formada por hormigas condicionadas por intereses de los que gobiernan.
Es un libro que invita a reflexionar. Mi valoración es de 4 estrellas.
Leyendo esta historia inquietantemente deprimente también podríamos considerarnos hormigas en un nivel más social. El protagonista descubre que él es en realidad algo que es propiedad de otras personas, algo que pueden usar y hacer funcionar a su propia voluntad, sin importar que todo el tiempo haya tenido la impresión de tomar sus propias decisiones. Nos hace cuestionarnos si la civilización humana no está formada por hormigas condicionadas por intereses de los que gobiernan.
Es un libro que invita a reflexionar. Mi valoración es de 4 estrellas.
April 4, 2024
A protagonist who is off handedly misogynistic (something about big women only being good for mothering and crushing people to death?) and a wife who turns her back on her husband, again.
The exploration of subjective reality and objective reality is interesting in this story, and it's done in a very PKD way.
I'm personally not sure what PKD is trying to say at the end, with Sarah being implied to have been part of the electric ant's subjective reality/tape reel. Or is he implying that all of reality was only part of the tape reel? It seems like PKD argues that there is no objective reality at all. At one point he states something like "objective reality is only a synthetic construct derived from collective subjective realities (perceptions)." So when ant died, was reality itself disappearing?
The exploration of subjective reality and objective reality is interesting in this story, and it's done in a very PKD way.
I'm personally not sure what PKD is trying to say at the end, with Sarah being implied to have been part of the electric ant's subjective reality/tape reel. Or is he implying that all of reality was only part of the tape reel? It seems like PKD argues that there is no objective reality at all. At one point he states something like "objective reality is only a synthetic construct derived from collective subjective realities (perceptions)." So when ant died, was reality itself disappearing?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2024
Writing this before Book Club, but two months later so godspeed.
A double review of this and 2 B R O 2 B
2.5 Stars for 2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr and 3 Stars for The Electric Ant by Philip K. Dick.
It's funny because I didn't think I had much to say about the stories but now my head is swirling with thoughts about assisted death/assisted suicide/euthanasia, genocidal doctors, "great replacement theory," capitalism, disassociation, etc. Now have I put these thoughts together in any way that would make sense? Well that's a separate question.
A double review of this and 2 B R O 2 B
2.5 Stars for 2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr and 3 Stars for The Electric Ant by Philip K. Dick.
It's funny because I didn't think I had much to say about the stories but now my head is swirling with thoughts about assisted death/assisted suicide/euthanasia, genocidal doctors, "great replacement theory," capitalism, disassociation, etc. Now have I put these thoughts together in any way that would make sense? Well that's a separate question.
December 3, 2023
Dick's Bachelor Machine and also one of his most blunt answers to Solipsism, ultimately. Simulations aside, who doesn't know merely representative figures who behave as if the world were nothing more than a video game and everyone around them followed nothing more than a pre-determined script regarding their actions and decisions like the so-called NPCs? Actually, the correct question to ask would be who aren't mere figureheads that believe themselves to be more selfdetermined than they really are.
October 28, 2024
What a surreal story. Its ending really questioned the whole meaning of reality.
An article I read recently comes to mind. Many people see shadowy figures during sleep paralysis, a fantom created by the mind trying to make sense of the senses it is experiencing. Similarly, the reality of the protagonists is determined by his senses, and because he's a robot, his senses can be programmed. For him, senses are made up of data, and data can be manipulated. Thankfully, the chemical reactions that humans experience can't be programmed as easily, at least not yet.
An article I read recently comes to mind. Many people see shadowy figures during sleep paralysis, a fantom created by the mind trying to make sense of the senses it is experiencing. Similarly, the reality of the protagonists is determined by his senses, and because he's a robot, his senses can be programmed. For him, senses are made up of data, and data can be manipulated. Thankfully, the chemical reactions that humans experience can't be programmed as easily, at least not yet.
October 8, 2025
“—Si corto la cinta—prosiguió él—, tú estarás en todas partes y en ninguna. Como todo lo demás del universo. Al menos, en lo referente a mí.
—Yo soy real —farfulló Sarah.
—Quiero conocerte por completo —afirmó Poole—. Para esto he de cortar la cinta. Si no lo hago ahora, lo haré en cualquier otro instante; es inevitable. Entonces, ¿a qué esperar?—se preguntó a sí mismo—. ”
—Yo soy real —farfulló Sarah.
—Quiero conocerte por completo —afirmó Poole—. Para esto he de cortar la cinta. Si no lo hago ahora, lo haré en cualquier otro instante; es inevitable. Entonces, ¿a qué esperar?—se preguntó a sí mismo—. ”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2019
Cuento corto que tiene un planteamiento que ha sido motivo de debate filosófico durante años. ¿Qué soy? ¿Existo? Lo maravilloso es la forma en la que realiza el planteo y ayuda a que cualquier persona lo comprenda, lo siga como así también puede que adivinen el final (o puede que no). Muy bueno.
December 3, 2017
PKD at his best. Fantastic, sad and funny. One of my favourite short stories. I love Dick.
May 4, 2018
Three stars. Though it is an interesting short story about solipsism and a cassette-like robot, the story was too tame for me.
June 20, 2019
Ist im buch minority report enthalten
November 12, 2022
Excellent short story.
October 2, 2023
Reality betrays you. What you believe is not real. Paranoia sets in. You need to take back control ... Enter the PKD ballroom and join the spiral dance into oblivion ...
December 9, 2023
It was awesome but way too short, I’ll check out the graphic novel as well
Read
March 24, 2025He mentioned this in his crazy conspiracy essay so I had to read it
October 10, 2023
Definitely devastating in its implications and ending, but I think the lack of time spent with the characters works against the premise and takes away some of the emotional impact of it. Still, even as a short story it's fantastic.
Grade: A-
Recommended for: Anyone who doesn't feel real
Grade: A-
Recommended for: Anyone who doesn't feel real
December 31, 2025
Read this because it was a reference/inspiration for one of the short stories in Exhalation by Ted Chiang. I personally liked Chiang's story better.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews