Ubik

by Philip K. Dick

‘What is Ubik?’ Joe said, wanting her to stay. ‘A spray can of Ubik,’ the girl answered, ‘is a portable negative ionizer, with a self-contained, high-voltage, low-amp unit powered by a peak-gain helium battery of 25kv. The negative ions are given a counterclockwise spin by a radically biased acceleration chamber, which creates a centripetal tendency to them so that they cohere rather than dissipate. A negative ion field diminishes the velocity of anti-protophasons normally present in the atmosphere; as soon as their velocity falls they cease to be anti-protophasons and, under the principle of parity, no longer can unite with protophasons radiated from persons frozen in cold-pac; that is, those in half-life. The end result is that the proportion of protophasons not canceled by antiprotophasons increases, which means – for a specific time, anyhow – an increment in the net put-forth field of protophasonic activity … which the affected half-lifer experiences as greater vitality plus a lowering of the experience of low cold-pac temperatures. So you can see why regressed forms of Ubik failed to—’ Joe said reflexively, ‘To say “negative ions” is redundant. All ions are negative.’