- Mr. Spaceship
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"Mr. Spaceship" is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick, first published in 1953 in Imagination, and later in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. It has since been republished several times, including in Beyond Lies the Wub in 1988.
The story is set in the distant future, where mankind is at war with "Yuks", an alien life form which doesn't use mechanical spaceships nor constructions, instead, it relies on life forms. The war has been going on for a long time, and mankind hasn't been able to come up with a solution against the life-form based ships and mines that the Yuks use. One day, a team of researchers led by Philip Kramer decide to build a spaceship which is powered by a human brain. They find the ideal candidate, Kramer's old professor, a dying man who volunteers to donate his brain to the project.
The spaceship is built and on the first test run into outer space, the team discovers that the professor made some changes to the ship, giving him — or rather, his brain — full control over the ship. Sensing trouble, the team flees the ship, leaving the empty ship, piloted by the professor, into outer space. Later, the spaceship returns and kidnaps Kramer and his wife, and on board the ship, the professor's brain informs them that they'll be looking for a new planet to colonize, to start over, as the professor sees no hope in mankind and what it has become — a species which desires, above all else, war.
Copyright status
Mr. Spaceship is in the public domain in the United States since its original copyright was not renewed with the US Copyright Office on the 27th year after the initial copyright expired. Mr. Spaceship is therefore freely available to read and download online.
External links
- Mr. Spaceship at Project Gutenberg
Mr. Spaceship public domain audiobook from LibriVox
Works of Philip K. Dick Short story collections 1950sA Handful of Darkness (1955) · The Variable Man (1956)1960sThe Preserving Machine (1969)1970sThe Book of Philip K. Dick (1973) · The Best of Philip K. Dick (1977)1980sThe Golden Man (1980) · Robots, Androids, and Mechanical Oddities (1984) · I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (1985) · The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick (1987) · Beyond Lies the Wub (1988) · The Dark Haired Girl (1989) · The Father-Thing (1989) · Second Variety (1989)1990sThe Days of Perky Pat (1990) · The Little Black Box (1990) · The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford (1990) · We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (1990) · The Minority Report (1991) · Second Variety (1991) · The Eye of the Sibyl (1992) · The Philip K. Dick Reader (1997)2000sMinority Report (2002) · Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (2002) · Paycheck (2004) · Vintage PKD (2006)Short stories 1950s"Beyond Lies the Wub" (1952) · "The Gun" (1952) · "The Skull" (1952) · "The Little Movement" (1952) · "The Defenders" (1953) · "Mr. Spaceship" (1953) · "Piper in the Woods" (1953) · "Roog" (1953) · "The Infinities" (1953) · "Second Variety" (1953) · "The World She Wanted" (1953) · "Colony" (1953) · "The Cookie Lady" (1953) · "Impostor" (1953) · "Martians Come in Clouds" (1953) · "Paycheck" (1953) · "The Preserving Machine" (1953) · "The Cosmic Poachers" (1953) · "Expendable" (1953) · "The Indefatigable Frog" (1953) · "The Commuter" (1953) · "Out in the Garden" (1953) · "The Great C" (1953) · "The King of the Elves" (1953) · "The Trouble with Bubbles" (1953) · "The Variable Man" (1953) · "The Impossible Planet" (1953) · "Planet for Transients" (1953) · "Some Kinds of Life" (1953) · "The Builder" (1953) · "The Hanging Stranger" (1953) · "Project: Earth" (1953) · "The Eyes Have It" (1953) · "Tony and the Beetles" (1953) · "Prize Ship" (1954) · "Beyond the Door" (1954) · "The Crystal Crypt" (1954) · "A Present for Pat" (1954) · "The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford" (1954) · "The Golden Man" (1954) · "James P. Crow" (1954) · "Prominent Author" (1954) · "Small Town" (1954) · "Survey Team" (1954) · "Sales Pitch" (1954) · "Time Pawn" (1954) · "Breakfast at Twilight" (1954) · "The Crawlers" (1954) · "Of Withered Apples" (1954) · "Exhibit Piece" (1954) · "Adjustment Team" (1954) · "Shell Game" (1954) · "Meddler" (1954) · "Souvenir" (1954) · "A World of Talent" (1954) · "The Last of the Masters" (1954) · "Progeny" (1954) · "Upon the Dull Earth" (1954) · "The Father-thing" (1954) · "Strange Eden" (1954) · "Jon's World" (1954) · "The Turning Wheel" (1954) · "Foster, You're Dead!" (1955) · "Human Is" (1955) · "War Veteran" (1955) · "Captive Market" (1955) · "Nanny" (1955) · "The Hood Maker" (1955) · "The Chromium Fence" (1955) · "Service Call" (1955) · "A Surface Raid" (1955) · "The Mold of Yancy" (1955) · "Autofac" (1955) · "Psi-man Heal My Child!" (1955) · "The Minority Report" (1956) · "To Serve the Master" (1956) · "Pay for the Printer" (1956) · "A Glass of Darkness" (1956) · "The Unreconstructed M" (1957) · "Misadjustment" (1957) · "Null-O" (1958) · "Explorers We" (1959) · "Recall Mechanism" (1959) · "Fair Game" (1959) · "War Game" (1959)1960s"All We Marsmen" (1963) · "Stand-by" (1963) · "What'll We Do with Ragland Park?" (1963) · "The Days of Perky Pat" (1963) · "If There Were No Benny Cemoli" (1963) · "Waterspider" (1964) · "Novelty Act" (1964) · "Oh, to Be a Blobel!" (1964) · "The War with the Fnools" (1964) · "What the Dead Men Say" (1964) · "Orpheus with Clay Feet" (1964) · "Cantata 140" (1964) · "A Game of Unchance" (1964) · "The Little Black Box" (1964) · "Precious Artifact" (1964) · "The Unteleported Man" (1964) · "Retreat Syndrome" (1965) · "Project Plowshare" (1965) · "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (1966) · "Holy Quarrel" (1966) · "Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday" (1966) · "Return Match" (1967) · "Faith of Our Fathers" (1967) · "Not by Its Cover" (1968) · "The Story to End All Stories" (1968) · "The Electric Ant" (1969) · "A. Lincoln, Simulacrum" (1969)1970s"The Pre-persons" (1974) · "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts" (1974) · "The Exit Door Leads In" (1979)1980s"Chains of Air, Web of Aethyr" (1980) · "Rautavaara's Case" (1980) · "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon" (1980) · "The Alien Mind" (1981) · "Strange Memories of Death" (1984) · "Cadbury, the Beaver Who Lacked" (1987) · "The Day Mr. Computer Fell Out of Its Tree" (1987) · "The Eye of the Sibyl" (1987) · "Stability" (1987) · "Goodbye, Vincent" (1988)Film and television adaptations 1980sBlade Runner (1982)1990sTotal Recall (1990) · Confessions d'un Barjo (1992) · Screamers (1995) · Total Recall 2070 (1999 TV series)2000sImpostor (2002) · Minority Report (2002) · Paycheck (2003) · A Scanner Darkly (2006) · Next (2007) · Screamers: The Hunting (2009)2010sRadio Free Albemuth (2011) · The Adjustment Bureau (2011) · Total Recall (2012) · King of the Elves (2013)Categories:- Short stories by Philip K. Dick
- 1952 short stories
- Works originally published in Imagination (magazine)
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