"Null-O" is a 1958

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short story by American writer

Philip K. Dick Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his l ...

. It examines the concept of totally unempathic and 'logical' humans ("Null-Os") in a parody of the plot and concepts of ''

The Pawns of Null-A ''The Pawns of Null-A'' is a 1956 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer A. E. van Vogt, originally published as a four-part serial in ''Astounding Stories'' from October 1948 to January 1949 as ''The Players of Null-A''. It incorporat ...

'' by

A. E. van Vogt Alfred Elton van Vogt ( ; April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was a Canadian-born American science fiction author. His fragmented, bizarre narrative style influenced later science fiction writers, notably Philip K. Dick. He was one of the ...

. These beings view individual collections of matter, i.e. any object, as subjective structures and see the true state of reality as an 'undifferentiated world of pure energy'. They can also move their ears independently, giving them excellent hearing. After attaining positions of power they proceed with a plan to ultimately return everything in the universe to this state. This is to be done by the construction of successively more powerful bombs, ultimately resulting in the rather improbable 'U-bomb' that will homogenise the whole universe. The Null-O plan is halted, however, when the 'ordinary' people of the world, who have survived the nuclear destruction of Earth's surface in the shelters built by their employers, rise up in drilling machines to stop the construction of an 'E-Bomb' designed to destroy Earth, and succeed in destroying both the E-Bomb prototype and the Null-O's themselves. The idea of humans without

empathy Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, co ...

is central in Dick's later works, such as '' Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?''. This story was initially published in If, and was later collected in The Second Variety.

References

External links

* {{Philip K. Dick Short stories by Philip K. Dick 1958 short stories