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"Prize Ship" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in 1954 in Thrilling Wonder Stories and later in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Volume One: Beyond Lies The Wub and later trade editions of the collected stories.
The story is set several hundred years into the future, when a space portal vital to Earth's colonies in the far reaches of space is taken over by the hostile species Ganymedes, who threaten to blow it up unless Earth starts paying them a tax on everything that passes through the portal. Earth ponders whether to go to war with them, but they manage to capture a Ganymedean space ship, which they think can help them in the upcoming war.
A group of four military and scientists take the ship, which resembles a globe, on a test run, and find themselves in a foreign land which looks like Earth. They encounter people living there, who are a few inches tall, and live in miniature society. The crew goes back to the ship, and sets the instruments to take them the opposite way, there they find themselves in a world where humans are a lot larger than them, and barely make it back to Earth. They conclude that the space ship is useless, and decide to hand it back to the Ganymedes, who reveal to them that it is in fact not a space ship, but a time machine. The scientists conclude that the observed differences in size were caused by the expanding universe.
The fanciful abuse of the concept of expanding universe that has ordinary objects such as human beings, horses and buildings becoming larger over time, instead of its usual meaning that certain celestial objects become more distant from each other over time, is also used in the later short story "Prominent Author".
"Second Variety" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Space Science Fiction magazine, in May 1953. Set in a world where war between the Soviet Union and United Nations has reduced most of the world to a barren wasteland, the story concerns the discovery, by the few remaining soldiers left, that self-replicating robots originally built to assassinate Soviet agents have gained sentience and are now plotting against both sides. It is one of many stories by Dick examining the implications of nuclear war, particularly after it has destroyed much or all of the planet.
The Berserker series is a series of space opera science fiction short stories and novels by Fred Saberhagen, in which robotic self-replicating machines strive to destroy all life.
Phase Space is a 2003 science fiction collection by British writer Stephen Baxter, containing twenty-three thematically linked stories, in which the human relationship with the universe is explored: whether humanity is truly alone in the universe, if there are other intelligent species, if these have turned their backs on us, or if expansion itself is destined to fail.
The concept of self-replicating spacecraft, as envisioned by mathematician John von Neumann, has been described by futurists and has been discussed across a wide breadth of hard science fiction novels and stories. Self-replicating probes are sometimes referred to as von Neumann probes. Self-replicating spacecraft would in some ways either mimic or echo the features of living organisms or viruses.
The Divine Invasion is a 1981 science fantasy novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. It is the second book in the gnostic VALIS trilogy, and takes place in the indeterminate future, perhaps a century or more after VALIS. The novel, originally titled Valis Regained, was nominated to the BSFA Award.
"Null-O" is a 1958 science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. 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 by A. E. van Vogt. 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.
"Shell Game" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was submitted to the Scott Meredith Literary Agency and received by SMLA on December 12, 1953. It was published in Galaxy Science Fiction in September 1954.
"A Little Something for Us Tempunauts" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in the anthology Final Stage in 1974.
Ship of Fools is a science fiction novel by Richard Paul Russo. First published in 2001, it won the Philip K. Dick Award for that year.
The Giants series is a group of five science fiction novels by James P. Hogan, beginning with his first novel, 1977's Inherit the Stars.
William Renald Barton III is an American science fiction writer. In addition to his standalone novels, he is also known for collaborations with Michael Capobianco. Many of their novels deal with themes such as the Cold War, space travel, and space opera.
"Planet for Transients" is a 1953 science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. The story was originally published in the October–November 1953 issue of Fantastic Universe. The story also appears in We Can Remember It for You Wholesale . The author's original title for the story was "The Itinerants".
Spacehounds of IPC is a science fiction novel by American writer E. E. Smith. It was first published in book form in 1947 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 2,008 copies. It was the first book published by Fantasy Press. The novel was originally serialized in the August, September and October issues of the magazine Amazing Stories in 1931. Smith was disenchanted when he saw editor T. O'Conor Sloane's unauthorized changes in the story, most likely made to give equal length to each of the three parts it had been split into.
Ancient astronauts have been addressed frequently in science fiction and horror fiction. Occurrences in the genres include:
War of the Satellites is a 1958 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film drama, produced and directed by Roger Corman, and starring Richard Devon, Dick Miller and Susan Cabot. It was distributed in the U.S. and the U.K. by Allied Artists. In the U.S., it was released as a double feature with Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
"Mr. Spaceship" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Imagination in January 1953, 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.
War Game is a 1959 short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in the magazine Galaxy Science Fiction, in December 1959, and has since been re-published in two anthologies and at least twenty-four collections.
"Brake" is a science fiction short story by American writer Poul Anderson, first published in 1957 in Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the collections Beyond the Beyond (1969) and The Psychotechnic League (1981). As a component of the Psychotechnic League future history / alternate history, "Brake" takes place in 2270, as the civilization built up in the aftermath of the 1958 Third World War is being torn between mutually antagonistic factions, on the verge of collapsing into "the day of genocide and the night of ignorance and tyranny".
A self-replicating machine is a type of autonomous robot that is capable of reproducing itself autonomously using raw materials found in the environment, thus exhibiting self-replication in a way analogous to that found in nature. Such machines are often featured in works of science fiction.
"The Impossible Planet" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in the October 1953 issue of Imagination. It has been reprinted over 30 times, including Brian Aldiss's 1974 Space Odysseys anthology. It was also published in Dutch, French, German and Italian translations. The writer originally submitted it to the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on February 11, 1953, with the title "Legend."
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