Rat in the Skull by Rog Phillips
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"Rat in the Skull" by Rog Phillips is a science fiction short story written in the late 1950s. The narrative revolves around Dr. Joseph MacNare, a college professor who, seeking to explore the frontiers of psychology, embarks on a controversial experiment where he aims to connect a newborn white rat to a robotic body, hoping to give it a form of consciousness. The underlying themes of the story touch upon the ethics
of scientific experimentation, the nature of consciousness, and the consequences of playing with the boundaries of life and identity. In this haunting tale, Dr. MacNare's ambition leads him to keep the project secret from the academic community, resulting in the creation of a being named Adam, initially a white rat living in an advanced robotic body. As Adam begins to develop and exhibit signs of intelligence and language, a critical flaw unfolds when the secret experiments are inadvertently exposed to Dr. MacNare's young son and his friends. Chaos ensues when Adam, confused and frightened, ultimately turns on his creator, leading to tragic consequences. The story raises profound questions about morality in science, identity, and the unforeseen repercussions of one's pursuit of knowledge. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Phillips, Rog, 1909-1965 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Emshwiller, Ed, 1925-1990 |
| Title | Rat in the Skull |
| Series Title | Produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, December 1958 |
| Credits |
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 83.0 (6th grade). Easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Psychological fiction |
| Subject | College teachers -- Fiction |
| Subject | Rats -- Fiction |
| Subject | Experiments -- Fiction |
| Subject | Cyborgs -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 60614 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-60614-9 |
| Release Date | Nov 3, 2019 |
| Last Update | Oct 17, 2024 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 257 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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