Second Variety Analysis

The Second Variety
By, Philip K. Dick

"They were beginning to design weapons to use against each other"

This quote was the impactful last line of Philip Dick's short story, "The Second Variety". I chose this quote for the heavily implied consequence it touches on concerning the  differing groups and factions   exist and compose a society. In the context of the quote, the author is referring to the  robots who have evolved into their own species and the weapons they have begun to design against each other in a battle for superiority. However the implication can also speak greatly to not only the cold war, but war in general in the past and the present. This implication, which I believe the author is trying to coney to the reader is that  it seems as though  groups or factions who have fundamental differences, whether it be geographical location, history, religion, race, culture, and ideology have a tendency to engage in conflict and compete for superiority.

        In the case of the cold war, which provides the historical backdrop for this story, this tendency to engage in conflict and compete for superiority was showcased on many different fronts by the United Sates and Russia .  As an explanation to why the Americans created the machines in the first place, it is said,  " The Soviet Union had had great initial success, usual with the side that got the war going. Most of North America had been blasted off the map. Retaliation was quick in coming of course" . Then there instances where the reader heard the soviet union's side in which they engaged  in retaliation  such as drop chutist and bombs. However the all encompassing irony of the situation was that in the two countries' battle for dominance and superiority  they ended up destroying what they were working so hard to protect and possess- their land,  livelihoods, and way of life. This is displayed no better way in the story than through the fact that  Europe is in "a pile  of ash" and  Americans have had to vacate the United States for the moon. In fact, their is a pervading sense through the description of the setting and the tone of the story that all destruction and war has led to is more destruction and war. The picture painted by the "automatic retaliation disks spinning all over Russia, bacteria crystals, chain bombs, robots and the claws", is one of  of savage  violence and continuous bloodshed. It's as if in order to one up each other a more dangerous and catastrophic  weapon was designed by each side every time. Even more ironic is when Hendricks talks about which side is winning, for how can one even begin to talk about winning when the earth has been rendered uninhabitable and their has been a catastrophic loss of life.

        Whats even more interesting is the social structure and intelligence of the robots which have emerged out the conflict.  These robots have adapted so well that they can not only create their own artificial human body, but they also know how to prey on human weaknesses such a sympathy in order to fulfill their desires.  The reader see this through their creation of  the wounded solider and pitiful orphaned child. Also they have the capacity to work together  and betray each other, as seen in  Klaus and and Tasso. Yet the most striking and disturbing fact remained to be that  they had created weapons to destroy and have the upper-hand against each other. This behavior-so human like in quality  and there fore disturbing in its  display,  brought an interesting thought to mind. This thought was is it then a natural  and unavoidable course of action amongst  differing factions and states that their will always be conflict and a fight for superiority and dominance in the creation of world order. I say this because what the reader can assume the robots are trying to creating  is their own world order. However in order to accomplish this, they are plotting  and warring amongst themselves.