
In a far‑future conflict, humanity faces an alien defense of living, self‑propelling mines that seem to anticipate every mechanical move. The enemy’s “pseudopodia” create a nearly impenetrable barrier, forcing the military to rethink conventional weaponry and strategy. Scientists and engineers scramble to understand this bizarre, mind‑driven aggression that turns ordinary space battles into a deadly game of wits.
Amid the stalemate, a radical proposal emerges: replace cold circuitry with a living brain to pilot a spacecraft. By transplanting a human mind into a ship’s control system, the team hopes to achieve the reflexes and intuition that no machine can match. The idea raises profound ethical and technical questions, as they weigh the promise of unprecedented agility against the cost of sacrificing a consciousness for war.
Language
en
Duration
~1 hours (59K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Barbara Tozier and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2010-05-25
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1928–1982
A restless, visionary writer who turned science fiction into a tool for questioning reality, identity, and power. His novels and stories inspired films like Blade Runner, Total Recall, and A Scanner Darkly, and they still feel sharp and unsettling today.
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