TY - BOOK AU - Phillips,Rog AU - Emshwiller,Ed TI - Rat in the Skull T2 - Produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, December 1958 AV - PS PY - 2019/// CY - Salt Lake City, UT PB - Project Gutenberg KW - Science fiction KW - Psychological fiction KW - College teachers -- Fiction KW - Rats -- Fiction KW - Experiments -- Fiction KW - Cyborgs -- Fiction N1 - Release date is 2019-11-03; Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net; Original publication data not identified N2 - "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.) UR - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60614 ER -