Jon’s World

by Philip K. Dick

Release: April 1954
Format: Novelette
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

First the Soviets and the Westerners fought. Then the Westerners brought Schonerman’s killer robots into the mix. Then the robots fought both human sides. You know all that from Dick’s earlier story, “Second Variety.” But now it’s long after the desolation, long enough that Caleb Ryan and his financial backer Kastner are willing to bring back the secret of Schonerman’s robots from the past to make their world a better place for surviving mankind, including Ryan’s visionary son Jon.

— Michael Main

And then the ~~terminator’s~~ claws began to manufacture their own varieties and attack Soviets and Westerners alike. The only humans that survived were those at the UN base on Luna.

DEBUT

“Jon’s World,” in Time to Come: Science-Fiction Stories of Tomorrow, edited by August Derleth; Farrar (Strass and Young, April 1954).

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 2000 to 2099: the time of the wars
Unspecified Future Year: Ryan and Kastner’s starting time

Timeline Models

Fragile Timeline: It’s unclear whether the new world was spawned via Branching Timelines, via Changeable Timelines within Hypertime, or via some other model of timelines, but Jon definitely sees it before it appears in the story.
Outside of Time: “At this moment, we exist in non-time. There’s no continuum in which we’re operating.”

Time Travel Methods

Time Ships

Themes

Fictional Tags

Groupings

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From an unknown future time and location at an unknown time ⋙ to an unknown location, after the claws began fighting mankind, circa 2050s. Note: Rayn and Kastner.
From an unknown time ⋙ to an earlier part of the war.
From an unknown time ⋙ to Harristown, Kansas, 21 September 2030. Note: to steal Schonerman’s papers.
From an unknown time ⋙ to a field outside of Des Moines, Iowa, early October 2030. Note: to check on changes to the continuum.
From an unknown time ⋙ to the top of a ridge above a plain, 2051. Note: in the new timeline, the war is now over.
From an unknown time ⋙ to Ryan and Kastner’s original time and location at an unknown time. Note: the new world.