NameThatSciFiFilter: a factory that makes other factories, sabotage, whole milk

January 31, 2011 1:52 PM

Short story. Plot involved a far-future factory city that is tuned exclusively to war, long after the actual war is over. The protagonist tries to confuse / stop the machine by intercepting some message and responding with some nonsense. I seem to recall it having to do with whole or skim milk, or some kind of sandwich. The ending was that they manage to shut down the city, but this makes it just fire off a new city-seed out of a big cannon. It made more sense in the story! Possible candidates: Ellison? Vonnegut? I am thinking 60s or 70s.
posted by gregglind to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Best answer: Could it be Phillip K. Dick's short story Autofac? I know milk comes up in the story, even though Wikipedia's entry doesn't mention it. Google book result of one of the editions.
posted by skynxnex at 2:18 PM on January 31, 2011

Response by poster: skynxnex: bingo! Thanks! I knew it was a 'big author'!
posted by gregglind at 2:27 PM on January 31, 2011

One of my favorite PKD stories.
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 2:53 PM on January 31, 2011

This milk is thoroughly pizzled!
posted by zusty at 10:23 PM on January 31, 2011