“Moratorium,” “Half-life,” “Cold-pac,” and “Precog.” These novel words are scattered across the science fiction called Ubik, written by an American writer Philip K. Dick. The purpose of the moratorium is to freeze dying people and keep their cerebral activity. Through earphones and several medias, people who are alive can communicate with people preserved in the transparent caskets. The story warns people to use technology responsibly although moratorium extends people’s lives and keep their close relationships. Seemingly an ideal solution to immortality, however, the drawbacks of moratorium outweigh the benefits because this technology breaks the laws of nature and leads to diverse troubles that are laborious to fix.
            First, the moratorium breaks the law of nature. Joe, one of the protagonists, says, “The U.N. ought to abolish half-life…as [it is] interfering with the natural process of the cycle of birth and death” (p. 83). Joe doesn’t understand why Mr. Runciter prefer Swiss moratorium than American ones. Edie Dorn explains Swiss has a special knack that increases the average length activity of half-life by two more hours than American ones do. Obviously, Joe doesn’t like that. He seems worried about the interference to the existing natural life cycle and claims UN should prevent half-life from existing. His concern calls into question the morality of breaking the laws of nature through technology, an ethical issue that people must contend with in pursuit of progress. This may also convey the author's attitude towards life and death by using Joe to express the belief that forcibly breaking people's life and death follow the natural law may bring unnecessary trouble, which is shown within the fiction.
            The moratorium is not mature enough in its development so troubles occur. “‘After prolonged proximity,’ von Vogeslang explained, ‘there is occasionally a mutual osmosis, a suffusion between the mentalities of half-lifers. Jory Miller’s cephalic activity is particularly good; your wife’s is not. That makes for an unfortunately one-way passage of protophotons’” (p. 16). Mr. Runciter is indignant that Jory replaced his wife Ella, and Von Vogeslang has no way to solve the problem. This shows maintaining a half-life is not a reliable form of longevity. There is no effective way towards osmosis, which means the combination of two cephalic activities. With one being more active than the other, people who is alive cannot communicate with their relatives, but someone else. Although mutual osmosis can be prevented beforehand by settling half-life in an isolated chamber to inhibit hetero-psychic infusion, the cost is higher. Since there are no methods available to control the atypically active Jory, he gradually eats other half-lifers. “‘I ate Denny a long time ago,’ the boy Jory said. ‘Right at the beginning, before they came here from New York. First, I ate Wendy Wright. Denny came second’” (p. 206). The situation gets worse and worse and spirals out of control. Jory quickly becomes too powerful to beat.
            To overcome Jory’s power, Ella and a group of half-lifers fights back through a long and laborious process. “‘A random carton of cigarettes,’ Joe said, ‘at a random store in a city picked at random. And we find a note directed at us from Glen Runciter’” (p. 119). Mr. Runciter tries to help Joe in the half-life’s world by leaving notes behind as hints. Repeating the word “random” three times after he discovers the note, Joe is shocked. This sense of astonishment Joe gives off shows that Mr. Runciter’s action of successfully getting the note Joe is difficult or even impossible to accomplish. It also implies that Mr. Runciter put a lot of effort into locating a spot that Joe definitely pass through and find his note. Not only Mr. Runciter is trying to help Joe, Ella in the half-life’s world also is trying her best to invent Ubik, which is a spray can resist Jory’s invasion to prevent him from consuming other half-lifers. Ella Runciter says “‘A number of responsible half-lifers whom Jory threatened. But principally by Ella Runciter. It took her and them working together a long, long time. And there still isn’t very much of it available, as yet’’ (p. 225). A group of half-lifers put much effort on producing Ubik, but even with a long-term effort, there are only few cans of Ubik available. This indicates the challenge of creating Ubik and difficulty of solving the problem that immature moratorium brings.
            In conclusion, there are certain advantages of moratorium, but the disadvantages are evident. It breaks the natural rule of life, causes major problems due to underdevelopment of such technology, and is time-consuming to fixing the resulting problems. Inventions are like doubled-edged swords. They bring good as well as bad effects. Dick’s Ubik is a story that warns us to watch out for the downsides while using and enjoying new technology. Inventions are only credible if people have the ability to quickly resolve the negative impacts. When the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, the use of the invention should be treated and evaluated with caution.