Divided We Fall is a short story by Raymond F. Jones

Raymond F. Jones

Raymond Fisher Jones was an American science fiction author. He is best known for his 1952 novel, This Island Earth, which was adapted into the 1955 film This Island Earth.-Career:...

, originally published in Amazing Stories

Amazing Stories

Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...

 in 1950. It was rewritten as a novel called Syn

SYN

Syn may refer to:*SYN , a band by HALCA *Doctor Syn, a character in novels by Russell Thorndike*Grand Admiral Peccati Syn character in the Star Wars expanded universe*Syn , in Norse mythology...

.

Plot summary

The story involves a man's return to Earth after a multi-year contract job on another planet. The Earth he comes back to, however, has undergone a devastating social upheaval. Apparently, a new race of "Synthetic Humans", or "Syns" has been created and is now intent on taking over the world. Meanwhile, the real humans are trying to destroy them. The problem is, the only way to identify a "Syn" is by a highly sensitive ECG's reading of a particular brainwave pattern, and the Syns are said to have the ability to fool the test much of the time, so they can "pass" many such tests before being detected. When they are detected, they are arrested and sent to be exterminated.

In charge is a supercomputer that only the protagonist truly understands. After much adventure and tragedy, he realizes what has truly happened to humanity and his planet, as well as the computer's role. He resolves to prove his theory and save the world, or die trying.