The Tunnel under the World

"The Tunnel under the World" is a science fiction short story by American writer Frederik Pohl.

Guy and Mary Burckhardt wake up in their house in Tylerton on June 15, having both had terrible nightmares, but they cannot recall the events of their dreams.

Guy dismisses the dream and goes to work as usual, the downtown offices of Contro Chemicals, which operates a highly automated and robot-staffed petrochemicals plant.

The dead people's memories and personalities were read from their brains and copied into minuscule robots, which are being used as captive subjects for testing high pressure advertising campaigns.

Each night, the power is cut and Dorchin's employees manually reset each robot's memory in preparation for the next experiment.

"The Tunnel under the World" was published in the January 1955 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction .