"The Force that Through the Circuit Drives the Current" is a very short story that nevertheless asks some interesting questions about the nature of what we experience as free will. Zelazny writes in his introduction (Unicorn Variations, 95) that he was "playing with a number of ideas involving artificial intelligence, trauma, and control . . ." and it is obvious even without his mentioning it that this is the precursor of "Home is the Hangman" because of it’s use of telefactor units and neuristor brains. (For further explanation of these terms, see entry on "Home is the Hangman.")

This story begins from the perspective of a telefactor unit exploring deep-ocean trenches. The reader instantly understands that the device is intelligent and self-aware as the machine describes it’s actions in the first person and even expresses feelings about its work. Then the device somehow notices the teleoperator in the ship above trying to exert manual control over it as it attempts to handle itself in a dangerous situation. The point-of-view then shifts as the man disconnects himself from the operating exoskeleton and discusses with his partner his sense of the machine’s awareness. He speculates as to whether other beings might not be doing the same thing; experiencing the world of humans through their own senses. How could we tell whether an action was our own or implanted by some other?

At this point the perspective shifts yet again to a pair of aliens, one of whom has been directing the human teleoperator until that point. It tells its partner how this man has come closer to guessing at their presence than any so far, and it, of course, begins to wonder whether an even higher intelligence might not be directing their actions. It asks, as the man asked, how could they know why or how others might control them?

The story ends as each operator, putting himself in the place of his "slave," destroys the control equipment, making the moral choice not to do what they would not want done to themselves. Zelazny’s message in this is quite clear, but there remains the question of whether we might be controlled in such a manner. After all, how could we know?