and humans.

Philip K. Dick’s fictional society decides that empathy is the defining characteristic of humanity. As the bounty hunter Rick Deckard learns early in the novel, "Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order, including the arachnida." To test an individual’s empathy, a machine-administered assessment called the Voigt-Kampff Empathy Test is given and, as the plot unfolds, several characters are forced to take it to prove their humanity. However, Dick calls into question the utility of such an arbitrary measurement by highlighting uncertainties surrounding the difference between man and machine in the novel.

For example, as Rick Deckard searches for the androids he has been hired to “retire,” he attends a rehearsal session for Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute.” One android sings so beautifully that Deckard believes she must be human and suggests that she take the test Voigt-Kampff test. In reply, the android suggests,

“Maybe there was once a human who looked like you, and somewhere along the line you killed him and took his place. And your superiors don’t know.”

This cheeky assertion sparks doubt in Deckard, and he begins to question his own identity, knowing that many androids are implanted with false memories and create their own family units. As his uncertainty grows, it extends to the reader, who begins to wonder if they have taken for granted that the protagonist of the novel is human! If only humans can feel empathy, how could someone doubt their own humanity? Perhaps Dick is suggesting that the line between organic and artificial life isn’t as clear cut as many would like to believe.

The value of artificial or “electric” life is explored throughout the novel but reaches a conclusion near the end of the plot. Rick Deckard references an artificial spider and electric toad in the final pages by asserting, “The electric things have their life too. Paltry as those lives are.” This suggests that all life, organic and “electric”, is worthy of some degree of respect. This connects back to the question of what it means to be human and the kinds of life valued by our species. Perhaps, if humanity is truly as empathetic as we assume, we should reevaluate how we treat all life on the planet rather than focusing solely on anthropocentric concerns.

I hope this helps provide some food for thought!

The central theme of this powerful work of science fiction is what is the value of a life and how do we determine what is human and what isn't. The reader is presented with a world where there is apparently a very clear delineation between replicants or robots and humans, but as the novel continues, Dekkard comes to realise more and more that there is no such delineation and the boundary line between what marks somebody as being human and what indicates that they are nothing but a replicant becomes more and more blurred. Perhaps one of the most powerful lines in the whole novel is the following quote:

Do androids dream? Rick asked himself.

This reflects the confusion and conflict that Dekkard suffers. Roy Baty seems to have just as many dreams as Dekkard himself does, yet Dekkard is sent to kill Roy as if he were not human or his life doesn't matter. This quote picks up the philosophical musings of the title and is used to explore the central question of the novel, which focuses on the meaning of life and what determines that we are human.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a novel by Philip K. Dick and the basis for the popular film Bladerunner. The primary question in the novel is one of the existential significance of consciousness. Is it inherent to humanity? If one cannot tell the difference between a human and an android, which was originally the case when administering the empathy test to Rachael, is there really a tangible difference? These are questions that are represented in the title of the work.

As a bounty hunter operating in a world where real animals are a fashionable commodity, Rick Deckard dreams of owning a real sheep to replace the electric one that he already owns. The sheep are also representative of the old practice of counting sheep to fall asleep. It stands to reason that androids would count electric sheep rather than real ones. All of this simply boils down to the question, "Do androids dream?" If they do, there is likely no difference in the way they experience life.

The central theme of this excellent work, which was, of course, made into the film Bladerunner starring Harrison Ford, is the nature of humanity. What makes us human? And in particular, when we are in a world populated by humans and androids who resemble humans so perfectly and even have emotions and are given their own past, like Rachel, what separates us from androids? We, as humans, are able to dream of one day having possessions or reaching positions of happiness and contentment, but are androids able to have similar dreams, just as Deckard dreams of having his own electric sheep? And if they are, what really does make us different from artificially formed life?

Thus the question of the title goes to the heart of the theme of humanity in the play and how we define it. Throughout it all, the worrying notion of Deckard himself being a replicant questions our own basis of how we define ourselves and severely limits the sense in which we can consider ourselves to be unique.

In contrast to many dystopian novels that create situations the represent a physical and present threat to humanity, Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is an exploration of an existential threat to the integrity of the human condition. The novel itself is largely an exploration of the limits of consciousness and human empathy and a questioning of whether the two are exclusive traits to human beings.

Deckard, the protagonist, is charged with "retiring" or deactivating androids that have turned on their masters and are planning to escape and live their own lives. The implication here is obviously that for an android to even escape and turn against its programming in the first place, it would have to be acting on some higher instinct than programming alone. It is demonstrating something indistinguishable from consciousness and empathy.

In terms of lessons related to speculative fiction, Dick's is unique. Human beings have a responsibility to the things that we choose to create. If something is truly conscious, creating it for a life of demeaning slavery and servitude is unimaginably cruel. It threatens the dearest emotions that make us human to deny something empathy that is so blatantly suffering. The true danger of technology demonstrated in the work is giving humanity godlike decisions to make, ones for which we are simply unprepared.