a human who shows concern for Deckard and cares for his real squirrel. However, his cruel disregard for androids leads Deckard to question his humanity. Resch believes that artificial constructs have no value, dehumanizing them much like the Nazis dehumanized Jews during the Holocaust. This lack of empathy in one aspect of an individual's psyche can lead to violence. The question then arises: why target androids for retirement? How can violence be confined to illegal androids? This concern grows, especially if the Voigt-Kampff test becomes unreliable. What if a schizophrenic is mistakenly retired? What happens when Sloat truly targets Isidore? Deckard comes to understand that humanity must extend empathy even to artificial constructs. For the environment, this is the only way to bring the owls back to the skies.

Regarding Deckard's personal development, he has come to understand that interacting with his electric sheep diminishes his self-esteem. Each day, he goes through the motions of caring for an inanimate object as if it were alive. He feels burdened by the need to maintain the illusion that he owns a real animal. "The tyranny of an object … [is that] it doesn't know I exist. Like the androids, it had no ability to appreciate the existence of another." This is why Deckard desires a genuine animal—something that not only acknowledges his existence but also needs him in return. Over time, he develops empathy for artificial life and is even willing to accept the toad. Ultimately, however, Deckard finds peace as his wife takes on the role of making him feel needed.

American Dream
The "American Dream" is often described as the freedom to achieve material success, typically represented by owning a home in a pleasant suburb. In a twisted version of this suburban ideal, Dick depicts a society where the ultimate goal is to have a home on a space colony. In this scenario, the healthy individuals of Earth are sent to other planets and provided with a slave robot to manage their homestead. (Ironically, the term "robot" originates from a Czech play about a nobleman who replaces his serfs with human-like machines.) On Earth, where those who are not smart or healthy enough to emigrate remain, the dream for most people is to own a real animal. The darker aspect of this suburban reality is that the wife remains confined at home. Much like her 1950s counterpart, she spends her time watching television. In Dick's future vision, she has a machine that can dial up different moods. There is even a specific number to dial for the mood to watch television—and Dick does not foresee the programming improving. Remarkably, Iran can even dial up her own depression. To combat loneliness, she can connect with unhappy people everywhere through an empathy machine. These distorted takes on the "American Dream" portray suburbia as an inherently isolating society that accelerates the breakdown of human community.

Morals and Morality
Decades before his time, Dick anticipated the moral dilemmas that would arise from a capitalist, technological society. In the universe of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, moral codes are those that bolster the economic framework and ensure people's happiness. Mercerism instills a sense of empathy in people, which coincidentally proves profitable: Every living creature is deemed sacred due to the nuclear war, making the ownership of a living animal a status symbol. While Mercerists value the care of living beings, this responsibility is paradoxically driven by market forces. Similarly, Eldon Rosen doesn't question the ethics of creating androids that are indistinguishable from humans; he simply caters to consumer demand. "We followed the time-honored principle underlying every commercial venture," he explains to Deckard. "If our firm hadn't made these progressively more human types, other firms in the field would have." Rosen argues that his moral position is superior to that of the police and their flawed empathy test. The security of the system depends on the bounty hunter's ability to identify and eliminate illegal androids, yet the system's expansion hinges on the Rosen Association's capability to produce androids so lifelike that they render the bounty hunter's task futile. As the Rosens succeed, industry will assume the role of natural evolution, reintroducing perfect animals into the wild and gradually creating an ideal human/android race. Ultimately, everyone will be content, as there will be no bounty hunters to worry about issues of identity.