Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

[thatsmrshem]

I apologize if this is in the wrong section.

 

 

I just recently finished a book called, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" By Phillip K. Dick.  I had to read it for college and this is the first time I have ever read a book and been extremely confused by it, both emotional and intellectually.  I was curious If anyone else has read the book and has any thoughts to share or any insight to what the book was suppose to get across to the reader.

 

Thank you

[Mike Fleming]

I actually haven't read that one (I'm not sure why) but I have read many Philip Dick books and enjoyed them mostly.  He's someone who makes you think.

 

Bladerunner (the movie) was loosely based on it.

[George Cocoros]

I enjoyed that book and the film based on it Blade runner.  one theme in the story that is very applicable to topic addressed on this site is empathy.  absence of empathy was a trait of the replicant workers and soldiers.  perhaps the author was creating a metaphor for our current society.

[Frohicky1]

Hi thatsmrshem,

 

Really good book I think.  I'm no english literature student, and I'm sure some there are lots of in depth essays on the net if you wanted more, but some of the things I picked up are:

 

1. What is being human? Is it empathy, in which case some androids show this and some humans (Deckard at the beginning, and the other blade runner he meets) don't.  Is it emotions, or love? Again some androids show this.  Appreciation of art? The opera singer does this. I think it puts a good case that, like racism and sexism and Peter Singer's Speciesism, the requirement that a person be organic is entirely arbitrary and unfounded. It's also interesting to note that their supposed inferiority is a justification for their enslavement. 

 

2. Is being human a good thing? PKD paints the type of dystopian future that is common amongst many books and films (Total Recall, Judge Dredd, The Night's Dawn Trilogy, The Culture Series) that technology has progressed, but the same old problems remain because they come from our human nature.  Poverty (people moving off world for a better life), violence (need for combat androids), ecological disaster (few natural animals), petty pride (the electric sheep).  Have you seen Antichrist? That (very wierd and disturbing film) also has a thread about whether emotions are a good thing or not, and there's discussion of this from the ancient Greek philosophers through to Descartes and Hume.  However the androids want to meet their designer, want to become human, much like the homunculi in the excellent anime series Fullmetal Alchemist. 

 

3. Should emotions be earned? A good example is the Mood Organ.  The same theme runs through Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, and was also discussed by Nozick in Anarchy State Utopia, the so called Experience Machine.  If we can get happiness off the self, is it as worthy as happiness that comes from hard work? In parallel, if thee androids are programmed to have emotions, are they lesser than human emotions because more work is needed for a human to achieve them?

 

Also, is Deckard an android?