Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Easily one of PKD's most famous books. Source: Here

“You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe.”

With the release of Blade Runner 2049 I thought it'd be more than apt to revisit Philip K. Dick's classic once more. While not my personal favorite of his books, it's one of PKD's most accessible works and a tale that inspires to this day.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel published by Philip K. Dick in 1968. The main plot concerns bounty hunter Rick Deckard, who is tasked with killing (referred to as "retiring") six escaped Nexus-6 model androids from Mars. The plot is set in post-apocalyptic 1992* following "World War Terminus" where nuclear war has devastated the Earth and the United Nations encourages emigration to off-world colonies - with the incentive of androids as personal servants. 

This brief summary forms more or less the basis for Ridley Scott's famous 1982 adaptation Blade Runner, but here is where both narratives diverge - Androids contains a variety of thematic plot points that didn't make the cut: 

• Because of the mass extinctions wiping out the majority of Earth's wildlife, owning a live animal is considered a status symbol. The poor can only afford robotic variants (Deckard himself owns the eponymous electric sheep)
• Mood organs known as empathy boxes can induce any desired mood in the people nearby.
• The character of John Isidore, a man of low intelligence, aids the fugitive androids.
• The religion of Mercerism is widespread on Earth and her space colonies, which follows two major tenets; be empathetic to the individual and work for the good of the community. Adherents use the empathy boxes to join in a shared experience where everyone is connected in a collective virtual reality centered on founder Wilbur Mercer  while he eternally climbs a barren hill as he has stones thrown at him, the pain of which is shared by the users.

There's quite a significant amount cut from the film, yet both works successfully zero in on the Big Questions that Philip K. Dick posed: what does it mean to be human? Where lies the dividing line between humans, who are capable of the most inhuman acts, and androids, who on the surface are virtually indistinguishable from any other person?

It was a very accessible book to get into (considering the majority of PKD's works...) and while not my favorite of Dick's books it's one that still sticks with me. It's been said that Deckard is a detective that doesn't do a lot of detecting, but what appeals to me (and indeed, a lot of PKD's protagonists) is that they aren't heroes, or chosen for a higher calling. They're simply people trying to make sense of the world they're living in, trying to get by another day. That to me is far more resonant.

Dick ultimately postulates that what separates humans from androids is our capacity for empathy - demonstrated in a key scene where one of the fugitive androids is taking apart a spider. The android understands what the spider is, and yet still takes it apart. If an android can do that to another living being, what's to stop it from doing it to a human?

One of PKD's greatest strengths is always leaving the reader to decide for themselves. Are the androids deserving of the same rights as humans? What really is the difference between electric and biological life - and does it matter? These are questions you'll still be puzzling with long after you've left Deckard and the rest of this world's denizens. A solid gateway to the many unreal worlds of Philip K. Dick.