Empathy

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Being an android suggests being a humanoid robot, do robots dream at all? To understand the complexity of the question, one must realize what having dreams suggests. Dreams are often considered to be an indication of the inner workings of one’s subconscious, and the subconscious is what leads to the development of intuitive thinking, or the gut feeling. The presence of intuition or a gut feeling is an indicator to the presence of emotions as intuition most often depicts how one truly feels about any subject, so having dreams suggests, to me, the presence of emotions. Furthering this analysis of the title of Dick’s book, I realize that if robots can indeed dream then what do they dream about? Dick suggests electric sheep. Dreaming about electric sheep, androids must care for them or feel for them in some manner, so with his most odd title, Dick suggests to me that a humanoid robot can indeed have emotions, and even more interesting than the presence of emotions in robots would be the presence of empathy within the manufactured entity, and the presence of empathy within the android is the subject of the book, so it’s not an odd title after all!

The Cover of Philip K. Dick's Book


Following on the title analysis, the importance of these two traits becomes a concern. Empathy helps Deckard, the bounty hunter, to distinguish an android from a human. That was his job, to find escaped androids and to retire them. Emotions can be declared as the cause of empathy. In Gale’s view, emotions are what, “in [Dick’s] view made men human” (Anthology, 331). Gale’s analysis seems to be correct as that is exactly how Deckard must differentiate between humans and androids. Also, Dick doesn’t portray the android, Rachel, as having emotion. Sure, during Deckard’s time at the Rosen Association’s Building in Seattle, the reader can sense that Rachel is frustrated, but the conversation prior to the empathy test between her and Deckard there clearly shows the logic behind her frustration; the logic itself is irrelevant, but the striking absence of emotions helps further understanding of the androids.

How Do You Feel About This?


The logic can be deemed irrelevant because the new Nexus-6 Androids have, among other things, ten million possible combinations of cerebral activity” (Dick, 30). The presence of logic simply suggests the capabilities of the android, but one part of Rachel’s logic seems odd. She, or rather it, lies about the owl. It tells Deckard that the owl is genuine. Fittingly, during the walk from the hover-car to the testing room, Deckard’s empathy for animals manifests itself, and Rachel, I think, was testing Deckard’s empathy. When she, it, tells Deckard that the owl is genuine, Deckard’s interest in the owl seems to increase dramatically, to the point where he would like to purchase the last owl on Earth! Rachel’s logic becomes clearer when the owl is offered to Deckard; the android was bating Deckard the whole time. All of this proves the amazing intelligence present in the Nexus-6 models; another proof would be the fact that Deckard superior was almost killed by one of these humanoids. Clearly, the machines are intelligent.

The Shooting of Deckard's Superior


Evidently, Dick has created a world in which emotions can save a human, and the lack of them demonstrates the humanoid robot. What could be the message Dick is trying to deliver? The message lies within Mercerism which seems to be the closest thing to religion on the now sick Earth. A Mercerite according to Deckard “can sense evil” (Dick, 32). This evil is represented as the Killers who try to literally kill the Mercerites during their ascension. Because of Deckard’s reasoning of how to spot the Killers, Dick’s message emerges. Dick wants to eliminate all the evil in the world, and so he defines it with his own explanation. Evil exists where there is a complete void of emotions that allow for a connection to others, and this attribute can lend itself to the real world as most sociopaths and molesters lack empathy (Anthology, 275E). This can merit why Dick portrays the Androids as lacking empathy; he’s portraying them as criminals.

There is so much to discuss with Dick’s book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but Dick’s books have made it past pictures all the way to motion pictures with sound. So how many words is that? At no point, will analysis ever make up for the essence of Dick’s book, for it’s this very essence that captures the reader’s attention and affects their emotions. Dick wants empathy to be omnipresent in the world, so that there can be an end to crime and possibly everything bad with the world. If everyone cares for everyone then, Dick will have succeeded in spreading his message, and until then, find empathy to avoid evil.