Copyrighted Androids

Continuing my journey in the elaborate Earth Dick has created, I noticed a very particular idea. I believe that through the representations of androids and of humans Dick is portraying the very idea of a patent or copyright. The development of a new idea grants the creator or owner of that idea some particular rights. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, this idea is represented by the android and the creator will represent the humans. I will address Deckard as the owner because he is the one who has the power of life and death of these androids; he determines their fate, and as the owner of an idea has rights under copyright law, Deckard has rights over androids in Dick’s book.

The Copyright Symbol

http://license.icopyright.net/creator/images/3d-copyright.gif

It is important to understand that Deckard doesn’t own the androids themselves. No, that would suggest that the androids are Deckard’s property which draws parallelism to slaves in the Pre-Civil War times, and I don’t want to go there. I’ll just argue Deckard merely has rights over the androids.

An Android

http://blog.makezine.com/img413_223.jpg
A Representation of Slaves

http://www.ashcombe.surrey.sch.uk/curriculum/english/GCSE/Y11/Paper%202%20English/Cluster%201/Limbo/Slaves%20in%20chains.jpg

Before explaining this any further, I must first make clear my perspective of the androids (andys). Being that they are androids, they are extremely intellectual. Their code seems to reflect human logic, and this is a major problem in understanding Dick’s world. Where there is logic, there is always curiosity, a want, or arguably a need, to know. Curiosity is oftentimes random and seemingly a spur of emotion. This means that with all their logic androids are elegant and intellectual machines, but also with their logic, they inhibit curiosity, rather a short jolt of emotion. Androids are creations, mere machines, but for brief intervals of time, androids are human, and they have “an innate desire to remain-” (Dick, 132). The desire itself is irrelevant; the importance is given to the fact that they desire. If they were purely machines, androids would only have needs, but they desire which means they want as well as need, so andys are more than just machine.

C-3PO from Star Wars was definitely more than a machine

http://goldwingnetwork.com/c3po/c3po.jpg

So there’s something about the androids that makes them more than just machine; androids must have some rights then. Being that humans created androids, andys are property, but the complexity of their logic has allowed the androids to understand and inhibit emotions. Still, androids are humanoid robots, and that title is what grants Deckard his rights over the androids because that title suggests speciesism. This also suggested through the androids because it’s an understanding that humans create the androids. The world as we know it exists in duality, so if humans can create, they can also destroy; this ability to destroy is how Deckard assumes authority over the androids. Deckard’s rights over the androids are then the rights of a slave hunter over the slave; Deckard’s title in the book is that of a bounty hunter which reminds me of a slave hunter, and again, there is a parallelism with slaves. It seems to be unavoidable, but ignore it.

The reason I don’t want to focus on the issue of slavery is because I learned about the androids and slaves in the same manner; I opened a book and read. It was hard for me not to sympathize with the slaves, and at times, I was filled with compassion as I would suffer “as with the distress or suffering of the [slaves],” and I wished I could just end their suffering (Course Anthology 274 J), and I feel similarly about the androids. Are they really dangerous? I think not, but Deckard would disagree with me even though at times he wonders about the same question. Constantly, I see a need for Deckard to be able to specify danger as a fundamental reality of the androids. He is always wondering about this. Why? It is his sympathetic imagination vs. his reason; he is trying to “[perceive] the peculiar ‘truth’ and nature of the [androids]” (Course Anthology, 274-O). As I continued with this train of thought, I realized that is with my sympathetic imagination that allows me to associate with androids with the same sympathy that I felt for the slaves. The compassion without images is always a little diminished, but compassion is quickly generated when I imagine a dead Luba Luft on an elevator floor! In my view, the androids are the slaves of humans Post-World War Terminus, and I would declare Polokov as the Nat Turner of this fictional San Francisco.

"The Dream" A Video on Futuristic-Slavery... relates very well with the Dick's Book

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LULux6OyFIY
So examining this connection between androids and slavery, I begin to wonder is there any determinable means by which I can end the suffering of the andys. I fear not as I can only read Dick’s work, but I hope Dick was compassionate enough towards the androids to end their suffering. As ultimately, Dick is the author; he actually has a copyright of the book! He has certain rights over its characters, including the androids and even Deckard himself! He determines their fate, and I hope that androids don’t dream of electric sheep. Rather, androids ought to dream of liberation, primarily from bounty hunters like Deckard.