Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

As the novel, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, by Philip K. Dick, progresses, bounty hunter Rick Deckard becomes increasingly dissatisfied with his job which requires him to “retire” androids who escaped illegally from Mars and are now living among humans on earth. With advanced technology, android manufacturers have made it almost impossible to differentiate their creations from real humans. Things are even more complicated as “specials” are introduced into the mix, consisting of a group who are human yet lack the full mental capacity to be considered normal. A hierarchy develops among the various levels of life forms, necessitating a scale to accurately distinguish those who are considered real humans and those who are not; the latter face the chance of being retired by bounty hunters as they are deemed dangerous to society. Despite the clear divergence in means of creation and process of maturation, androids are comparable to and often superior to humans in terms of appearance, intelligence, and meeting the demands of daily life. By eliminating the essential characteristic which separates humans from their robotic counterparts, justification can be made by those who are required to retire those who are in almost all other aspects, human.  

Though Rick Deckard could previously rationalize his duties, he begins to doubt the legitimacy of his career about the time the “Voigt-Kampff” test emerges. While this scale is designed to determine empathic responses in subjects being tested, there are consistent reminders of the vital quality of humans lacking in those Deckard is forced to hunt down: empathy. Implying the intelligence, memories, and structural factors of humans are not original and can be, with the help of advanced technology, easily recreated, empathy is seen as the sole characteristic original to humans; however, the new wave of Mercerism seems to rely upon advanced technology for even legitimate human beings to depend upon in order to retrieve...