Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick is a science fiction novel published in 1968.

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GENERAL SUMMARY (NO SPOILERS!)

After a nuclear war, Earth is becoming such a wasteland that humans begin emigrating to other worlds, and simply owning a live animal is a status symbol. To entice people to leave and colonize other planets, governments offer a free personal android – a robot servant that looks exactly like a human. However, some androids escape and flee to Earth, hoping to remain undetected. Bounty hunters are hired by police departments to “retire” (kill) the escaped but typically nonviolent robots.

Rick Deckard of the San Francisco Police Department is ordered to “retire” six recently escaped androids. By this time, androids have become so advanced that you can only verify the difference between humans and robots by an after-death analysis. The rest of the novel follows Deckard as he attempts to track down and eliminate the six robots. However, as events unfold and the differences between human and android blur, he begins to question what it means to be human.

BACKGROUND

The current rise of artificial intelligence is making this novel increasingly relevant. For example, ChatGPT, a computer program that can understand and write like a person, gained over 100 million users in the first two months since its launch in December 2022, becoming the fastest-growing consumer application ever (beating Facebook, TikTok, and more). As of the beginning of 2023, it has about 13 million daily users. People use the program to write essays, business emails, and more. For example, you can ask, “explain the theory of general relativity in simple terms,” and it will spit out an answer within 3 seconds.

If androids are created one day that look and behave just like humans, how would they be treated? Would they be considered equals, slaves, or something in between? Or, since they don’t meet the current definitions of “human,” would they be neither? This is the question that Philip K. Dick poses, and considering the recent breakthroughs in the field of AI, it is not out of the realm of possibility.

THEMES

What Does It Mean To Be Human?

How closely the androids resemble and behave like humans raises the fundamental question: how do you tell them apart? What are the qualities that define us as humans? The characters believe it is empathy, but ironically, the humans in the novel often behave more ruthlessly than the androids. Philip K. Dick doesn’t offer a clear answer to this question but encourages readers to think for themselves

Persecution of Other Groups

The author uses the way humans treat androids as a metaphor for the persecution of those who are different from us

REVIEW

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? includes typical elements of science fiction, such as a post-apocalyptic world and artificial intelligence. However, it delves into deeper and more significant themes than the average sci-fi novel. It was written over 50 years ago and has only become more relevant, considering the current rise of artificial intelligence.

Finally, although it is science fiction, the story does not feel very far-fetched and presents a realistic vision of our potential future (unlike many other science fiction novels).

PERSONAL THOUGHTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

I thoroughly enjoyed Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? and believe it is one of the most important science-fiction novels ever published. My favorite element of the novel is the deep exploration of what it truly means to be human and how we distinguish ourselves from other species / beings.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes science fiction novels that deal with the ethical issues that come with artificial intelligence. For example, if you like I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, you should read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

The movies “Blade Runner” (1982) and “Blade Runner 2049” (2017) are based on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

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