Name: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Rating: 3.903949730700179 (557 reviews)
ISBN: 9781613984550

Philip K. Dick

San Francisco lies under a cloud of radioactive dust. The World War has killed millions, driving entire species to extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can't afford one, companies build incredibly realistic fakes: horses, birds, cats, sheep...even humans. Rick Deckard is an officially sanctioned bounty hunter tasked to find six rogue androids. They're machines, but look, sound, and think like humans

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal -- the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life. Then Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things were never that simple, and his assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit -- and the threat of death for the hunter rather than the hunted . . .

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

ikkychan

Contrary to popular belief, no, I did not aspire to be a degenerate adult in their 30’s when I was a child. Like everyone else, I looked up to the sky and wondered what it would be like to be an astronaut. Space exploration! Outer planet! Contact with the third kind! What a thrill! My young little brain dreamt with bursting enthusiasm for the kind of future mankind has in store, with all the ideas of advanced technology and limitless innovation bombarded into my mind from the small screen of the television in my living room. However, as one grows and comes into their senses, their point of view is deemed to change and accelerate to that second stage of adulthood in a harmful, reductive way — so is my view toward science fiction and their optimistic outlook toward the future. While I agree to some extent that the possibilities of an utopian society where the advancement of technology has solved many societal issues, leading to harmony and peace, is not nil, I find myself leaning more toward its exact opposition, where the misuse and mishandling of technology by the ultra-elite has resulted in environmental degradation, societal collapse and totalitarian government. That might explain why Philip K. Dick’s novels, with their bleak and grim pictures of days to come, have become a source of comfort and even cathartic to me — and “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is a great example. This has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for Rick Deckard. Waking up to an irritable Iran Deckard, his wife, in the murky, dusty morning of a post-World War Terminus San Francisco; both of them set up for a routine marital dispute that no Penfield mood organ could solve. As he dialed for a ‘creative and fresh attitude toward one’s job’ on his obscure little machine, he head off to work in his hovercar to find that his senior, Dave Holden has been admitted to the hospital following a violent incident resulting from his failure to capture an escaped 'andy'. — androids — named Max Polokov. He still has 6 more on his list, and he has no choice but to submit them to Deckard, who accept his new quarries with overflowing eagerness, for each successfully ‘retired’ andy reward him with a thousand dollars — three would be enough for a down payment of real, breathing animal! He can’t wait to throw out the electric sheep he keeps on the roof merely to maintain the sheer reputation of being an esteemed and honorable member of society who can afford to keep an animal. This plan, however, is proven more arduous than he expected it to be as his meeting with Rachael Rosen, an unaware andy, has shaken and challenged his ideas of what is real and what’s not, turning what he thought as just a casual work trip into one-way ticket to existential crisis. Like other great masterpieces, this is a book that grinds your gears, tickles your sense of right and wrong, or just simply dastardly profound. As the idea of what makes something genuine or deceptive is the core theme of the story, this contemplation is explored in various angles throughout, especially in how society works. In an age where the distinction between an 'andy' and a human becomes progressively indiscernible, the act of displaying empathy and emotion holds the utmost importance, regardless of how performative it may seem. Penfield mood organ has become the trend to regulate your feelings easily; exceptionally handy trinkets in this hard and trying time. Mercerism is embraced by many as their spiritual guide where its followers experience a shared virtual reality through witnessing the perpetual struggle of Wilbur Mercer as he walks toward an unending hill and pelted with rocks — encouraging a kind of collective suffering and fosters connection with others. Owning an animal is comparable with driving a Tesla today — a status symbol that separates you from the non-empath and the financially impaired, as caring for animals is both astronomical in cost and in emotion. Those unable to find affordable options in Sydney's Animal and Fowl Catalogue are compelled to acquire ‘ersatz’ animals, like Deckard. This, in fact, brings him deep shame, akin to harboring a falsehood or a taboo, especially considering his job involves hunting and eliminating fabricated beings. This is an illustration of how pervasive the notion of separating oneself from androids really is. Despite that, society is not equipped with a decent system to support this notion. Take Deckard’s job desk by way of example; he needs to be able to discern androids from real people by measuring its ability to show sentience, relying on some type of polygraph (though it has a very cool-sounding name,’ Voight-Kampff test’) which is as reliable as a shot in the dark: it either hits or misses. The test’s shortcoming is even discussed in the book with how it does not work on those with limited emphatic capacity, like schizophrenics and sociopaths. In the most extreme cases, it would be highly likely that Deckard has killed someone whom he thought an andy simply because the person does not show appropriate response to the test. Therefore, what truly draws the line between humans and androids? Is their incapabilities to show compassion to others in a timely manner enough for this segregation? While it may be true that androids ‘lack this specific talent that humans possess’, like Inspector Garland said, isn’t the suffering and distress that they experienced while on Mars and their determination to survive in hostile Earth enough proof that they are not entirely cold and emotionless? When John R. Isidore, one of the chickenheads who were barred from emigrating to Mars because of his lack of IQ, asks Pris Stratton why she had to come to Earth, she simply says "The androids…are lonely, too." Somehow, these clear showcases of genuine sentimentality could not be the cause for apprehension about the harsh "retirement" they face. The truth is, these all are only surface-level indications of a deeper, much more sinister problem, which are rooted in your well-known buddy named neo-capitalism. This is apparent in the moral dilemma that our protagonist had had the misfortune to undergo. As much as it is imperative to show empathy and caring feelings toward others, Deckard finds himself in a dead end when he starts developing compassion for andy (albeit only the selected gendered type). While I understand that it will greatly hinder his bread and butter, this is not totally uncalled for nor he should averse to it as it is inherently human to feel for things (heck, we can even sympathize with a flying plastic bag and call it the most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen in our life). Thus, the danger in Deckard’s new found realization should not be interpreted as risky sympathy toward robotic, unfeeling monsters they painted androids to be, but in changing the way society sees them as a mere commodity rather than sentient being with fundamental rights. Once people start to realize that, Roschen Corporation and the Government would lose their standing as everyone would stop going to Mars [“that had been the ultimate incentive of emigration: the android servant as carrot, the radioactive fallout as stick”]. This is why their actions and words widely contradict each other, creating an entirely laughable attempt at makeshift civilization in a failing universe. Essentially, this entire operation is only a necessary, routine procedure of quality control where they set the people and androids up against each other’s throat while they reap the profit, releasing newer, smarter, more humanlike androids. ["Do you know," she said, "why I really came here? Why Eldon and the other Rosens — the human ones — wanted me to go along with you?" "To observe," he said. "To detail exactly what the Nexus- does that gives it away on the Voigt-Kampff test." "On the test or otherwise. Everything that gives it a dif-ferent quality. And then I report back and the association makes modifications of its zygote-bath DNS factors. And we then have the Nexus-7. And when that gets caught we modify it again and eventually the association has a type that can't be distinguished."] It's both heartbreaking and absurd that Deckard and the police department fail to realize they're essentially acting as slave catchers. They use their authorized power to enforce (police) brutality, dehumanizing a whole class to maintain the elite's status quo. While this may not be my favorite of Dick’s novels, this still leaves a palpable aftertaste as I delved into each chapter of ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’. I found myself captivated by the pervasive sense of paranoia and uncertainty that seeps into the narrative, especially the scene where the characters grapple with questioning their very identities, projecting thought-provoking and pertinent inquiries about the nature of humanity. Yes, it’s been great and all, but what absolutely key for me is how Dick paints a most relevant and foreseeable future which is ironically true to the nature of 2023’s world’s social and political climate, with constant frictions between all-powerful countries and tech-billionaires’ race to space, paying no regards for the dire condition of environment and the well-being of general people. Who knows, perhaps soon, you will see a glimpse of the oncoming World War Terminus on the horizon.

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

Christian

The author's ideas are interesting, particularly the social pressures around owning and caring for living animals. The prose is clunky, and although I realize the author is not known for particularly beautiful writing, at times it was unclear or distracting, as in "The conductor then departed; the musicians left their instruments and also left." The parts written from J.R. Isidore's viewpoint really brought me down; he is aware of how the poisoned environment is affecting him, to the point where he is genetically unsuitable for reproducing, and has become too dim-witted to be allowed to emigrate to Mars. His intellect degrades further over the course of the story; by the end he is dismayed to find that he can't recall the name of his employer. One aspect of the story-world that I couldn't come to grips with was the idea that the best and brightest had mostly moved to Mars, and yet the remaining population still managed to keep at least two continental economies going, supporting opera troupes, flying cars, fresh fruit, and most incredibly, realistic flying and crawling electric insects intended to fed to electric toads, and sophisticated androids indistinguishable from humans (at times even by the androids themselves). The emotional journey of the main character (Rick Deckard) seemed muddled and aimless - he clearly goes through some changes and introspection, though these don't seem to lead anywhere relevant to the plot. Deckard's interactions and relationships are similarly aimless. This aspect of the story added to the sense of dystopian malaise that was my main take-away from this book. I'll be interested to watch Blade Runner and see how familiarity with the original story affects my understanding of the film.

As the eagerly-anticipated new film Blade Runner 2049 finally comes to the screen, rediscover the world of Blade Runner . . . World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked, in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser weapon, he dreamed of owning a live animal - the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life. Then Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things were never that simple, and his assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit - and the threat of death for the hunter, rather than the hunted . . .

Blade Runner

Anna 

** spoiler alert **
           3,5*
.
if it's so hard to kill the nexus 6 types why did he manage to kill them all within seconds? most of them didn't even try to protect themselves??
also what's up with that whole mercerism thing? 😭
it was fine, the movie was better, more action packed and with better storyline. but i'm glad I read it, it wasn't boring.

Captures the strange world of twenty-first-century Earth, a devastated planet in which sophisticated androids, banned from the planet, fight back against their potential destroyers

Luke

By 2021, companies have built incredibly realistic androids. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government bans them from Earth, but when androids don't want to be identified, they just blend in. Rick Deckard is an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job is to find rogue androids and "retire" them. But cornered, they tend to fight back, with deadly results.

Sarah Sammis

My taste for Philip K. Dick's style of writing has changed since I made that first journal entry. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and felt that it helped fill in a lot of the holes of the film even though there are so many changes between novel and film. Interestingly, the androids (not called replicants), though more talented than they are in the film, are more obviously different than the humans. They lack empathy and faith (though faith is shown to be a human weakness throughout). Decker is not the ambiguous lone wolf that he is in the film; he is married, albeit not necessarily happily but somewhat comfortably. Rachel is not the completely naive child in a woman's body that she is in the film; she is a full-fledged femme fatale! Many of the other names are changed and the setting changed (from San Francisco to Los Angeles) but one can see how the book inspired the film.

Regarding San Francisco, I enjoyed seeing Dick's vision of the city post nuclear war. Especially chilling was ghost town peninsula. Realistically, San Francisco would not be a good choice for survivors to congregate given the weather patterns (replace 10 months of daily fog with 10 months of daily fallout). A better choice would be Dublin/Pleasanton as they are in the rain shadow of the Hayward Hills but at the time Dick wrote this novel, these cities wouldn't have been more than just farming communities.

Finally the inclusion of animals (whether fake or real) in the film take on new meaning after reading the book. The word "dream" in the title refers more to the aspiration to own an animal than for the thinking of an animal when asleep. So the question posed by the title isn't so much: "Do androids count sheep when they're asleep?" to "Can androids love life enough to aspire to own a pet?" It goes back to the central theme of empathy. What will happen to society when androids are built well enough to empathize with living things? Or, if androids keep android pets, is that an equivalent empathy to a human keeping a completely biological pet?

Chaitanya Baranwal

This book lacks an engaging plot or a strong jittering climax. I'd even go ahead and say that plot-wise, the ending pages might have been the most boring. What's special with the book is how it permeates with thoughtful questions about human existence, and how it is riddled with ironies from start to end. It's way different from the movie, and it's based on an Earth destroyed by nuclear radiation, with almost all of the human population having emigrated to Mars.

What makes us human? The book considers empathy the litmus test for humanity, something which "androids" don't show. While humans continue to show empathy for the upper echelons of the society through connecting with them from the "empathy box", they never show that empathy for people with disabilities both mental and physical, the so-called "specials" (who show as much empathy as any normal human). Moreover, if humans have real emotions, why do they need empathy boxes (which were later proved to be fake), to connect to others? If they have real emotions, why do they need a Penfield mood organ to simulate those? Throughout the book, the line between androids and humans keeps getting blurrier and blurrier.

Deckard's life takes a 180 when he interacts with Luba Luft and Phil Resch. A bounty hunter who's ready to kill androids without a thought, he feels that a talented singer like Luba deserves to live. He mistakes Phil Resch for an android who deserves to die, only because he loves killing androids. This complete reversal of emotions evokes newfound feelings in Rick, and he goes on to make love with the android Rachael. From a merciless android-killer, he turns to having feelings for androids. Is it wrong to have feelings for someone who does not have emotions? 

While the book considers androids to not have empathy, all I can think about is one question: if frames of metal and circuits do end up having empathy along with every other emotion, what is it that would truly make us "human"?

A masterpiece ahead of its time, a prescient rendering of a dark future, and the inspiration for the blockbuster film Blade Runner By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive androids so sophisticated they are indistinguishable from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans can wreak, the government bans them from Earth. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them. But when cornered, androids fight back—with lethal force. Praise for Philip K. Dick “The most consistently brilliant science fiction writer in the world.”—John Brunner “A kind of pulp-fiction Kafka, a prophet.”—The New York Times “[Philip K. Dick] sees all the sparkling—and terrifying—possibilities . . . that other authors shy away from.”—Rolling Stone

The inspiration for the films Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049

An interesting blend of thoughtful sci-fi and unexpected, fantastical near-surrealism. Not all of it has aged gracefully, and it can be a bit clunky. But reads quickly, and it’s undoubtedly a hugely influential and compelling pondering of humanity. 

Michael Klepacki

Good but I had a hard time understanding anything

Gwenifer

Joshua Line

I would have rated it 5 stars if it did not have such a weak ending.

Winona 

The mystery is interesting, but the prose is flat and boring so I didn't really care when anyone died.

Dimitris Papastergiou

I liked it. Once again and this time's a final. 

Great story with an intriguing premise and a somewhat sad character that's just rolling with the punches most of the time.

You like your sci-fi? You'll like this one.

I don't know if it would be better if I was to go into this one without having seen the movie first but I did. And for that reason I'd always read about Deckard and picture Harrison Ford. Always. Not that I didn't like the movie or anything, but that still remained.

And of course the book is better than the movie here too, except for that it ends rather quickly like Philip K. Dick wanted to wrap things up? Don't know why or what happened but it feels that way and leaves you wanting more. 

He built a great world that makes you wanna read more, which is why I'm reading the comics too and going to see what's up with the next Blade Runner book the Edge of Human by K.W. Jeter.

Anyway, should you read it? Sure. Before watching the movie? Yeah if you haven't watched it yet, read this one first.

Do androids dream of electric sheep?.

Audrey Lord

an amazing science fiction book. so great.

Prashanth Srivatsa

Makes you more inquisitive than Blade Runner did, but falls a tad short of the movie's engagement. The story follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter, out to kill rogue androids who resemble humans, and in the process, identifies and questions his own morals and existence. Dick's portrayal of everyday, domestic animals as a status symbol is especially fascinating. But it's his ability to create a pseudo-alive, polluted environment on Earth and struggle to feed it with empathy that makes this book a winner.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

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