Tag: cyborgology
Protected: Are Mental Illnesses Normal?
Midterm: What Makes Us Human?
Technology is an ever-growing and imperative part of today’s society and culture. Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, is a thought-provoking novel that highlights the ideology behind using and misusing the technology that is created by humans. The novel’s protagonist Rick Deckard, is a bounty hunter who kills androids. Given that these androids are killed based upon the fact that they are machines lacking empathy, one would also have to give thought as to whether humans today can be considered as simply human or whether there is some matter of cyborg within all of us given how reliant we are upon technology. Our dependency on the latest technological innovations ranging from the cell phone to modern medicine opens a broader level of thinking to the possibility that humans would be unable to survive if the technology we overuse today were unavailable to us at any given point. Have humans evolved into a generation so consumed by modern machinery that we ourselves have crossed a boundary in which the ability to empathize is no longer enough to serve as the only distinction between humans and the androids that Rick kills? Essentially, I believe that this is enough. Regardless of how far humans progress with the latest technology, as long as humans alone remain in control of their identity, which largely involves the ability to empathize with others and feel emotions, I believe that that is what makes us human; the ability to feel emotions and empathize with others.
The development of technology has increased at an alarming rate throughout the 21st century. In the post-apocalyptic time period of Dick’s novel, technology has developed so much so that Rick and his wife Iran are able to “dial in their emotions” using their Penfield device (Dick, 3). In some ways this idea of being able to control one’s emotions at will provokes the topic of programming. Seeing as there is nothing naturally occurring from an android, it is ironic that Rick and Iran also program themselves to feel the emotions they do, leaving no room for natural thought and feeling. Our current society and culture also promote the same level of submission from humans to technology. For instance, Donna Harraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto places emphasis partly on the relationship boundary between organism and machine. This emphasis is substantiated by her belief that very little material is still deemed “natural” in today’s society given how dependent humans find themselves upon technological innovations (Harraway, 300). Granted such innovations have helped improve the modern world, there are a plethora of “natural” materials that have lost its authenticity due to our technology dependent culture. For example, Harraway states that even the natural process of reproduction can now be halted and prevented through technological means such as the use of protection (Harraway, 301). However, while many may find a human’s reliance upon new innovations as bothersome, the evolution of time and environment calls for such reform in regards to the safety and practicality of human life and preservation. The distinction between humans and androids lie with the reality that no matter how dependent we may find ourselves upon technology, what makes us human is our identity: the ability to empathize.
This ability to empathize was the key differentiation between android and human in Dick’s novel as well. Referring to Chapter 18, where Isidore found the spider which was thought to be extinct, the androids suggested cutting off its legs. Even as Isidore pleaded with them to not harm the creature they continued to do so (Dick, 206). This lack of empathy was also shown as Rachael killed Rick and Iran’s goat. Although Rachael was manipulating Rick the whole time by seducing him in order to prevent him from killing more androids, as soon as she saw the plan had failed, Rachael did what humans in Dick’s novel regarded as the ultimate act of evil: killing animals. “Rick I have to tell you something… the goat is dead…[s]omeone came here, got the goat out of its cage, and dragged it to the edge of the roof… [and pushed it off],” (Dick, 226). As Iran informed Rick that their goat was dead, Rick slowly began to realize that Iran’s description of the woman who killed their goat was Rachael. The disability to feel no remorse or emotion regarding the actions they commit separate humans from androids. This is what separates us from the technology that we use every day. Although humans are reliant upon it, natural emotion and feeling and personality all come from within, contrary to what occurs in Dick’s novel. This remains as the common attribute to an individual’s personality, thus giving them identity. Ultimately, Rick ended up hating what he did for a living due to the fact that he began empathizing with androids. This empathy was never prevalent amongst any of the androids because they were not programmed to empathize.
Stanford’s Encyclopedia of Philosophy recently published an article discussing the human ability to empathize called Empathy written by Strueber. As Strueber continues to analyze the depth of empathy found within humans, she refers to Batson’s various experiments on the matter. “Batson assumes… that empathy/sympathy can be manipulated either by manipulating the perceived similarity between subjects and targets or by manipulating the perspective taking attitude of the subjects… according to these assumptions [empathy] can be increased by enhancing the perceived similarity between subject and target or by asking the subject to imagine how the observed person would feel in his or her situation rather than asking the subject to attend carefully to the information provided,” (Stotland, 1969). Batson’s studies prove that empathy is a defining trait of humanism. No matter how engrossed an individual may find themselves with the technology available to them, the concept of conforming to a matter of cyborg will not be possible given that our identity and individuality lies within our power to feel and experience the pain, happiness, sadness, etc. of others.
Personally, I find our increased use of technology to act as a catalyst in further developing emotions and empathy for others. For instance, social media remains as an outlet in which voices and opinions are heard. In this digital age, our use of technology to access social media is a direct reflection of our individual self-identifying traits as humans. The use of high speed internet is why people around the world can connect with each other to make positive changes. Mission trips to third world countries suffering from civil war and poverty, charitable funds and organization, community outreach programs, and various other programs are created by humans through the use of technology. Thus, although we may be overshadowed by the technology surrounding us, what makes us human is the ability to control the technology we create to make a positive change that further confirms our own individual identity. This identity is found through the human ability to empathize and make an impact through the natural emotions we feel.
The new technological era that came with the dawn of the 21st century is an ever-growing fast paced culture that will only continue to grow and further develop. One will not be able to tell whether in the future new technology will be created that will program empathy and other emotions into new inventions. However, until this time, it is safe to assume that no matter how far humans consume themselves with the latest technological devices available, our ability to feel naturally occurring emotions and empathize with others provides us with identity and purpose thus, distinguishing us as humans.
Work Cited
- Stueber, Karsten, “Empathy”,The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL http://plaoto.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/empathy/
- Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?p.: Del Ray, 1968. Print.
- Harraway, Donna M. “A Cyborg Manifesto.” (n.d.): n. pag. The Cybercultures Reader. Routledge, 2000. Web.
True Empathy: How Androids Can Show Us the Way
As a species, we like to think of ourselves as empathetic beings. We protest injustices, we take care of wounded animals, and we donate money to charities. Overall, we see ourselves as the saviors of the needy and the unfortunate. However, this really isn’t empathy that causes us to reach out a helping hand, not completely at least. In fact, we humans have a flawed sense of empathy; we condemn terrorism while we drop bombs on innocent villages, we are disgusted by world hunger and homelessness but we refuse to glance at the stranger on the street begging for money. Most of us only express empathy towards the people we think are deserving of it. The less fortunate have to relate to us on some basic level, but they can’t be completely unlike us. This flawed reasoning can be expressed through the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. Although the world they live in is more dystopian, it is not unlike ours. By using this novel, the true form of empathy will be realized—understanding other’s plights and choices no matter how different they are from any of us.
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick, humanity is divided. Most humans emigrated to Mars due to a catastrophic nuclear war that ruined the Earth, while everyone else stayed behind. The most important plot point in the book is that when a person would emigrate to Mars, they were rewarded with an android to be their slave. The only way for an android to escape and live their own lives was to kill their master and run away to Earth to hide. In this world, androids are modeled just like humans and have all of their characteristics, except for one: empathy. Androids are the villains feared by all the humans; they’re stronger, faster, and in some cases, smarter. In order for humans to feel human and to show to others that they are not actually escaped androids, they buy an animal. This is their ultimate form of empathy. They dedicate their lives to taking care of their animal and, if their animal is an android, they strive for the moment they can actually afford a real one. It is an unspoken rule to not discuss whether they own a real animal or not. In fact, Dick states that to ask if an animal is fake is “a worse breach of manners than to inquire whether a citizen’s teeth, hair, or internal organs would test out authentic” (8). In other words, asking if an animal is fake is the same as implying someone is an android. The two go hand in hand.
The protagonist of the story, Rick Deckard, struggles with the concept of empathy throughout the entire novel. He himself owns an electric sheep and he struggles with that reality. He actually only cares for it of out habit and has no feelings of affection towards it. He hated the thought of owing a false animal but “from a social standpoint it had to be done, given the absence of the real article” (Dick 9). Deckard had no choice to care of his electric sheep or else people would think he was an android. The empathy that is sought out by the citizens is actually completely lost based on this aspect. They aren’t caring for their animals because they have empathy, they care for them for social status. They can’t stand the thought of being scrutinized for possibly being an android.
This is similar to how we sometimes interact as humans on an everyday basis. People all around the world post pictures and videos of themselves doing good deeds for others. Now this necessarily doesn’t mean that none of those people actually care; however, the fact that it has to be gratified and shown to the world shows that there is more than empathy driving them. True empathizers would carry out their good deed anonymously because that isn’t the point. The point is to just help. If Deckard and the rest of the citizens truly empathized with the animals, there wouldn’t be a competition. There wouldn’t be android animals to begin with. The citizens would just take care of the real ones that were left and try to repopulate the Earth with those surviving creatures.
As the readers continue to follow Deckard’s journey as a bounty hunter “retiring” escaped androids for the police department, they begin to see Deckard empathizing with androids more and more. The first instance of this is when his temporary partner Resch thinks he might be an android with false memories. Deckard struggles with the thought of telling Resch. In the novel he thinks, “I’ve got to tell him… It’s unethical and cruel not to. Mr. Resch, you’re an android… You got me out of this place and here’s your reward: you’re everything we jointly abominate” (Dick 126-127). He felt bad for him regardless if Resch turned out to be an android. In fact, at this point in the story, Deckard really thinks that Resch is an android. However, he still struggles with the thought of telling him because he knows what has to happen if he really is one.
Deckard again shows empathy for the next android he “retires,” an android named Luba Luft. Luba Luft lived out her days as a beautifully talented opera singer. And Deckard felt genuinely upset that he had to end her existence. He wonders what the world truly gains from losing her. After Deckard and Resch deal with her, Deckard asks Resch, “Do you think androids have souls?” (Dick 135). This question completely puzzles Resch; however, it weighs heavily on Deckard’s mind. This is because unlike Resch, Deckard actually starts to question whether or not what he’s doing is right. Now this instance of empathizing with Luft may be tied to his sexual attraction toward her; however, this is just a stop on Deckard’s journey to fully being able to empathize.
When the novels gets closer to its end, Deckard invites Rachael over to a hotel room. Rachael is an android that showed an interest in helping him “retire” the rest of the androids. Deckard makes a proposition to Rachel that if they “do something else,” he’ll forget about the other remaining androids (Dick, 182). Deckard requests this of Rachel partly because he doesn’t want to find the other androids and partly because he wants to sleep with her. He doesn’t like his job anymore and he just wants something to distract him from his reality. After Rachael and Deckard sleep together, Deckard learns that it was in Rachael’s plans all along. She wanted to sleep with him to get him to stop hunting the androids, and he wasn’t the first. Deckard doubts that her charms worked on him; however Rachael seems to know otherwise. She says, “I already know… When I saw that expression on your face, that grief” (Dick 198). Deckard eventually flies into a blind rage, threatening to kill Rachael, but he can’t go through with it. Just as Rachael had predicted, it did get to him. He didn’t want to kill androids anymore, and he certainly didn’t want to kill her.
At the end of the novel, Deckard is completely broken. He finished off the last three androids he was after and Rachael, the one android he let get away, killed his goat. The goat he saved up for just so he didn’t have to take care of an electric sheep anymore. He’s delusional and almost seems like he has a death wish. Until he finds a toad. In this novel, a toad is a holy symbol of sorts and Deckard sees finding it as a sign from Mercer, the novel’s Jesus-like symbol. When Deckard returns home, he is delighted to show his wife Iran that he found a real, live toad. To his dismay, Deckard discovers that the toad is actually artificial; however, he has a much different reaction to it than the old Deckard would have. “I’ll be okay,” he says “But it doesn’t matter. The electric things have their lives too” (Dick 241). At this point, Deckard doesn’t care anymore about what’s real and what’s artificial. He will take care of the toad and it shows by him acknowledging that electric beings have their own lives. This is something that the old Rick Deckard would never dare to think. He hated his electric sheep. He despised it so much, he spent all his bounty hunting money on a goat for it to only die. And now that he has this electric toad, he’s gone full circle back to a false animal, but this time he’ll actually take care of it fully because he doesn’t care anymore if it’s real or fake.
The entirety of Deckard’s experiences and journey relate to how we, in this world, can truly learn to emphasize. As stated before, we only empathize when we find we have something in common with someone less fortunate. Deckard was the same way. He didn’t emphasize with his sheep because he looked upon it as wrong, he emphasized with Resch because Resch was just like him, and he emphasized with Luba and Rachael because he was sexually attracted to both of them and thought of them as vulnerable. At the end; however, Deckard was revealed to truly show empathy when he encountered the toad. The fact that he didn’t care whether the toad was real or no showed he didn’t care whether people were human or android.
That revelation is the most important because it was the hardest to achieve. In fact, in an article posted to Cyborgology, it was stated by philosopher Jesse Prinz that “empathy is impartial; we feel greater for those who are similar to ourselves” (Recuber). Recuber goes on to state that many experiments back up that claim, especially when it relates to race. There is an empathy gap in our society that is making it harder and harder for people to truly emphasize with one another because we can’t see past our differences (Recuber). This is exactly what Deckard did in the novel by going through all the problems that found him. He found a way to emphasize with androids even though they were nothing like him. So how can we as a society in the real world do it? How can we close this gap and find a way to truly emphasize with one another no matter the differences?
This answer goes back to our flawed system of empathy itself. We need to stop seeing empathy as partial. We shouldn’t put up posts about saving Syrian refugees while we bash the countries who choose not to. We can’t decide who’s right and who’s wrong. That is not how empathy works. With true empathy, there is no good guy or bad guy, whether or not you agree with the choices made. There has to be a level of understanding. A moment when you truly place yourself in their shoes and try to understand why they chose what they did. And maybe getting to that point begins with books. There has been extensive research into whether or not reading fiction improves ones capability for empathy (Surugue). It is suggested by a researcher named Oately that fiction novels stimulate “a social world which prompts empathy and understanding in the reader” (Surugue). Fiction novels seem to bring the reader into a complicated world and forces them to look through the main protagonist’s eyes, which actually forces them to emphasize with them on a certain level (Surugue). Interestingly enough, Surugue also states “Some studies have shown that fiction can even make you feel empathy for people who live very different live than you.” And that is our main problem. That is the solution for the gap that Recuber was talking about.
If we have such a problem emphasizing with people who are different from us, then why don’t we force ourselves to learn by reading fiction novels? And what better novel to start that journey on than Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The novel that centers around what empathy truly is surely can hold answers for many struggling to see both sides of any problem. If reading it can cause myself to empathize with beings I don’t see as “good,” then why can’t it do the same with anyone else that decides to delve into it?
Works Cited
Dick, Philip K, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 1968. Print.
Recuber, Tim, “What Becomes of Empathy?” Cyborgology, 20 Jul. 2016, https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2016/07/20/what-becomes-of-empathy/, Accessed 29 Sept. 2016.
Surugue, Lea, “Reading Books and Watching Films Makes You Kinder in Real Life”International Business Times, 19 Jul. 2016, https://via.hypothes.is/http:/www.ibtimes.co.uk/reading-books-watching-films-makes-you-kinder-real-life-1571434#annotations:_MOsQlpyEeaiesf9ed4wVw Accessed 29 Sept. 2016.
Midterm: What Makes Us Human?
What really makes us human? This question has been asked for centuries and yet we still do not have a definite answer. The question at hand is more complex then it seems, not only are there biological aspects that could define us as human, but there are also actions and emotions that we express that need to be taken into account when defining someone or something as human. Empathy is defined as “the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions: the ability to share someone else’s feelings” (Empathy). Many people believe that empathy is what truly makes us human and without empathy you would be considered an android. Androids are human-like; they walk, talk, and even look exactly like humans however they lack a certain emotional connection that humans are known to have. As humans in the 21st century, we have an addiction to technology. Technology is the basis of our culture and it runs our daily lives. You can’t even walk into a grocery store without technology being present in some way. With technology running our lives we have to wonder if our reliance on technology makes us less human; makes us less empathetic. The novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick, shows how the line between human and android can be blurred further making the question, what makes us human, an anomaly.
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter of androids, it is his job to hunt down androids and “retire” them (kill them). During his quest to hunt down and retire highly intelligent androids, Rick starts to realize that androids just might not be any more non-human than Rick himself. This realization comes from Rick’s ability to realize that the androids he is hunting do indeed exhibit empathy, however they exhibit in a way that does not necessarily follow the norms of Ricks society. In Ricks world, empathy is established through the caring of animals. If you own a real animal then you are considered more human, more empathetic, than someone that owns a fake electronic animal. Androids are even hunted using a specific test, the Voigt-Kampff test, which uses scenarios involving animals and the reactions of the one in question. The test proves somewhat effective however, Rick starts to notice that the androids might not have empathy for animals per-say but that they do in fact have empathy for other androids. We know this because “andy’ Rachel Rosen sleeps with Rick in the hopes that he would gain even more empathy towards the androids and stop the killing. Rick starts to wonder what defines true empathy. Does it make the androids less empathetic then Rick if they only care about other androids? Is Rick more empathetic then the androids because he only has empathy for animals and other humans? This is where the line between human and android begins to blur in the novel. Rick however is reminded by fellow bounty hunter Phil Resch that “This is necessary. Remember: they killed humans in order to get away” (Dick 136). Rick is also reminded by androids themselves that they lack certain human qualities. When hunting down Luba Luft, Rick has doubts about retiring her because he has developed empathy for the androids he even gets Luba Luft a book. Luft goes as far as to say to Rick that “There’s something very strange and touching about humans. An android would never have done that” (Dick 133). Luft admits to Rick that androids indeed lack certain emotional aspects that human’s poses. Rick goes on to terminate the remaining androids on his bounty list and on his way home he finds an electric toad, an animal though to be extinct, and although the toad is not real Rick realizes that “the electric things have their lives, too. Paltry as those lives are” (Dick 241). Rick has realized that caring for an electric animal versus a real animal makes neither more empathetic than the other. The electric animals need just as much care if not more than the real animals and that their lives matter too.
Like our society today, Rick and Iran Deckard both have an addiction to some form of technology: the mood organ. Iran deliberately tries to contradict the norms of society by not following the proper etiquette when it comes to using the mood organ, a machine that is programed to make someone feel a certain way based off of not personal choice, but how someone is expected to feel in certain situations as well as a schedule of emotions for each day. Iran refuses to rely on the mood organ and chooses to dial in as depressed as a form of rebellion. We have many similarities between the mood organ and today’s society. The mood organ is used to help someone wake up, be happy, get through the work day and has many more functions. Although our “mood organ” might not necessarily be a machine, we have tools in which we use that act as a mood organ. To wake up in the morning one might drink a large cup of coffee, to become happy one might listen to upbeat music or watch a funny YouTube video. All of these thing seem natural to us, but Dick presents the mood organ just like a cup of coffee, it’s natural to them. Waking up and dialing in to the mood organ is a daily occurrence however, Dick presents it in such a way where we can start to question whether our actions are “android like.”
Many believe that we are too dependent on technology. Everything we do has technology integrated into it in some way and it is almost impossible to go a day without using a smartphone. However, we have people in our society who think that society is not addicted to technology. These people claim that technology is something we can disconnect from and is a tool we use to aide in our day to day lives. But it can be supported that technology has become a norm in society. If someone does not own a smart phone they are ostracized and made fun of. Lennard J. Davis’s article “Constructing Normalcy” puts this into context: “We live in a world of norms. Each of us endeavors to be normal or else deliberately tries to avoid that state” (Davis). Many people believe that relying on technology is a necessity, something we must do in order to function properly in today’s world. However, there are those that defy that norm and believe that technology is turning us into androids. In the lengthy “A Cyborg Manifesto” Donna Haraway creates a dichotomous key focusing on “the rearrangements in worldwide social relations tied to science and technology” (Haraway 300). Her list includes things that were once controlled by society are now influenced by technology. For instance, she lists things such as sex, labor, and mind followed by genetic engineering, robotics, and artificial intelligence (Haraway 300). Everything fist listed comes natural where as those things she counter-listed have been touched by technology in some way and are what is present in our society to this day.
We in fact could consider ourselves androids. Our day to day lives center around technology so much that it’s virtually impossible to go more than 24 hours without a smart phone. Many people claim that this reliance on technology has made our society less empathetic. Tim Recuber talks about this empathy gap in his article “What Becomes of Empathy?” Yes, our technology does have the ability to make us more empathetic due to “increasingly timely and intimate forms of news gatherings in the digital age” (Recuber). However, technology limits us from experiencing other cultures and immersing ourselves into other situations. We are addicted to viewing instead of immersing ourselves in the situation. In their article “Is the Internet Killing Empathy?” Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan claim that our “brains [have] become so desensitized by a 24/7, all-you-can-eat diet of lurid flickering images that we’ve lost all perspective on appropriateness and compassion when another human being apparently suffers” (Small). We are constantly exposing ourselves to “shocking and sensational images and videos,” this constant exposure can result in “desensitization of neural curcits to the horrors we see online” (Small). When looking at current situations in the world things like the Syrian refugee crisis, the Orland shootings, and terrorist attacks are all effected by technology. We have become desensitized, many people don’t sympathize with the Syrian refugees however, many people sympathized/ felt empathy for those involved in the Orlando shooting. This is because our empathy is selective these days, studies have shown that “even on a sensory level, people experience more empathy for the physical pain of those with the same skin color” (Recuber). This is how the gap is formed, we are uninformed and uneducated in situations involving those different from us. We create a barrier that to this day is hard to break. One might look at a picture of a Syrian refugee lying dead on the beach however like stated before we have desensitized ourselves from what we see online. This creates a lack of empathy among the technological age again making us more like androids.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? can be somewhat confusing to someone if they don’t look deeper into what Philip K. Dick was trying to convey to his readers. Yes, empathy is complex and there is no concrete way to define empathy; we all experience it and express it in different ways. Technology however is the reason why empathy has become so complex. Technology is what blurs the line between what is human and what is android. We have certain aspects in our lives which can be conveyed or interpreted as android-like tendencies. What was once a normal human function, such as drinking coffee in the morning, are now considered dependencies similar to a mood organ. Technology has help our society immensely however we spend so much time invested in technology that we don’t see the bigger picture. Our society has become desensitized. Dick shows how androids are desensitized to animals in the novel and just like the androids we as humans have become desensitized to situations around the world because we allow ourselves to become exposed to horrific situations on a daily basis through the use of technology. I am not saying technology is bad but I am also not saying it is 100% good. Technology is a platform that allows us to stay connected, learn, and experience different things but too much access/ too much exposure can sometimes make something that was originally good intentioned turn into something that is hurting our society. We have become androids, a thing that people fear and can’t accept. The answer to what makes us human is so hard to find because as a society we ourselves don’t even know what makes us human.
Work Cited
Davis, Lennard J. “Constructing Normalcy: The Bell Curve, the Novel, and the Invention of the Disabled Body in the Nineteenth Century.” The Disability Studies Reader, Routledge, New York, 2006.
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? New York: Del Ray, 1996. Print.
“Empathy.” Merriam-Webster, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empathy
Haraway, D. “A Cyborg Manifiesto”. The Cybercultures Reader. Bell, D. and Kennedy, B. M. Routledge, 2001.
Recuber, Tim. “What Becomes of Empathy?” Cyborgology, 20 July 2016.
Small, Vorgan. “Is the Internet Killing Empathy?”. CNN.Com, Feb. 8, 2011.http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/18/small.vorgan.internet.empathy/index.html?hpt=C2. Accessed Oct. 10, 2016.
The Power of Empathy
What makes us human? It is not just our human genetic make-up, but personalities, characteristics, and emotions that come with being human. In particular, empathy can be described as shaping the human condition. Empathy is the capability of an individual to “understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions: the ability to share someone else’s feelings” (Empathy). In other words, it is the human ability to connect with others in a sense of parallel emotions; therefore, having the ability to personally identify with the feelings of another. It is commonly believed that the ability to empathize is the paramount difference that separates the human species from androids/cyborgs. Cyborgs, “a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction,” are unable to possess and express empathy like humans are (Haraway 291). Although they have the ability to talk, walk, communicate, and carry out every day functions like humans, they lack the ability to express empathy. This is one key factor that can be said to differentiate the human species from the cyborg species.
In Philip K. Dick’s, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the novel emphasizes the topic of what separates humans from androids; with a particular focus on empathy. It describes a technologically advanced world where androids are very much prevalent. Throughout the text, the reader is left to wonder who is an android and who is human. It shows that technology has consumed the world not only with the presence of androids, but also through technology that humans possess as well. For instance, Rick and his wife, possess a “Penfield mood organ” in which they are able to adjust their mood each day (Dick 1). Rick continuously sets his mood organ to a “businesslike professional attitude,” which is needed for his bounty hunter job of retiring androids (Dick 4). This bounty hunter job allows the reader to see the different sides of both the existence of androids and the life of humans. The novel makes the reader question, what really makes one human, by describing and highlighting features of similarity in both humans and androids. However, empathy was always unequivocally a differentiating factor between the two.
Empathy is the key characteristic of the human species that separates them from a machine-like being. Although it may seem at times that the androids have emotion or feelings, they do not possess empathy, making those ‘feelings’ irrelevant. For instance, Pris is classified as an android in Philip K. Dick’s novel. Although she may seem to be human-like, she does not possess true feelings or empathy, as her actions over time reveal. For example, when Pris came into contact with a spider, she questioned, “all those legs. Why does it need so many legs…,” and then, while smiling, snipped off four of the spider’s legs with scissors (Dick 206). Pris had no reservations or remorse when cutting off the spider’s legs, proving that she possessed no true feelings or empathy for the spider. This showed how even though the androids may act like humans, they are not humans in the slightest bit.
Philip K. Dick’s novel also opened up the revelation that technology is advancing at an alarming pace, making the reader wonder if the novel is a warning to the future of the world. The technological advancement, while beneficial, can also be dangerous. In society today, the concept of the ‘norm’ has overwhelmed the nation. As Lennard J. Davis states, “we rank our intelligence, cholesterol level, our weight, height, sex drive, bodily dimensions along some conceptual line from subnormal to above average” (3). In other words, the world has created a perfect ideal of what the human species should look like, be like, act like, and more; “There is probably no area of contemporary life in which some idea of a norm, mean, or average has not been calculated” (Davis 3). Societal instinct is to judge others based on these so-called norms that have been created over time. If one does not fit these norms, they are automatically classified as abnormal and/or possessing a disability. But who is to say one specific thing is the norm and another thing is not? Just like there is a norm community, there is a disabled community as well. The only thing differentiating the norm from the abnormal is the way in which these individuals and communities function. However, since norms have been so prominently specified throughout the world, the advancement and power of technology that propels this ideology can be very dangerous. Such power of technology may begin to place the norms at higher value and standard due to technology having the ability to ‘fix’ disabled individuals. So, when is it time to start saying no to technology?
In today’s society, the number of disabled/abnormal individuals are growing at a vast rate. A disability is defined as an individual “who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity” (ADA). In today’s society, individuals who do not meet a set of particular norms are deemed disabled. Thus, technology is used to “fix” these individuals since “disability was once regarded very differently from the way it is now” (Davis 3). Instead of seeing disability as a gift or another unique characteristic of an individual, it is now seen as a disadvantage in today’s communities. It is seen as something that limits individuals, or inhibits individuals from being all they can be.
In Philip K. Dick’s novel, there is a character named John Isidore who is considered “a special, a chickenhead” because he deviates from what is considered the norm for a human being in that society (18). One of the norm standards in this society, of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, was determined by a minimum mental facilities test, of which John failed. This was due to the fact that this society wanted to suppress John’s powers of bringing animals back to life by the use of radiation (Dick 24). Consequently, John Isidore was deemed “in popular parlance a chickenhead” (Dick 19). This meant that he was not equal to the other individuals in the sense of societal norms. Therefore, just like John Isidore, many individuals are looked down upon due to their differences that separate them from the norm, such as disabilities; or in John’s case, unique abilities. However, a particular abnormality or disability actually makes an individual extraordinary. Yet, since John Isidore did not meet the specific standards of what a human being should be like, he was punished and fixed by society. This occurs in society today, and with technology rapidly advancing, it will be seen even more. This raises the question of who is to say that a disabled individual is lesser than an individual who meets the societal norms? The answer is no one. But with such technology on the rise, more individuals feel empowered to say what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, if individuals fail to meet specific standards, technology will soon be used to fix the world’s ‘abnormalities and disabilities’ completely.
Consequently, if technology keeps advancing the way it is now, sooner or later the human species will try to create a better version of themselves. This may be seen through “Penfield mood organs,” like in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, or by creating a brand new species classified as cyborgs (Dick 1). Technology has made the world think that everything needs to be fixed since technology provides the ability to do so. However, just because something can be fixed, it does not mean it should be fixed. Each abnormality or disability in the world is what makes the human race a diverse, interesting, unique, and creative species. Without disabilities and abnormalities, the human race would lose its ability to strengthen empathy, and eventually empathy would diminish. If the world was perfect and nothing bad ever happened, because it was programmed accordingly, there would no longer be sorrow or happiness throughout the world; there would ultimately be no presence of varying emotion. This would eventually wipe out empathy because there would be nothing to empathize with. The ability to feel and empathize would become obsolete, perhaps classifying the human race as a new cyborg race.
However, although there are many consequences, there are some benefits of being a cyborg race. As a cyborg, there is no gender bias in society; “The cyborg is a creature in a post-gender world; it has no truck with bisexuality…” (Haraway 292). In other words, a cyborg is a creature of machine, a program with only a body shell to live through. It is a species unaware of gender bias, limitations, or judgment because it has no true sexuality. A cyborg is only truly its machine or program; how and in what way it walks the earth is simply a means to exist. Therefore, since there is no gender in a cyborg society, many of the societal issues the world experiences would not exist. However, this advantage of a cyborg race is not superior to the value of empathy, and the true and unique human race. If societal issues were not a problem anymore, there would be nothing to empathize with. Without the ability to empathize, there would be no true feelings or emotions. The cyborg race would then take over, wiping out what makes the human race, human.
This then questions the connection of empathy and unity. At which point does the human bond break? As Allie Grasgreen states, “Empathy is so strongly believed to be a promoter of civility” (Empathizing 101). In other words, empathy is key to unity. The human race is genetically programmed to feel, express, and connect. It is in the human nature to feel and empathize. Thus, empathy is paramount in practicing the use of feeling, expressing, and connecting with others. Therefore, without empathy, there would be no unity or humanity, since unity relies on those aspects of human life. There would be no way for individuals to connect with one another or interact on a human level. This absence of connection would mean it would be impossible to have unity within the human race. Therefore, empathy is a vital aspect of the human species and the very function of the human race.
Overall, in the world today, society has structured itself around technology. Everything in the world relies on this advancing power; and consequently, this power influences the norms of the world. This power then has a traumatic effect on the disabled/abnormal communities. In the novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, a technologically advanced world was described. It emphasized what makes one human and what makes another android. The main differing factor was empathy. Empathy enables an individual to understand the feelings of another. It allows the world to connect in times of sorrow and happiness. Without this, the human world would be unable to connect with one another, which would make feelings, emotions, and personal connections irrelevant. Society would lose its one true power of unity, which is empathy. Therefore, the world would not care or empathize with those who have abnormalities or disabilities. Thus, with the advancement of technology, the world would then be influenced to completely fix these individuals. However, this fix may further promote the creation of a cyborg population. Living in a cyborg world may mean living without gender bias, but only at the expense of the complete elimination of empathy. Without empathy, the world would be a dull, senseless place, void of unity. The world as we know it would be lost.
Works Cited
Davis, Lennard J. “Constructing Normalcy: The Bell Curve, the Novel, and the Invention of the Disabled Body in the Nineteenth Century.” The Disability Studies Reader, 2nd ed., Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2006, pp. 3–16.
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. The Random House Publishing Group, 1996.
“Empathy.” Merriam-Webster, http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/empathy.
Gasgreen, Allie. “Empathizing 101.” Inside Higher ED. 24 Nov. 2010. Web 11 Oct. 2016.
Haraway, Donna. “A CYBORG MANIFESTO: Science, Technology and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” The Cybercultures Reader, pp. 291–324.
“What Is the Definition of Disability under the ADA?” ADA National Network, https://adata.org/faq/what-definition-disability-under- ada.
The Search For the Ideal: What Society Really Wants
Our contemporary society has a peculiar obsession with sorting things into groups based on how they are different. This can be useful when it comes to things such as silverware, but it starts to get complicated when we start doing this to human beings. As described by Harry M. Benshoff and Sean Griffin in America on Film, this process is described as “othering” (54). In contemporary media, cinema and literature alike, othering has been used to shape a societal norm based around what is ideal. The only thing that stands in the way is the less than ideal: a threat to perfection only because of the risked that something flawed will somehow reflect upon the whole in a negative light. Society’s ongoing search for the ideal will forever be hindered by the desire to create a homogenous society in its place.
In Constructing Normalcy, an academic paper on the evolution of how disablement is viewed in society by Lennard J. Davis, the author dives into the origins of the societal norm. Davis makes particular note on the etymology of the root words “norm” and “average”, specifying how they “all entered the European languages rather late in human history” (3). The concept of the norm developed in the English language over the period between 1840 and 1860, with the word “norm” itself appearing around 1855 (Davis 3). Average, which came from an astronomy method, dates to 1835, with French statistician Adolphe Quetelet and his idea of the average man, “both a physically average and a morally average construct” (Davis 4). The word “ideal”, and by default the concept of the word, only predated the norm by only about two hundred years (Davis 4). The conception of the norm in European culture is usually linked to the growth of statistics (Davis 4). The conception of the norm then evolved into the further subdividing of society based on social class and disability, among other things, that we know today.
The development of a societal norm can be catalyzed from a broad range of factors. One particularly curious instance can be seen in the landscape of Philip K. Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Devastated by nuclear war, most humans have gone to colonize space, leaving only those unfit or unwilling to leave on Earth. Out of this, a societal norm based around empathy has developed, forming into a religion called Mercerism. A large part of Mercerism is taking care of animals, somehow making up for the mass extinctions that were mentioned in the book. However, there is a distinct line drawn between androids and humans. Androids are incapable of feeling empathy; and as a result, are not to be part of the society (Dick 12). The androids, in a way, are victims of “othering”. The main character, Rick Deckard, is a bounty hunter, and has the job or retiring, or deactivating the androids. As the story progresses, Deckard develops empathy towards the androids, and decides to quit his job.
Typically, people have a hard opinion on the matter: whether grouping human is a good thing or a bad thing. There are drawbacks, usually based on moral principals; these choices have shaped our history and our society. It is the norm in the society presented in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep for grouping to occur: those fit to colonize space, those who remain on Earth (and these are grouped into further subgroups) and androids. In the group of people who remained on earth, you have the subgroups of people who can afford real animals, like Bill Barbour (Dick 4), and those who can’t afford real animals, like Rick Deckard (Dick 5). There are also the Specials, like John Isodore, who have been affected by the radiation, and are prohibited, from reproducing or emigrating to Mars.
This concept or “othering” can especially be seen through the past two hundred years of American history through numerous examples of institutional racism; one of the most shocking instances of this is rather contemporary, and seen in retaliation to the Black Lives Matter movement. In the Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, Julius Bailey and David J. Leonard describe the Black Lives Matter movement as “this generations’ ongoing struggle against persistent state-sponsored violence with black bodies as its target” (Bailey 67). It’s a loose comparison, but a line can be drawn between the Black Lives Matter movement and some of the societal groups in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. African Americans have a long history of oppression in the United States, and thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement, it is being exposed that it is still happening to this day at a greater level than was commonly thought.
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, there is oppression towards many groups of people, but especially towards androids and specials. Androids, on Earth, are denied life, and have bounty hunters (like Rick Deckard) searching for them (Dick 12). On the other end of the spectrum, the Specials are denied the ability to reproduce and emigrate (Dick 7). Although African Americans as a whole do not fit the mold developed in Philip K. Dick’s novel, as a group developed by white society, they are denied a sense of safety.
In their paper, Bailey and Leonard mention a few examples of the dehumanization of African Americans. One of these examples is the concept of the “no angel”, when the media focuses on the criminal record of any killed young black man (if a criminal record exists); while on the contrary, the media would portray any killed young white man as an angel, even if a criminal record did exist (74-75). As the authors continue to mention, “the criminalization and dehumanization of blackness require the hyper visibility of ‘thug’ imagery” to keep the ongoing, unfortunate tradition of dehumanizing African Americans and treating them as second-class, despite legislation, that has occurred since Civil War reconstruction (Bailey 75). Although no exact parallels can be drawn between these events in Philip K. Dick’s book, there is a strong link with the specials in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, where they were “abruptly classed as biologically unacceptable” and “ceased, in effect, to be part of mankind” (7). Although it is clear that the stigma against specials is based around a system of eugenics, while the stigma against African Americans is no longer; both groups, as dictated by society, are in some way, shape, or form incapable of falling into a societal norm, and are thus viewed as something less.
As Lennard J. Davis explains in Constructing Normalcy, “a common assumption would be that some concept of the norm has always existed” (3). The concept of disability as not ideal is rather recent. Davis explains this elegantly, putting a pinpoint on the mark in history when this idea began to rapidly change:
As we see it, the social process of disabling arrived with industrialization and with the set of practices and discourses that are linked to late eighteenth and nineteenth century notions of nationality, race, gender, criminality, sexual orientation, and so on (3).
The development of the social norm, forcing out people of the post-industrial idea disability (including race) has led to an imbalance in the world. The Black Lives Matter movement has tried to combat this by vocalizing this issue. However, from the societal norms of both sides of the political spectrum, they have received criticism. Bailey and Leonard mention how people on the right side of the political spectrum question a movement that claim black lives matter while remaining silent in relation to black-on-black crime, while some people that drift more towards the left complain about the specific nature of the movement, attempting to create the countermovement “All Lives Matter”, attempting to encompass a larger group of people that includes the cultural norm. Regardless of where they lie, however, they are not being proactive towards the movement’s mission.
One major question is presented in this phenomenon: why does society have a problem with creating a social norm that accepts people of all backgrounds? The root of the problem might lie in the empathetic response of the people in the societal norm. In the article What Becomes of Empathy, the claim is made that the empathetic response to people of different regions (people not like us, the cultural norm) is different, or less, than the empathetic response to people like us (Recuber). Tim Recuber, the author, uses America’s empathetic response to the terror attacks in Istanbul, Turkey, and compares it to the much greater empathetic response to the terror attacks in Paris, France last year. The average person simply didn’t have the same empathetic response to a terrorist attack that happened in Turkey, in different region with a different kind of people, than one that happened in a Europeanized country, like France, with a people that is similar to the “societal norm” of America. Humans were the victims of both attacks, but it is clear through the empathetic response that the average American viewed one group as more human than the other.
Something similar can be said about the Black Lives Matter movement. Although the people involved in the Black Lives Matter movement are from our country, they are still not considered the Europeanized people we have adapted as our societal norm. For some reason, this continues to be a major hurdle for the movement to gain legitimacy among the majority of the population. Since the Black Lives Matter movement advocates for the safety of African Americans primarily in urban settings, the average person from middle America has trouble empathizing with them, and as a result, is incapable of find a person reason to support the movement.
Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep purposefully makes you feel empathy for the important subplot lead John Isodore. He is portrayed as a generally good person that has been genetically degraded, and deemed less than a citizen. He is also lonely, which a large portion of the book’s audience can empathize with the romanticized version of a loner. However, the real dilemma is whether or not one can empathize with the androids. The androids come from Mars, a region that is not Earth, so using Tim Recuber’s account of the terrorist attack in Istanbul as reference; the average reader will not feel empathy for them. Androids are determined using the Voigt-Kampff Empathy Test, since androids are incapable of showing empathy (Dick 12). However, the new Nexus-6 androids’ abilities are drastically underestimated.
At the root of the issue is this search for the ideal, based off Lennard J. Davis’ paper Constructing Normalcy. The idea as a norm, as said by Davis, “is less of a condition of human nature than a feature of a certain kind of society” (3). The process of othering is our society’s way of creating a norm, and expelling people from it, citing them as less than ideal. The real question is if those marked as less than ideal are any less human. Androids, an exceptional example, obviously are not human, due to their nature, but the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep makes its audience think if they actually are. The specials, despite being removed from society, and humanity by means of sterilization, are no less human than unaffected humans. African Americans, although they have a history of being dehumanized by white society, are no less human than the rest of society. All groups, whether in our society or Dick’s fictional society, are victims of othering and the search for the ideal.
The process of othering, as described by Harry M. Benshoff and Sean Griffin in America on Film can be seen throughout Philip K. Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, as well as the Black Lives Matter movement. Both the androids and the specials in Dick’s book, as well as African Americans, are the unfortunate victims of othering. Due to othering, people will have different empathetic responses, and as a result, society will never find itself to be ideal.
Works Cited
Bailey, Julius, and David J. Leonard. Black Lives Matter: Post-Nihilistic Freedom Dreams. Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, Vol. 5, No. 3/4, pp.67-77. 2015.
Benshoff, Harry M., and Sean Griffin. America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies. Malden, MA, USA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.
Davis, Lennard J. Constructing Normalcy. The Disability Studies Reader, Routledge, New York, 2006.
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? New York: Del Ray, 1996. Print.
Recuber, Tim. “What Becomes of Empathy? – Cyborgology.” What Becomes of Empathy? – Cyborgology. N.p., 20 July 2016. Web. 3 Oct. 2016.
What Defines Our Humanity?
There can be multiple answers to the question of what defines our humanity. Is it our superior intelligence compared to different species? Is it our physical characteristics? Or is it our development and changes throughout the course of history? Phillip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep analyzes the question of what makes us human. The novel centers around the protagonist Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who is faced with the challenge of killing six androids, a species who are believed to lack empathy and thus a threat to humans. Throughout the novel, however, Rick begins to develop empathy for androids, especially those who have not committed any crime(s). There is a possibility that Phillip K. Dick’s novel and Rick Deckard’s develop of empathy for androids can be best understood with police brutality among African Americans and the phrase “Black Lives Matter”.
In Dick’s novel, Rick Deckard initially does not have any empathy for androids he kills or “retires” due to believing that they lack empathy themselves. Throughout the novel, however, readers will notice how he develops empathy towards them. An example of this would be when Rick witnesses the bounty hunter Phil Resch, kill or “retire” an android named Luba Luft. After witnessing this, Rick feels empathic towards her and other innocent androids. He even considers quitting his job as a bounty hunter (Dick 136). Later within the novel, after Rick is assigned to kill three androids and in response purchases a goat. Within the novel’s universe, animals are scarce due to a third world war and radiation. A way for humans to measure empathy is by owning an animal. Rick’s purchasing of a goat represents the empathy that he has developed for androids, he explains this more in detail when he says, “Yes I retired three andys […] I had to buy this […] Something went wrong today; something about retiring them. It wouldn’t have been possible for me to go on without getting an animal” (Dick 171). This passage demonstrates the transformation of Rick’s character and his empathy; in the beginning, he lacked empathy for androids as it was believed that they lacked empathy themselves and thus were not human. By the middle and towards the end of the novel, he develops empathy towards androids especially those who do not pose a threat towards humans.
In the same way that innocent androids are being targeted and profiled by law enforcement in Dick’s novel, African Americans are being profiled and targeted by police officers. On April 12th, 2015 in Baltimore Maryland, a 25-year old African-American man named Freddie Gray was taken into custody by six police officers. While in custody, he received a severe spinal injury that required immediate medical attention. Unfortunately, Freddie Gray went into a coma and died a week after his arrest. His death was ruled as a homicide by the medical examiner’s office, yet none of the six officers involved in his death were found guilty. This is one of my many cases in which African- Americans have died due to police brutality. From Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, to the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philandro Castile in 2016. This is not the first time in history in which they are tensions between African Americans and law enforcement, as historian Heather Ann Thompson points out in Dara Lind’s Vox article, The Ugly History of Racist Policing in America points out, “Nationally, it suggests that we haven’t learned nearly enough from our history. Not just 1917, and all the riots that happened in 1919 and 1921- but much more specifically from the ‘60s. Because of course, this is exactly the same issue that generated most of the rebellions of the 1960s. In 1964, exactly 50 years ago, Philadelphia, Rochester, and Harlem were all touched off by the killing of young African Americans” (Lind 1). The way that innocent African Americans are being profiled and targeted by law enforcement is parallel to how androids within Dick’s novel are targeted by bounty hunters. There have been many cases in which an African-American has been killed at the hands of law enforcement for trivial acts such as selling cigarettes, having a broken taillight, wearing a hoodie, or selling CDs. Despite these trivial acts, some police officers profile African-Americans as dangerous and as a threat, solely because of their skin color and the stereotypes that come along with it. Furthermore, when these cases of murder are taken into the judicial system, there is rarely a case in which the police officer(s) have been found guilty. This situation is parallel to the situation in Dick’s novel, in which androids are automatically profiled and labeled as dangerous, solely because of their race and the misconceptions that come along with it. When an android is killed or “retired”, there is little to empathy from society saying that committing such an act is wrong, it is justified because androids, in general, are perceived as a threat.
Police brutality amongst African-Americans has prompted many activists and protestors to create the saying “Black Lives Matter”. This statement, however, has been misunderstood by third parties. It has been misinterpreted into meaning that only black lives matter and that everyone else’s lives do not matter. Due to this misinterpretation, the counter phrase “All Lives Matter” has been created. The phrase “Black Lives Matter” however, does not mean that no one else’s lives matter, yet it is a response to how African-Americans are treated within the judicial system and American society itself. John Perazzo, author of the article The Profound Racism of ‘Black Lives Matter: The Black Panther Movement Reincarnated, explains the meaning and significance of the phrase, Perazzo states:
“Emphasizing the permanence of America’s depredations, BLM maintains that: (a) our nation’s “corrupt democracy” was originally “built on indigenous genocide and chattel slavery and “continues to thrive on the brutal exploitation of people of color”; (b) “the ugly American traditions of patriarchy, classism, racism, and militarism” pervade every aspect of our society; (c) “structural oppression” still “prevents so many from realizing their dreams”; and (d) blacks in the U.S. are routinely “de-humanized” and targeted for “extrajudicial killings…by police and vigilantes in our “white supremacist system. You see, “Black Lives Matter” means a whole lot more than just “Black Lives Matter” (Perazzo 1).
Through this statement, Perazzo points out the significance of the saying “Black Lives Matter”, it emphasizes the history of blacks and their hostile treatment within America, from slavery, to Jim Crow, to lynching, all the way up to today’s epidemic of police brutality amongst African-Americans. While it is true that all lives do matter, it does not rectify the reality that African-Americans are more subjected towards brutality and harsh treatment by law enforcement, oppression, and racism in a white supremacist society. The phrase “All Lives Matter” does not take this reality into account, it lacks consideration or empathy towards the African-American community.
These problems with the African-American community are parallel to the problems that the protagonist Rick Deckard and androids face in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Rick’s occupation as a bounty hunter can be compared to the occupation of a police officer or law enforcement. His job is to kill or “retire” androids, including those who have not committed any crime unless he is unauthorized to do so. As the novel progresses, Rick begins to question the morality of his job killing androids, especially those who have not committed any crime against society or humans. This part of the novel can be compared to law enforcement and police brutality amongst African-Americans, especially those who have not committed any severe crime. In the beginning, Rick views androids as malicious and threatening. His perception of androids can be compared to how some police officers view minorities such as African-Americans; they view African-Americans as violent, threatening, or aggressive, and thus need to take violent action when it is not necessary. In Dick’s novel, when an android is killed or “retired” there is little to no justice for them as they are not considered human beings. This situation is parallel to how bias the judicial system is for African-Americans, it is a rare case for when a police officer is found guilty of unlawfully murdering an African-American. During the 16th and 17th centuries, African-Americans were considered inferior, primitive, and uncivilized compared to Europeans/Caucasians solely because of their skin color or other physical features, they were not considered human beings. This idea still lingers in the minds of racists Americans and some police officers, sometimes justifying the murder of innocent African-Americans. In the same way that androids were dehumanized by bounty hunters in Dick’s novel, African-Americans are being dehumanized by law enforcement.
In order to resolve the epidemic of police brutality amongst African-Americans, it is best to teach people about the concept of empathy, which is when one puts themselves into someone else’s shoes in order to understand their point of view. Third parties with misconceptions about “Black Lives Matter” must learn about its meaning, significance, and its ties to African-American history. Furthermore, it is imperative that society learns from history and how it affects the conditions of the present. The history of African-Americans within America can explain the condition(s) of the African-American community. Slavery, institutionalized racism, segregation, and hostile treatment from law enforcement all contribute to the epidemic of police brutality amongst African-Americans. Learning how to be more empathetic, however, does not occur unless people are willing to learn. People must be willing to learn how to develop empathy; they must be willing to put themselves in another person’s shoes in order to understand their perspective on an issue. In the article, Emphasizing 101, author Allie Grasgreen discusses Capital University’s experiment to determine whether empathy can be taught. Grasgreen follows assistant professor of psychology, Sara H. Konrath who states, “It is unrealistic to expect students to become more empathetic if they aren’t actually committed to the idea. In other words, they have to have the desire to change” (Grasgreen 1). This comment can be applied to people learning about the social injustices amongst African-Americans and other minorities. In order to develop empathy towards them and call for social change, they must be willing to do so. People must understand the oppression that African-American and other minorities experience in a white supremacist society.
Aside from learning from history, it is also recommended that those who are being taught empathy read more fiction novels. Studies have shown that reading fiction novels tend to increase one’s empathy skills as they are able to sympathize with the character(s) and identify their emotions. The skills of sympathizing and identifying other people’s emotions can then be applied to the real world. According to the article, Reading Books and Watching Films Makes You Kinder in Real Life, Lea Surugue discusses the psychological studies of reading fiction. Reading fictional books and watching movies can help one develop empathy, she supports her claim when she writes, “Some studies have shown that fiction can even make you feel empathy for people who live very different lives than you so long as you begin identifying with them on a basic human level […] This suggest that fictional characters enable readers to imagine what it might be like to be in other people’s situations, even if they are of a different sex, ethnic origin, or nationality” (Surugue 1). In other words, reading novels and watching films can aid in teaching someone empathy, as there can be fundamental themes within these novels or films that be applied to the real world. As a result, a person is able to feel empathy for others and understand them on a basic human level. An example of this would be Phillip K Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and the issue regarding police brutality within America. In Dick’s novel, androids are being profiled and murdered despite some androids such as Luba Luft being innocent and not committing any crime. This issue regarding race and profiling is parallel to African-Americans being targeted by police officers, even though in most cases they have not committed a severe crime. In this example, fiction has drawn a parallel or similarity between its universe and a social issue within the real world. It is teaching a skill, empathy, that can be applied to issues within the real world, such as police brutality amongst African-Americans and Black Lives Matter versus All Lives Matter.
What defines our humanity is our ability to emphasize with others at a basic human level. We have the innate ability to connect with others and see from their point of view regardless of whether or not we have shared similar experiences with others. We must improve our empathy, however, in order to resolve issues affecting society, and one of the societal issues that require empathy is the unjust murders of African-Americas within the United States.
Works Cited
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? New York: Del Ray Books, 1968. Print.
Lind, Dara. “The Ugly History of Racist Policing in America.” Vox. Vox Media, 07 July 2016. Web. 11 Oct. 2016. <http://www.vox.com/michael-brown-shooting-ferguson-mo/2014/8/19/6031759/ferguson-history-riots-police-brutality-civil-rights>.
Perazzo, John. “The Profound Racism of ‘Black Lives Matter'” Frontpage Mag. Frontpage Mag, 22 June 2015. Web. 11 Oct. 2016. <http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/257808/profound-racism-black-lives-matter-john-perazzo>.
Grasgreen, Allie. “Empathizing 101.” Inside Higher Ed. Inside Higher Ed, 24 Nov. 2010. Web. 11 Oct. 2016. <https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/24/empathy>.
Surugue, Lea. “Reading Books And Watching Films Makes You Kinder In Real Life.” International Business Times RSS. International Business Times, 19 July 2016. Web. 11 Oct. 2016. <http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/reading-books-watching-films-makes-you-kinder-real-life-1571434#annotations:_MOsQlpyEeaiesf9ed4wVw>.
I see Cyborgs
This past week the Chanel fashion show for the Spring/Summer 2017 collection opened with “purist black and white — on robots” (Foley). Karl Lagerfeld inspired by computer wires and digital graphics, decided to construct the beautiful Chanel collection around technology. “It’s something of our time,” he said, as well as calling the inclusion of delicate lingerie pieces as “Intimate Technology” (Foley). Besides developing alluring masterpieces, Karl Lagerfeld is not only making a statement in the fashion world, but a statement of our current society. The truth is, we are becoming one with technology, there is no really longer a definite line between cyborgs and humans anymore. Our lives have become immersed in the use of technology to be able to complete our everyday tasks. By reading Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? readers learn of how humans are becoming like a real android, a cyborg.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction book that touches some deep interesting subjects alongside a plot that revolves around a bounty hunter, Rick, who’s job is to eliminate, or “retire”, androids who have come to Earth. These androids are viewed as criminals, who have killed humans in order to scape Mars. “This is necessary. Remember: they killed humans in order to get away.” (62), is what one of the bounty hunters, Phil Resch, tells Rick, because this is when the star of the novel, starts to question his actions.
Rick is starting to have issues differentiating androids from humans. The problem with Rick is not that he is not skilled enough to retire the “andys”, the problem is that, he has lost sight of the fine line that divided them so easily. We can see this when Rick is almost sure his bounty hunter mate is an android. “I’ve got to tell him, he said to himself. It’s unethical and cruel not to. Mr. Resch, you’re an android, he thought to himself” (57). The reader can without an effort see how he started to feel empathetic towards androids, he felt uneasy to bring such a fatal news to him.
We see Rick struggle again with killing another android, Luba Luft because of the unconsciously increasing empathy towards the robots. She is described in the reading as an incredible singer who performs at the War Memorial Opera House. Rick cannot bring himself to retire her right away after capturing her. Instead, Rick does something nice for Luba, he buys her a book she was looking at. “It’s very nice of you,” Luba said as they entered the elevator. “There’s something very strange and touching about humans. An android would never have done that” (60). It was an honest action triggered by real human empathy indeed. After Resch helps him retire her, he then feels some kind of guilt, uneasiness and has trouble with his conscious. “I don’t get it; how can a talent like that be a liability to our society?” (62). The reader can see that he continues to question himself, his morality as a person. Is he really doing the right thing? He brings himself together and tries to stick to his duties. Later, he falls into the carnal desires of a typical human, and sleeps with a rather beautiful android, Rachael Rosen. This is another action that confuses the reader, because it is an act that we naturally believe is only meant to be experienced between humans.
His continued cognitive dissonance makes the reader inquire “where is the line? What makes us really different?” Rick is only able to move on from here and eliminate all of the remaining escaped droids because Racheal reveals the secret behind the evil master plan of the Rosen Association, who are trying to take over the humans on Earth. At last, the reader thinks, there is the line, androids were malicious and they should be eliminated. But in the very end of the story, Rick finds an electric toad. Him and his wife, Iran, still decides to take care of it, regardless of it not being a real animal. The reader, evidently, is confused again, because Dick just made a point of how real, natural, or robotic something is, it does not really matter at the end.
Dick’s point here is to show that, we are not machines, but that we are definitely immersed in technology. Rick’s wife does not throw away the electric toad, she decides to take care of it. Rick feels empathy for Luba Luft and Racheal Rosen, he does not see how they could be more than beautiful women who are talented or very attractive. He feels uncomfortable for disappointing Resch with the apparent truth that he is not human, which will not only bring him dismay, but will mean that Rick will have to end his “life”. Dick presents all of these great examples of how one way or another, we allow ourselves to choose to live with technology and we are naturally, unconsciously or consciously okay with that.
Dick not only shows us how connected we are with technology with only Rick’s interactions with the andys, but he gives us more hints that are a little bit more alarming too. Buster Friendly and His Friendly Friends are the stars of the only tv channel available, basically all over the galaxy. They have talk shows to essentially entertain the humans every single day at every hour. “I was sitting here one afternoon,” Iran said, “and naturally I had tamed on Buster Friendly and His Friendly Friends and he was talking about a big news item he’s about to break”(3). Buster Friendly and His Friendly Friends are cyborgs, but who stops to think about that? Technology, like Iran said, was “naturally” part of their daily lives, and nobody second guessed it. Except maybe John Isidore, who portrays the fool of the novel called a “chickenhead”. “How did Buster Friendly find the time to tape both his aud and vid shows? Isidore wondered” (33). But Isidore just wondered, and he as the rest of the population, continued to listen to the show and believed whatever Buster Friendly and His Friendly Friends were saying. They truly believed Buster Friendly was “the most important human being alive” (32). This goes to show how androids were so connected with humans. No wonder Rick was having a hard time being able to differentiate them.
One of the oddest ways Dick gets the reader about this ordinary unconscious connection with technology, is by talking about the mood organ. The mood organ is a machine that humans use to tune in their moods, feelings and desires so that they can properly function throughout the day. Like, we would think a cyborg would, wouldn’t it? We think of robots as machines that should be programmed by humans, not the other way around. “At his console he hesitated between dialing for a thalamic suppressant (which would abolish his mood of rage) or a thalamic stimulant (which would make him irked enough to win the argument)”(3). The reader struggles to distinguish at the beginning of the reading if Rick and Iran are actually humans because of said mood organ. As the reading continues, and as I have described earlier, the line between who is human and who is a android gets finer and finer.
Why would Dick include in his book a mood organ? Maybe because he is trying to highlight that we in deed use such “mood organs” everyday to function, just like Iran and Rick do. “Will you go to bed now? If I set the mood organ to a 670 setting?” (110). The author gave it to us in the most simple way of how it actually happens in our daily lives, yet in this perspective, we struggle to make sense out of it, because these actions sound odd and unnatural. Still, people today can easily grab a pill to be able to sleep at night if they are suffering from too much stress or insomnia. They can grab their phones, synced to their car’s computer, play an upbeat song to get away from depressed and sad feelings. People can go to a bar and get alcoholic drinks to forget about their day, or take an energetic drink to make it through a long day. That is, a mood organ in our current society. At some extent, we are letting ourselves be programed by technology, just like a cyborg.
People can argue that we are not like cyborgs, that we might have become too needy with technology but we are always able to “disconnect” our lives from it. But can we really? Author Donna Haraway argues this on her extensive paper “A Cyborg Manifesto”. During her prose, she is able to make anyone realize how combined our lives actually are with technology. “The frame for my sketch is set by the extent and importance of rearrangements in worldwide social relations tied to scene and technology.” She is talking about how she created a list of commonalities of our daily lives that are no longer constituted 100% naturally, so we can see how much we are connected with technology. She includes things like: heat, hygiene, noise, population control, stress management, reproduction, among others. If we are taking a shower, we need a plumbing system installed in our homes, which runs thanks to electricity. If someone is struggling with stress, their psychiatrist might prescribed them a pill, which was manufactured in a laboratory with the use of computers and other technological tools. “There is no fundamental, ontological separation in our formal knowledge of machine and organism, of technical and organic. Our sense of connection to our tools is heightened”(313). Haraway’s point is, we need technology because we are able to function with technology, just like Iran and Rick with their mood organ. Today, our everyday starts and end with technology, there is not really a way around it anymore.
Another proof of how we are becoming like cyborgs, or like droids from the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is with the advances in technology targeted to help people with disabilities. “[P]erhaps paraplegics and other severely handicapped people can have the most intense experiences of complex hybridization with other communication devices. (313) Machines can be prosthetic devices, intimate components, friendly selves” (314). Haraway is trying to say that technology has come so far that now, we can literally install an arm robot in our bodies. People with prosthetic devices are the most pure and obvious notion of how that fine line between human and androids is diminishing as time goes by. Notice how she uses the words “intimate” and “friendly”, she does not sees it as a hostile takeover of humanity like Philip Dick, but more like something we should live with peacefully.
It is important to address that, even though Dick shows us on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? that our lives have become connected with technology, he still insists on one common skill androids did not share with humans: empathy. Regardless of their human-like appearance and artificial intelligence, androids did not demonstrate real empathy. Disick clearly states it at the beginning of the reading, “Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order including the arachnids. Because, ultimately, the emphatic gift blurred the boundaries between hunter and victim, between the successful and the defeated” (11). This is why Rick had so much trouble retiring the androids, his empathy had indeed blurred the line between who is human and who is android, who is deserving of living and who is deserving of dying, who, in fact, is actually different. This is true, as a matter of fact. Studies support that we can feel empathy “for people who live very different lives than you – so long as you begin identifying with them on a basic human level” (Surugue). Rick is feeling empathy for something he cannot truly understand, a robot that looks like a human but does not live like one, and that is the true beauty and power of being a human.
I believe what the author Philip Dick is trying to show us with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is that we have to be more attentive of how far and quickly technology is being immersed in our lives. Buster Friendly and his Friendly Friends were not being “friendly” towards humans. The droids on the book were killers without remorse or feelings. They were all plotting to take over Earth, silently, camouflaging themselves among the humans, engaging in their lives, so they could in fact, blur the lines. Iran and Rick believed they were dependable on their mood organ, even though they could experience feelings and moods without it. Technology is not something that can be categorized as good or bad, is a tool like a hammer, that can be used and should be used wisely. We cannot let media brainwash us into believing unreliable opinions and facts, or make us take actions in ways we should not. In today’s world we can be compared to cyborgs, from being attached to our phones to have literally attached a machine to us, but we will never stop being humans because we have something a robot will never be able to have: empathy.
References:
Dick, P. K. (1968). Do androids dream of electric sheep. New York: Random House Publishing Group.
Foley, B. (2016). Chanel RTW Spring 2017. WWD. Retrieved from http://wwd.com/runway/spring-ready-to-wear-2017/paris/chanel/review/
Haraway, D. “A Cyborg Manifiesto”. The Cybercultures Reader. Bell, D. and Kennedy, B. M. Routledge, 2001.
Surugue, L. (2016). Reading books and watching films makes you kinder in real life. International Business Times. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/reading-books-watching-films-makes-you-kinder-real-life-1571434
Disability and Humanity
Every day, more and more people come into a disability. Whether they’re born with an extra chromosome, develop anxiety from the stresses of the world, or needing to amputate a limb due to an injury; disability is present all around us today. With this omnipresence of disability, one would think that deformities and disabilities would be generally accepted. That assumption would be wrong in our current society. In today’s community, disability is viewed as an outlier, a deviation from the norm (Davis 6). If someone were to walk by a man in a wheelchair on the street, they would stare and gawk as though his incapability to walk made him a freak of nature; anything but a human being. But, the disabled are still people. They can empathize with others, they can still function in society in many different ways, and they can contribute to the world around them. Better yet, they can want to contribute to the world that they live in to make meaning of their existence. If they lack the ability to do so, there are programs that can teach and rehabilitate the disabled to help them to learn for the very first time or relearn skills that would allow them to do what they can to pitch into their society. Our differences o not make us any more or less human. Being different is a part of being human.
A part of being human is the ability to empathize with others. Empathy follows any and every tragedy in one way or another. Tim Recuber points out that empathy is what drives “efforts at social justice”. Recuber notes a personal experience following the Orlando shooting at the Pulse nightclub. “I experienced an intense form of empathy for the victims and their families… I read the news from a position of safety and security, but still felt that empty pit in my stomach…” (What Becomes of Empathy?). Tim sno relations nor any connections to anyone impacted by the shooting and yet his heart goes out toward the victims and their families. Why? Because he is a full functioning human being? No. Because he is a human being.
Philip K. Dick defines being human by characters’ ability to empathize in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. In the novel, androids are disguising themselves as humans. The only way to tell the ever advancing technology that is the Nexus-6 line of androids from humans is their ability to empathize, or lack thereof. An examination called the Voight-Kampff Empathy Test would be given to those suspected of being an android via a series of questions designed to trigger one’s empathy. If one were to fail the examination, they were assumed to be an android. But sometimes, a “special” would fail the exam (Dick).
“Specials” of Dick’s world in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep are those that have been impacted by the radiation. They are considered “disabled” because they have become genetically defective from their exposure to the radiation. Their intelligence may be deteriorated or other such abnormalities can develop, thus a medical examination will label them as a “special” (Dick). In today’s society there are numerous conditions where one’s ability to empathize is diminished such as Narcissistic Personality Disorder or sociopathic tendencies but they can go unnoticed in society when managed properly. Recuber explains that being able to identify with other humans creates a special connection, a bond, between all humans, no matter their physical distance (What Becomes of Empathy?). A sense of understanding develops across the miles of land and sea.
However, there is no sense of understanding in Dick’s fictitious world between the specials and those who remain unaffected by the radioactive dust. Specials are portrayed as outcasts due to their tainted genetics, below average IQ scores, and on occasion, an inability to empathize. These specials are sterilized and no longer have the opportunity to immigrate to the radiation free colonies on Mars. The specials may be below average in terms of intelligence but they are still people. Isidore, a special in Dick’s novel, can still function in society well enough to support himself. He held a job for a time and his “condition” was only evident through a stutter. An open display of being human by empathizing in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is to care for an animal. Isidore, for a short period of time, cared for a spider and was mortified when his companion began to mutilate it. Yes, Isidore the special, the disabled, doesn’t conform to the norm of society but he is still a functioning asset of the human population.
Those who face disablement may not view their impairment as a disability but rather as a minor difference. Lennard Davis opens his chapter on “Constructing Normalcy” by emphasizing that “the ‘problem’ is not the person with disabilities; the problem is the way that normalcy is constructed to create the ‘problem’ of the disabled person” (Davis 3). Sunaura Taylor has arthrogryposis and she has adapted to her condition in many ways. While she is wheelchair bound she can still function in society, just with a different approach than those who are not “disabled”. Her joints do not work normally so she has trouble picking things up but that does not stop her. When she goes to a coffee shop, she can pick up her cup with her mouth since she doesn’t have the necessary ability to do so with her hands. She can also ask for assistance to bring her cup to her table or she could get a tool that could help her carry things (Examined Life).
There are many other prevalent disabilities in today’s society; blindness and deafness are just two of the many conditions. Those who have issues with their hearing or vision can get implants and surgeries to correct their “problems” or they can learn to adapt to their conditions. The people with hearing impairments can learn to read lips instead of relying on their auditory sense. Those with vision impairments can learn to read by touch and to navigate their world by sound and touch by developing a skill similar to echolocation.
Many people believe that the disabled couldn’t possibly contribute to the world but they are wrong. Those who are blind could become exemplary telephone operators or a position that involves the use of touch and hearing to be completed effectively. Those who are deaf could become fantastic visual editors or writers. The disabled can always learn to take their disability and turn the side effects into a positive. They can “develop abilities that other people lack” and thus they can balance out the disadvantages of their condition with these abilities (Bognar 47).
There are an almost infinite amount of different forms of rehabilitation and treatment for different handicaps across the globe. People can be taught to walk on prosthetics and can learn how to formulate speech; basic skills necessary to navigate in today’s society. Those who can’t do or learn these sorts of tasks are often looked down upon because they are “different”; they are defective. Having a disability shouldn’t impair one’s ability to be a human being and contribute to society but rather it should change the approach to the contribution. Isidore was an exemplary human being in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? who does his best to take part in his community. Being human is about doing your best to be an asset to society and to always strive to be a better person.
The disabled are still people, whether they are emotionally, mentally, or physically handicapped. While they are technically classified as people, they are still viewed as different, as not normal; as sub-human. Lennard Davis says in “Constructing Normalcy” that the problem is not the person but rather the way that normalcy is defined in context to the ideal in society (4). What Davis is saying is that the concept of the norm is what is labeling the person as a problem, as different. The person is still considered a human being but they are different; an outlier on the bell curve of the human norm (6). Davis references that “deviations mor or less great from the [average] have constituted ugliness in body as well as vice in morals and a state of sickness with regard to the constitution” (5). So, this concept of the norm is what sets apart those with disabilities or differences from the average person.
Being human involves a cognitive decision on whether or not to try. It is up to the individual to employ their ability to contribute to their society. Greg Bognar points out that disability can impact quality of life and not just be a mild inconvenience that can be overcome. There are medical conditions that can cause constant agonizing pain, making life seem not worth living (46). This stigma does not come from the outside source of society but from within the disabled person. Bognar goes on to acknowledge possible arguments such as the disabled not feeling at a disadvantage and that it is those who do not share the condition that consider the disabled as afflicted. He also describes how those facing disability can adapt to their disability. With this acknowledgment, he goes on to differentiate that some conditions cannot be adapted to but all disabilities can be adjusted to (46-47). Bognar concludes that disability is simply another part of human characteristics such as gender and race. Just like of characteristics that cannot be controlled, there is discrimination and prejudice towards the disabled just as there is towards females and other similar case (48).
Bognar never hit back on the point that the disabled may feel that their disability isn’t just a mild setback but rather something not worth living through. There is still a conscious decision that has to be made in this regard. The disabled person is allowing their self to lose hope for a possible treatment or cure for their condition. They can hold onto that hope and can lead by example for those with similar or the same condition or they can give up and cast another shadow over the debilitating condition that they had been fighting. Treatment is a two way street. There is the one way for the doctors and the physical treatment and the other way is for the disabled to keep heart. If the disabled person just accepts that they are going to die then their body will not fight as hard to survive and the attempts at treatment may prove less effective. These tough decisions and actions are all a part of being human. Choosing to fight through and adapt to the disability is just the same as fighting through a hardship in everyday life.
The disabled may be viewed as deviations from the norm and thus different and unapproachable. Empathy bridges the gap between all human beings. If an able bodied person were to actively empathize with their fellow humans, they’d be able to understand their plight and make the world more welcoming to the disabled. The disabled will not be viewed as freaks of nature but as the human beings that they are. Their efforts to participate and contribute to society will become more welcome and the world would be much better at understanding its patrons. The world will be better with the disabled’s different abilities and a stronger community will be forged. Humanity and empathy will unite the world into one.
Works Cited
Bognar, Greg. “Is Disability Mere Difference?” J Med Ethics, vol. 42, no. 1, 2015, pp. 46-49.
Davis, Lennard J. “Constructing Normalcy: The Bell Curve, the Novel, and the Invention of the Disabled Body in the Nineteenth Century.” The Disability Studies Reader, Routledge, New York, 2006.
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Ballantine Books, 1996.
“Examined Life – Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor 720p.avi.” YouTube, uploaded by 黃小竹, 6 Oct. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0HZaPkF6qE.
Recuber, Tim. “What Becomes of Empathy?” Cyborgology, 20 July 2016. www.thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2016/07/20/what-becomes-of-empathy/. Accessed 1 Sept. 2016.