What defines us as humans? This question has had many answers throughout history and it is constantly being revised. Is it our ability to think, rationalize, and reason? Is it the color of our skin or our religion? Or is it our ability to show empathy? Or maybe defining what is human just divides us further. The question of what makes us human is discussed in Phillip K. Dick’s novel, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” In the text, they believe the difference between humans and all other species is a human’s ability to show empathy. The novel is set in post-apocalyptic San Francisco and explores the lives of Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter struggling to accept the consequences of his job, and John R. Isidore, a societal outcast who has been labeled “special” because he was deemed less intelligent than a human should be. What sets humanity apart from every other species is not intellect or empathy, but rather our ability to consciously decide to make choices that impact those around us.
Rick’s job requires him to “retire” androids who have escaped from what is essentially slavery on the colonized planet Mars. In the text, Dick writes ‘”It’s a hard thing to explain. Having a servant [an android] you can depend on in these troubled times . . . I find it reassuring.”’ (7) After reaching Mars, each person is given an android servant/slave who works for them to make the adjustment to Mars easier. Rick justifies killing androids by claiming that the androids are not human and therefore their lives do not have value. He begins to become morally conflicted when he realizes that he can empathize with androids and that androids can empathize. He is tasked with retiring six Nexus-6 androids, a new model of android, that have escaped from Mars and are currently on Earth. One of these androids, Luba Luft, captures Rick’s attention because she shares a passion for Opera just as he does. After Luba Luft is killed, Rick asks Phil Resch, a fellow bounty hunter “”Do you think androids have souls?”’ (Dick 56) This is the first time the reader sees Rick actually question his job and whether or not he is doing the right thing.
Isidore finds himself in a similar situation as the androids. Society has labeled him a “special” because he failed an IQ test that would have allowed him to travel to Mars with the rest of the humans that passed. He is essentially labeled less than human just like the androids and is doomed to stay in what is left of San Francisco. “Once pegged as special, a citizen, even if accepting sterilization, dropped out of history. He ceased, in effect, to be part of mankind.” (Dick 7) In their society, intellect is what they use to determine the value of a human and empathy is what makes someone human. It is questionable whether empathy is a truly valuable characteristic to the society in the story because John shows more empathy than any other character and he is still exiled. The author writes, ‘”You’re androids,” Isidore said. But he didn’t care; it made no difference to him.’ (Dick 65) This quote shows that John indiscriminately shows care for all things regardless of the consequences.
Empathy may be a valuable characteristic and should be encouraged but it is not all that makes us human because it can be influenced by the social environment one grew up in, physical trauma to the brain, or emotional trauma. A human who is able to empathize is seen as compassionate or caring which are characteristics that society has deemed as positive. But there are many reasons that could justify a lack of empathy in a human. In the text, Rick gives the Voight-Kompf test to each android to determine if they are human or not. The test measures empathetic responses to intentionally provocative statements. However, the test only accounts for normal responses within one society. In the text, Dick writes “I can explain why she scored as an android might. Rachael grew up aboard Salander 3. She was born on it; she spent fourteen of her eighteen years living off its tape library” (21) In this case, she would not have been able give the appropriate physical responses because she had never actually experienced their society. Also, medical studies have shown that emotional and physical trauma can impact one’s ability to connect with others emotionally and lessen their empathy. According to a study published in 2014, by Melissa Parlar, doctor of philosophy and neuroscience, studying the effects post-traumatic stress disorder from childhood has on empathy, women who had experienced severe emotional trauma in their childhood had significant deficits in their empathetic abilities. They were able to exhibit empathy in situations that were similar to situations of their own but found it harder to identify with situations that were not directly related to their own personal experiences. Empathy should be encouraged, but there are many groups who would be excluded from humanity if the determining factor was empathy.
For example, in the novel, animals are rare and sacred so most questions on the Voight-Kompf revolved around killing and eating animals. If the same test were to be given to people in American society today, most people would fail because it is normal for us to eat animals. The test would see us as less empathetic than normal, determine that we were androids, and we could be killed. These types of test cannot be tailored to each person in the human race because every culture varies in practices and beliefs. For instance, if a test was given to a group of people who practiced Hinduism, an appropriate statement to trigger an emotional response would involve eating a cow since they are sacred in their culture. This could not be applied to other groups such as Christians since there is no religious restriction on what animals can be consumed. Also, a person who experienced emotional trauma may not be able to empathize in a way that society deems as normal as shown by the empathy study by Melissa Parlar previous cited. The same goes for those who have experienced physical trauma to their brain. One famous example of this is Phineas Gage. Gage was a railroad worker who was disfigured in an accident that damaged his prefrontal cortex. In an article published in the Smithsonian Online Magazine recounting the incident, his friends stated that after the accident “The balance between his “intellectual faculties and animal propensities” seemed gone.” This means that he became more primal, crude, and unable to empathize all because of the physical trauma.
Intellect also cannot be the sole factor of what determines whether or not we are human. Our society, like the one is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, values intellect as a superior quality and has created a competitive culture based on intellect. But using this to determine the value of a human inherently marginalizes a few groups like the mentally disabled and the poor. Those who are mentally disabled are not capable of passing the IQ test like the ones in the text so they will be discriminated against just like Isidore was. The poor generally do not have access to the same quality of education as the rich and thus test on very different levels. According to an article published by the Atlantic, “The discrepancies occur largely because public school districts in Connecticut, and in much of America, are run by local cities and towns and are funded by local property taxes.” This means that wealthy areas will have better schools because they are funded by property tax in that zone and poorer area will have less funding due to low property taxes. This causes poorer children to have lower test scores and to have lower value placed on them.
Society also encourages us to compete based on physical capabilities. Olympians and athletes receive incredibly high praise and children are often encouraged to play sports at very young ages. In schools, students have to take the presidential fitness test that assess whether or not they are able to reach the national average in physical fitness. Amateur and professional athletes are ranked based on accomplishments and the higher you are in the ranks the more you are worth to a team and to a society. But valuing people based on physical capabilities discriminates against physically impaired people.
Discrimination against the disabled is a largely topic discussed in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and in today’s society. J.R. Isidore has been labeled “special” which basically means that he was not intelligent enough to immigrate to Mars sand continue on as a part of the human race. In many cases, the disabled community is treated as less than human. They are not accommodated for in society and are socially unaccepted. In the video Examined Life Judith Butler, a philosopher and gender theorist, and Sunaura Taylor discuss the limitations physical and mental disabilities put on an individual.
Sunaura Taylor suffers from arthrogryposis which left her in a wheelchair with limited use of her body. She discussed how she had always been an outcast and bullied by her peers. She moved to San Francisco because she felt as if there was less of a stigma about people with disabilities there so it was easier to interact. It was one of the few places that did not have limited access to public places for the disabled and therefore people were more accustomed to seeing them and more likely to interact with them. But Sunaura brings up and good point about humanity that largely connects to my thesis, “In my opinion, help is something that we all need, and is something that is looked down upon when we all need help in this society and we are all interdependent in so many ways.”
The human race is interdependent and the choices we make when interacting with each other determine how we influence the world around us. Although humans have not been known for making the best choices, the fact that we are able to make such powerful one’s is unique to our species. In the past. we have made the choice to create social barriers and to discriminate against others and we can make the choice to break down those barriers. In Constructing Normalcy, Lennard J. Davis explains that the idea of idealizing being average inherently creates a hierarchy of people. If there is an average, there will always be a below and above average. In order to deconstruct normalcy, we have to change the way we look at certain groups and become a more inclusive society. One way to start this is to make decisions in our everyday life to make every person feel equally valued in society. The example Sunaura Taylor gives in Examined Life is helping a physically impaired person to carry their coffee to their table. Small acts of kindness to help every group feel accepted and accommodating society for universal use are small practices that can go a long way in improving our society as a whole.
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Rick and John choose to live their lives in very different ways just as we all do every day. We can choose to live our lives like Rick did and reject what is different and abnormal. Most of us do, and that is why we currently live in a society than ranks people and excludes and discriminates against many minority groups. Or we could decide of live our lives like John Isidore and show empathy and compassion for everyone no matter the race, religion, intellectual capability, physical capability or species. We could choose to deconstruct the idea of what normal is and break down the societal barriers that divide us. It could be as easy and a friendly conversation or carrying a cup of coffee. Or it could be as complicated as advocating for equal education opportunities and disability rights. But none of this is out of our reach. We just have to make the conscience choice to be a little more like John.
Work Cited
Davis, Lennard J. “Constructing Normalcy.” The Cyborg Apocalypse , eng28105fall15.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/constructingnormalcy_davis.pdf.
Dick, Phillip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? www.larevuedesressources.org/IMG/pdf/dadoes.pdf.
“Examined Life- Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor 720.p Avi.” Youtube, 6 Oct. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0HZaPkF6qE&t=328s.
Parlar, Melissa. “Alterations in Empathic Responding among Women with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Associated with Childhood Trauma.” Brain and Behavior, vol. 4, no. 3, 13 Mar. 2014, pp. 381–389., doi:10.1002/brb3.215.
Semuels, Alana. “Good School, Rich School; Bad School, Poor School.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 25 Aug. 2016, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/property-taxes-and-unequal-schools/497333/.
Twomey, Steve. “Phineas Gage: Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Jan. 2010, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/phineas-gage-neurosciences-most-famous-patient-11390067/.