Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, a novel by Philip K. Dick demonstrates a dystopian society in which humans and machines are indistinguishable due to a lack of empathy shown by the main human characters in the book. The main theme in the novel regards empathy, and how that emotion makes us human, and what we are without it. It focuses on empathy, the ability to sympathize with and understand the pain and suffering of others as the most basic and vital of human feelings. The society displayed in the novel has many similarities to the society we live in today for multiple reasons; the lack of empathy displayed by the human characters in the books are often displayed by people in today’s young American society, and the constant rapid advancement of technology in the 21st century is also a very familiar reality to those living in this current time period. Androids or robots that look and feel very “human” have already been created, it is very possible that in the near future they will be mass produced for profit. The events that have occurred recently and throughout human history have also created many people who do not feel very empathetic during tragedies or the struggles of others. Social injustices, natural disasters, and acts of terrorism have all become so constant in our society that a majority of people have become unempathetic when these situations arise.
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep there the society displayed demonstrates a contrast between human beings and their feelings vs. the lack of feelings that androids have. A few characters in the novel do not seem to have any empathy at all, even a few androids seem to have a higher capacity for that emotion than their human counterparts. For example, Pris shows an admiration and care for John’s safety although she is an android. Similarly, Roy also seems to have certain human affections towards another android although he is a machine as well. Then there are human characters such as Phil and Rick who do not seem to show empathy at all towards androids, they kill them throughout the story uncaringly as if they were insects. This pattern of a lack of empathy is also displayed in our society today in many contexts. Should those who do not react to tragedies with emotion be considered less human? For example, recently an extreme hurricane tore through the Caribbean islands, all but destroying some. Very little Americans reacted to this news with sadness or empathy to the situation. The average person you knew did not create any fundraisers, or donate money to any of the Caribbean islands to help them rebuild. The president of America, Donald Trump has even spoken words condemning Puerto Rico, pointing out that they owe the US government money and the hurricane that hit the island is costing the government even more. In his Fox News interview he states how important it is that the debt in Puerto Rico be “wiped out.” It has been a topic that has been overall ignored by the general population in America. Is this because those in the Caribbean our not considered our fellow countrymen? Is it acceptable for people to not empathize and desire to help with such a tragedy just because those affected are not native to their home country? Many say that the damage done by the hurricanes are not as tragic because it happened in the Caribbean which is expected. Is it acceptable that some people believe that places where tragedy is expected or unsurprising that those affected by these tragedies deserve a less empathetic response from others? Overall, the destruction that was inflicted on the Caribbean was not given much attention by your average American apart from a few words of acknowledgement. This lack of caring is directly relatable to the society depicted in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, where massive environmental destruction was caused by uncaring humans.
In the article “Empathizing 101,” Allie Grasgreen argues the change in emotion in those living in the 21st century describe the exact phenomenon of lack of empathy as time passes for humans. She discusses how the new generation of “millenials” is said to be the “least empathetic generation yet.” It is stated in the article that “College students today are 40 percent less empathetic than those who graduated two or three decades ago” (Grasgreen). As time passes, it seems that generations are growing less and less empathetic. This could be due to the fact that we have become numb to tragedy; we are now too used to hearing and seeing about bad things that happen around the world and to other people. The advances in media may have contributed to this as well. The news is now rolling 24/7 on TV, the negative stories get higher views and ratings. Death, tragedy, and social turmoil are regular topics on news networks. Social media makes videos of many tragedies readily available for viewing within minutes of them occurring. Shootings can be live streamed, natural disasters as well. Movies and video games are now saturated with violence and violent topics. It is nearly impossible to watch a movie or play a video game that does not involve some type of violence, blood shed, and especially death. All of these factors that involve advancement in technology could very well contribute to the way that millennials have become numb to tragedy. When something is displayed or seen too much, it becomes the norm and it is harder to feel emotion towards something that is or seems so common. In terms of the context of the novel, this makes us seem a lot like how we would consider machines or “androids” to behave.
In the article “What Becomes of Empathy,” by Tim Recuber it is discussed how empathy can also have a negative impact in today’s society and Recuber provides examples of this. He discusses how we are unable to have true empathy for anyone who is not like us, or who we cannot relate to in some way. This ties back to what was discussed earlier, as many Americans did not empathize with hurricane victims in the Caribbean because they are not necessarily Americans like them. Recuber calls this the “empathy gap,” which describes the difference in reactions that people have when someone like them is going through a tragedy or hardship than when someone who is different or unrelatable is going through the same type of tragedy or hardship. The latter always gets less to no empathetic response. “This same empathy gap has also been used to describe the relatively low level of public attention paid to the recent terror attack in Istanbul, compared with the dramatic outpouring of emotion in the West devoted to last year’s attacks in Paris” (Recuber). This is one of many examples that show that there may be certain limitations to empathy and how much/when humans can genuinely experience the emotion for the suffering of others. Why would a reaction to terrorism in Paris be greater than a reaction to the same occurrences in a non-western country? It is not that the people in Istanbul are less human, it is that people are often unable to deeply sympathize with the suffering of those unlike them, living in a place unlike theirs. It could be argued that empathy is a selfish emotion that can only occur when people can relate suffering to themselves. If it can happen to people like you in a place like yours, who is to say it won’t happen to you yourself? It is these questions that seem to spark an empathetic response in humans overall. Every emotion is often driven by self-preservation and safety concerns more than an actual passion for others. This is once again a common theme in Philip K. Dick’s novel. The humans in the novel are unable to empathize with the androids, and vice versa. The two are just too different from one another to relate to the tragedy of loss on one side.
The mass advancement of technology today also makes the mass production of ultra-realistic humanoid machines very possible, as a few robots comparable to this description have been created already. It is very possible that Philip K. Dick’s interpretation of society could have been a peek into the future, as we are very close to a reality such as this. Even the post-apocalyptic feel of the novel with the earth being destroyed by human weapons and irresponsibility is a possible outcome of the future at the rate we are moving as a human race. Weapons of mass destruction exist and are in the hands of opposing countries who constantly use them to threaten one another regardless of their knowledge of what it would do to the environment if used. The novel is not that far from a very real reality/future that humans may have to face in the near future.
Overall, the novel and the two articles are an arguable description of today’s society or a possible future society for many reasons. A lack of basic human emotion is becoming increasingly severe as tragedies become more and more common and available for viewing in the world. Rapid advancements in technology are also starting to make it seem as if a robot species will also be possible very soon. These articles and this novel could very well be used as a warning sign to the human society as to what direction we are headed in if we keep up at the rate we are with our technology, entertainment, and news outlets. This empathy gap can easily be reversed if we made sure the media takes a more sensitive approach when discussing topics of suffering such as death, natural disaster, and violence. Although it should not be sensored, this content should be circulated differently and less. We also must be careful of who we elect to be our leaders. If those who lead us do not show empathy, how can we?
Works Cited
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Doubleday, 1968.
Fox News. 4 Oct. 2017, www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/03/
trump-on-puerto-ricos-debt-were-going-to-have-to-wipe-that-out.html.
Recuber, Tim. “What Becomes of Empathy.” Cyborgology, 20 July 2016, thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/
2016/07/20/what-becomes-of-empathy/.
Grasgreen, Allie. “Empathizing 101.” Inside Higher Ed, 24 Nov. 2010, www.insidehighered.com/news/
2010/11/24/empathy.