Category: Blog

While in pursuit of Luba Luft, Rick attempts to use the Voight-Kampff test on her. Luft is continuously able to deflect each question with another question and gains the upper hand against Rick. Her wire falls off and Rick comes in to reattach it but is instead confronted by a laser tube. He is accused of being a “sexual deviant” and Luft calls the police. When arriving Rick is not recognized by the officer and is taken another “Hall of Justice”. During the car ride, the officer he states ““Maybe you’re an android” [….] “with a false memory, like they give them.”” (Dick 103). Ricks statements overtime have slowly changed with his character, at first he kills without a second thought but in the case of Luft he decides to give her a chance. The empathy he feels for another being in general seems to have changed and if that is so what say that he isn’t just an android like Rachael but has reached the level in which he is able to fool an empathy test?

Is Rick human? Why or why not would he qualify as one? how does this relate to his character development over time?

John Isidore being special has always been described as a disability. I think that even though his intellect might not be as high, he is able to reach a level of emotional intelligence that no other character can. Isidore is the only character who cares animals, humans, and androids. When Isidore is made to call the owners of the cat who died he seemed to feel genuinely sad for its death and for the grief the death caused the owner. His colleague was only concerned about the business dealings and what to do with the cat. This was a small scene but it showed just how Isidore cared about people who didn’t treat him as an equal.

John demonstrates his ability to care later on when he learns the that Pris and her friends are androids. Isidore doesn’t care that they are androids and volunteers to help and protect him. The androids are surprised by his willingness to help them and he earns their admiration. Pris says, “You’re a great man, Isidore, you’re a credit to your race.” (Dick 151). I found it interesting that John wishes to be more like the androids because of the intelligence and the androids liked Isidore for his ability to care and empathize. They both were able to see what they are unable to do in the other.

The question I had was John being special actually a blessing? Is his ability to care make him more human than any other character in the book?

 

Many pieces of literature have touched upon this idea: Is the personal perceived reality shared amongst all in a population? In other words, is what you see, feel, touch, and believe the same for everyone else, or is it all make believe?

In the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the existentialist question regarding the validity of reality arises.  After the androids split into separate rooms, and Isidore shows Pris to his room, Pris mentions how “It’s a dream.” She continues by saying, “Our trip was between a mental hospital on the East Coast and here. We’re all schizophrenic, with defective emotional lives…” (Dick 148).  During this scene, Pris is insinuating that the fleeing from the government, and by default, her entire life, is merely a construction developed by a mental sickness.  Her quote suggests that the events of one’s life can be a construction of the mind and the transgressions that one thinks he or she undertakes could never have actually happened.

The existential question that Phillip K. Dick wants the reader to ponder at this moment is: Can one definitively and empirically prove that the existence he or she considers undeniable reality, actually exists and is not just a figment of the mind?

When Rick went to test Luba he made a mistake and let her get in control. She then called the police and officer Crams ended up arresting him and taking him into the Mission Street Hall of Justice building. It was weird because he had never heard of the police office headquarters where he was taken, and he knew something was up. When he was being interrogated, he was confronted because on his list to retire was Garland(The official interrogating him). At this time Resch was out of the room getting his testing equipment in order to see if Rick was an android or not. During the talk with Garland, Rick realized that Garland was an android and then was told that Resch was an android as well. He was talking to Rick about Resch not knowing he was an android and Rick asked what he will do if he finds out the truth. Then Garland said “He may kill me, kill himself; maybe you, too. He may kill everyone he can, human and android alike” (Dick 122). Even though we later find out Resch isn’t an android it still makes me think of what if he was? How would he react?

This leads into my question. If you thought you were a human your whole existence and suddenly found out you were an android, how would you react?

Personally, if I found out today that I was an android I would think that’s pretty cool, I wouldn’t start murdering everyone around me.

Rick and Resch search the Edvard Munch exhibit at the museum for Luba Luft while Resch worries over whether he is an android. Resch’s eye is caught by The Scream painting which he believes expresses what androids must feel. They find Luba looking at a different painting and escort her to Rick’s car. On the way, Luba confesses that she’s an android and says that she’s always wanted to be human. She harasses Resch for being an android and he retires her almost immediately. In dismay over her death, Rick feels that Luba’s vocal talents could have been of use to the world and she didn’t need to be retired. He calls in a patrol car to transfer her body to the station for a marrow test and Resch agrees to take the Voigt-Kampff. Rick is certain that it will read that Resch is an android, but the results confirm that Resch is human. Rick suggests a defect in Resch’s ability to empathize with androids. Resch notes that it’s not strange since they don’t test for that type of empathy. Rick decides to take the test himself and realizes that he is able to empathize with certain types of androids. Resch suggests that it’s just sex and Rick simply wanted to get Luba Luft into bed. For the first time ever, Rick wonders whether he’s a good bounty hunter. Rick notices “I rode down with two creatures, one human, the other android…and my feelings were the reverse of those intended” (Dick 132).

My question is this. Are androids always a threat to Earth’s society? Do they always need to be “retired”? Also, would you consider it retiring or killing when an android is put down?

What I found to be the most interesting so far about the book is the dystopian society that Rick is currently living in. A post-nuclear society governed by a totalitarian form of government. Free thought does not exist, radiation if rich in the air caused by the weapons used during World War Terminus, “mood” altering devices, synthetic creatures, thought control, etc.

The moment that really spoke to me about the conditions that the protagonist is currently living in was when the book spoke about John Isidore and his “Time-Reversal Faculty”.

It’s awful to hear that these characters are refrained from using any sort of this ability. It was especially hard to swallow when you began reading about the treatment that John received for using this gift. The totalitarian government that runs this society used specific treatments involving radiation to help banish away the use of “Time-Reversal Faculty”.

Not to get too political. But it’s especially scary to hear about these treatments because I fear one day our society will continue to further push ourselves into a society run by socialism. Again, not to get too political, but I am strong believer in free enterprise and free thought. When we as a society push to have our government control more means of life. We began to take away what makes us special and unique. We lose ourselves to security and safety.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

I am a strong believer in such a quote. Once we give up our sense of freedom for more security. We will lose both. And my biggest fear is that one day. We will all become Ricks living in a society that he currently lives in.

As time progresses towards the future, do you believe that the Nexus-6 Androids will be able to pass the Voight-Kampff test?

Rick Deckard heads to Seattle to administer the Voight-Kampff empathy test to a group of random people. Within this random selection of people, the Rosen Association places androids in the group to test the validity of the empathy test. Upon arrival, Rick figures out that the Rosen’s changed what their initial plan was and suddenly learns that he will be testing Rachel Rosen who is one of the representatives of the association. After completing the test on Rachel, Rick determines that she is an android. While coming to his conclusion, Eldon Rosen informs Rick that his niece is in-fact not android but, grew up on a ship that left her empathy skills underdeveloped and different towards animals. Rick was in disbelief which allows him to confront Rachel again and ask her to answer one more question to completely verify his conclusion. This question did the job, by confirming that she is an android and that the Rosen Association was lying about Rachel.  As rick is leaving he realizes “they came awfully damn close to undermining the Voight-Kampff scale, the only method we have for detecting them” (Dick 60). Rick now understands that he can administer this test and he will have to begin hunting for the six Nexus-6 androids that injured his colleague.