Category: midterm

Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, is a science fictional story set on a futuristic dystopian Earth. World War Three, or as it is called in the novel World War Terminus, has left the Earth scarred by nuclear attacks and caked in radioactive dust. Earth is now scarcely populated by humans, many of which evacuate to Mars, and void of almost all animal life. The only humans left on Earth are those required by stay by their professions, such as bounty hunters like protagonist Rick Deckard. The niche of the bounty hunter is to track down and retire any androids that manage to escape their lives as slaves on Mars and flee to Earth. The latest and most advanced model of android in existence is called the Nexus-6 which are physically indistinguishable from humans in every way. However, humans and androids can be told apart based on empathy. Androids supposedly do not express as much of it as humans do. The only way to tell whether an individual is a human or an android is to administer a test called the Voight-Kampff. This test is designed to measure the subject’s empathetic response to a series of questions. If the subject scores low enough, he or she is deemed an android.

In Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, humans and androids look and move exactly alike, but if you begin to dive beneath the surface, it becomes clear that there are some distinct differences. An android is a cyborg, which in the words of Donna Haraway is “a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism” (149). Obviously what really distinguishes humans from androids is the fact that humans are born, not built. However, that is not the difference that Dick chose to highlight in his novel. He intended to spark a debate based on the following: since humans and androids are indistinguishable physically, is there anything in our human nature that still makes us superior to these machines? One topic often discussed is whether androids experience empathy to the same degree that humans do. Empathy describes being able to relate to and love another life other than your own. Although in the novel the Voight-Kampf test is in place to determine whether an individual is android or human based solely upon empathy, it’s questionable whether that test is effective. Some humans experience empathy to a much lower degree than others, such as psychopaths, but that doesn’t make them biologically inhuman. A few androids addressed in the novel do seem to experience some empathy. In the case of Roy and Irmgard, they seem to have some sort of romantic relationship which requires them to express human-like emotions and empathy. Roy is devastated when Rick shoots Irmgard which reveals that he did care for her in some way.

The most prominent conflict in the novel is between man and technology in the form of humans versus androids. The androids are slaves on Mars and are seen as inferior by their human counterparts. However, androids are exactly like humans in every aspect besides their lessened experience of empathy. The goal of the androids is to gain complete equality to their human counterparts. The novel is better understood when paralleled to the current inequality between the civil rights of Peoples of Color and whites. The Black Lives Matter movement parallels the want of the androids to become equal to humans but also coerces readers to view the plight of the androids in a different light.

Dick wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep during the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1960’s, African Americans and other Peoples of Color were fighting and struggling to gain equal rights for themselves. This struggle for equality appears to be a main issue in the novel because the androids are trying to make themselves exactly the same as humans in every way. In 2013, the Civil Rights Movement was brought back into focus when the Black Lives Matter movement was created. Now, before we go any further, note that the androids from the novel and the Black Lives Matter movement are only being compared in the sense that both groups want to be given equal rights to the group that views them as inferior.   

Is what distinguishes a human from an android the definition of humanity? In the novel, what is suggested to define humanity is empathy. Yet empathy is not exclusive only to humans, some animals also exhibit it. Therefore the question arises, what truly defines humanity? In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, humans dial the Penfield mood organ for which emotions they wish to feel. These emotions created by the mood organ are simulated and are not responses to real stimuli so in this case, what makes humans different from androids? In the novel, the prime example of the inequality between humans and androids is Mercerism and the empathy box. Mercerism is a sort of religion to those in the world of the novel. It centers around an elderly man named Mercer as he climbs the same mountain repeatedly while being bombarded by stones. One can connect to Mercer when they hold the handles on the empathy box. The purpose of this exercise is to evoke an empathetic response in users to the suffering of Mercer. The only thing that is suggested to differ between humans and androids in the novel is empathy. Therefore, androids aim to eliminate Mercerism in order to level the difference between themselves and humans. When Buster Friendly, an android TV personality, exposes Mercerism as a fraud, Roy is pleased. He says, in an accomplished and relieved tone, “the whole experience of empathy is a swindle” (Dick 193). Humans now have one less connection to what is said to make them human.

    Androids are portrayed as being without true emotion but the same is true for humans in the novel in some instances. When they want to feel a certain emotion at a given time, they use the mood organ. In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, there is a real conflict between humans and technology, but what are humans without technology? Both in the novel and in the real world, humans rely on technology very heavily. In the novel, they use the mood organ to control how they feel, use hover-cars as transportation, have electric animals to symbolize their economic stance, and even the androids were created as slaves to make human life easier. In the real world we aren’t so different. We are constantly using our smartphones for everything from telling us the weather to connecting with people across the world. We have tablets, laptops, computers, cars, and more.

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, once physiological needs are satisfied, one can focus on other needs or wants. This hierarchy of needs is said to be exclusive to humans as the theory of human motivation. However, without having the most basic needs satisfied, humans are no different from animals, or perhaps androids. If our most basic needs are not met, we may need to resort to drastic measures until they are. Androids are portrayed as evil and stripped of empathy in the novel because they kill without remorse. But what makes them different than a human who is in a situation so dire that they may do the same? This parallels the Black Lives Matter movement because when peaceful demonstrations turn violent, those involved may need to resort to violence in order to keep themselves alive. In that moment, one would be able to kill without remorse.

Another debate evoked by the novel is whether or not there can ever be peace between humans and androids, will they ever be able to live side by side? This debate parallels the Black Lives Matter movement because years after the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, Peoples of Color are still not treated completely as equal to their white counterparts. Although the inequality of rights has been leveled for the most part and public areas have been desegregated, African Americans are still discriminated against in some circumstances and are subjected to offensive and sometimes violent acts based on the color of their skin. If, as the novel suggests, empathy is truly in our human nature, it is possible for peoples of all races to live together peacefully. However, humans and androids will never be able to live peacefully. Just as the nexus-6 androids made all empathy tests prior to the Voight-Kampf obsolete, new models of android will continue to be developed that will eventually make humanity obsolete. New models will become better and smarter and will be a real threat especially if their software can adapt and learn. In other words, there will be a conflict between humans and androids as long as they both exist.

It’s interesting that even with all the emphasis on empathy in the novel, the humans don’t seem to express it very much towards one another. For example, Rick and Iran. They live together as husband and wife yet they don’t seem to really love each other. Love requires empathy but Rick is solely  focussed on chasing his dream of owning a real animal and Iran simply yearns to feel something genuine, and not generated by the mood organ. On the other hand, some androids display a romantic connection. Roy and Irmgard came to Earth on the same ship and seem to be very close. Roy is even devastated when Rick shoots Irmgard. This suggests that even with all the focus on empathy being the distinguishing factor between human and android, androids may be able to experience it to some degree.

In Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the natural conflict of man versus technology takes the form of humans versus androids. Androids were created by humans to be slaves on Mars that would make human life easier. When any android escapes slavery and flees to Earth, they are to be retired, or in other words killed. Androids are completely physically indistinguishable from humans and the only method of telling one apart from the other is an empathy test. However, in the novel androids have shown that in some cases they can exhibit more empathy than humans in other cases. Androids Roy and Irmgard seem to be more emotionally attached that humans Rick and Iran. Rick even goes ahead to sleep with another female.

So in the end, the main question of what truly defines humanity remains without a solid answer. When an android flees slavery and is not a threat to Earth’s society, they should not be retired without a second thought. In the case of Luba Luft the opera singer, she was a talented artist that actually had something to offer the world yet she was lost. This instance brings back the Black Lives Matter movement because the reason the group started was because a young man who was believed to be innocent was killed. It is possible for humans of all races to live together peacefully, yet the same is not true for humans and androids.          

Works Cited

1. Davis, Lennard J. Constructing Normalcy. Binghampton, 1995
2. Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Del Ray, 1968
3. Haraway, Donna. The Cyborg Manifesto. Berkeley Socialist Reveiw, 1985
4. Black Lives Matter, Haki Creatives, http://blacklivesmatter.com/. Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.

In the world we live in today, one of the toughest questions to answer is what truly makes us human. There is no one particular action or belief all humans share. Each human is different with unique characteristics. These characteristics define each human as who they appear to be. Through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep written by Philip K. Dick, it is our expressment of empathy, showing of judgement, and stance on personal ethics that ultimately define us as human beings on this planet. At the same time, I do believe that our faults are what make us human. Through the faults humans can possibly make in the showing of empathy, judging character, and practicing ethics is what makes us human.
For those who have not read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep written by Philip K. Dick, here is a brief description of the most important parts. The novel is set in San Francisco during the time of post-apocalyptica. It explores the life or Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter that kills machines. Throughout the book, he shows empathy toward having to retire innocent androids, especially those that are improving society. Rick tries to justify his actions by stating that the androids are not human, and that their lives do not hold any value because of this. The moral and empathetic issues begin when he realizes he can empathize with androids in the same way he empathizes with other humans. In turn, the androids in this novel are programmed in the sense that show they can feel empathy for him as well. Luba Luft, an android, shows empathy toward Rick when she talks with him about his love life. Luba knows about Rick’s involvement with Rachel Rosen, and this is what she has to say, “If it’s love toward a woman or an android imitation, it’s sex. Wake up and face yourself, Deckard. You wanted to go to bed with a female type of android — nothing more, nothing less. […] Don’t kill her—or be present when she’s killed — and then feel physically attracted. Do it the other way” (Dick 144). Whether or not these androids truly feel emotions the same way humans do could be turned into a debate of that of the presidential variety.
Rick is not the only important character in this novel. There is another crucial character, and his name is John Isadore. John is an unwanted, no good outcast in the society established in this novel based off of the fact that he is “special”. He is labeled as special because he failed an IQ test that would have allowed him to travel to Mars with the rest of the humans that passed. This seemingly foreign society values intellectual ability and the ability to empathize with others, specifically humans. John is the most interesting character in the novel in the sense that he is in basically the same situation as the androids. He shows the most empathy out of anyone in the novel because he genuinely cares for all humans, androids, and animals regardless of how they treat him. The novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep written by Philip K. Dick greatly illustrates why John is not “special” mentally.
If John Isadore is “special” in a bad way in their society, it is a societally I would personally never want to live in. He is the most empathic and supporting character in the novel. In chapter 16, Pris sees a spider for the first time. She wants to brutally cut off all of its legs. He begged and pleaded with her not to do any cutting. Simply, his mistake to her was, “Don’t mutilate it” (Dick 206). She did not listen to John, and the whole scenario was cringe worthy and difficult to read. After she did mutilate the spider, John said the spider, “crept about miserably on the kitchen table, seeking a way out” (Dick 207). I believe this whole scenario can best described in similarity to the avaristic greed from humans. Through this metaphor, it can be said that humans are so overwhelmingly greedy that most of us do not know when to stop. We tend to take what we want by any means necessary. Pris did not care if John was pleading with her not to kill the spider. Similarly, a landlord would not care or listen to a logical reason why a tenant of theirs is late on paying rent every month. The landlord decides to kick the tenant out anyway. He literally takes their roof above their head anyway from them. The landlord wanted the spider dead, and it died the moment the tenants left the building. Well done, Philip K. Dick, your foreshadowing has been recognized by your audience with pinpoint accuracy even to this day.
To continue, the novel does not include many details on what the IQ test was that he failed, but it is a safe bet to say that it was a bit slanted. Standardized tests such as this one do not show the true intelligence of most humans. I think it is disheartening the way a simple standardized test can determine the life or career path for an individual. It should be more than that. It should be based off of actions and reactions as opposed to handwritten answers. Not all humans can show their intellectuality and value to society on a piece of paper or a computer screen. In today’s society, standardized tests help shape the path of human lives in a huge way. These tests even group children at kindergarten-level ages. Before the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was initialized, only the parents who were willing to pay outrageous amounts for their kids to learn were getting the best education. Before, this caused a lot of segregation and separation amongst between schools, parents and their kids, and the faculty and staff at these schools.
Now, states are required to give standardized testing to students in reading and math in grades 3–8 and once in high school. All students are now expected to meet or exceed state standards in reading and math. If they do not, the state they are living in will provide them with educational assistance (No Child Left Behind Act). Living up to the name of the law, it truly ensures no child is left behind in the classroom. This relates back to the idea of all humans being unique with different characteristics.
Empathy is something that can be taught, but it is up to the individual whether or not they want to grasp their minds around the concept. Human that are empathetic are generally valued more highly in today’s society. Now, in the society that has been built in the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep written by Philip K. Dick it is valued even higher. There are several key factors in determining whether or not one is empathetic. Most times, if someone fail an empathy test, they are deemed androids, and will thusly be retired. This sort of empathy test is known in the novel as a Voight-Kompf test. The test essentially measures empathetic responses to purposely provocative and insightful statements.
Sometimes, a Voight-Kompf test can be inaccurate. For example, Rachel Rosen says that anyone who grew up outside of what is recognized as a normal society could be flawed in the way they judge and interpret empathy. Thusly, the human/android taking the Voight-Kompf test may fail because they have been conditioned to respond the same way any other person would that was raised in their particular society. Another example from the novel is how animals are consider sacred in their society, so most of their Voight-Kompf test questions revolved around the killing, eating, and dissecting of animals. Since animal killing and consumption is so popular in our society today, all the humans of our society that eat meat would be considered androids, according to the Voight-Kompf test’s logic. This means that Rick would have to retire all of us just over a detail as small as that. Crazy, right? Hell, even a person that has suffered emotional, physical, or cranial trauma may not be able to empathize in a way that is considered normal in modern society. Cranial trauma can be especially devastating for those that do not get it properly treated when the trauma originally occurs.
In the video “An Examined Life” Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor walk around the streets of California in search for a rainbow bagel. On this journey, they speak about the differences between the limitations, gender expectations, and mental and physical disabilities put on an individual. Judith Butler is a successful philosopher and gender theorist, while Sunaura Taylor is a wheelchair bound woman with limitations on the use of her body and her other extremities. I believe the main point of this video is to inform the audience that physical separation leads to a lack of social acceptance in today’s society.
To continue, Taylor was born with arthrogryposis. Taylor explained to Butler in great detail the lengths in which she had always been an outcast and typical bully subject of her fellow peers. Because of this, Taylor moved to California in search of a better life, and in hopes to finally be treated as an equal human being instead of being continually looked down upon by her peers. Taylor went on to say that she felt as though there was less of a stigma about people with disabilities in the state of California. A large majority of places in America have limited access for those with disabilities. They are seemingly unwelcomed where those without disabilities can freely roam (Butler 1). It all revolves around the judgement of human beings to judge another human that cannot visualize, communicate, or associate with things a typical human being does. Social norms are about as subjective as the political hierarchy that has taken over this country. If those in power think something is a good idea, then it will be implemented. It may take some time to get that something finished, as it cannot happen overnight. But it will happen, and I believe this is the saddest truth all of us humans living in the United States have to wake up to everyday.
It is uncomfortable for “normal” human beings to be around those who are not normal. We as human beings should not be afraid of change, and we should be willing and accepting of everyone with a good heart and good intentions. Good does not come from the physical appearance of a person. Rather, it comes from their actions and willingness to help others. The definition of normal is constantly being changed. There is no longer a set norm for all societies anymore. This is because all societies and cultures are so unique in their own ways that often times a norm in one society is not a norm in another. Some of these actions or norms can be frowned upon or judged harshly by other cultures. Lennard J. Davis said it best by describing the constant changing of the definition of normal by saying we live in a world of norms that is constantly being critiqued and construed by others. Davis talks about the how harshly those with disabled bodies are treated in the world today. To illustrate back to An Examined Life by Judith Butler, physical separation leads to a lack of social acceptance in today’s society (Butler 1). The construction of normalcy is set by mankind themselves. Davis says 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).
To conclude, I think society has a lot of changing to do before it can be justifiable in my eyes. It seems to me that our society is filled with judgmental hatred and anger toward those who publically express their opinion. I think our society as a whole needs to learn to be more empathetic. This starts by teaching kids at a very early age that empathy is valued as high as money in our society. Whether you agree with an opinion or not, mine included, let us all agree to disagree that our country was formed on the basis of free speech and equality for all. To judge a man’s character based on personal beliefs says a lot about the judger in and of them self. Through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep written by Philip K. Dick, it is our expressment of empathy, showing of judgement, and stance on personal ethics that ultimately define us as human beings on this planet.

Works Cited
Butler, Judith. An Examined Life – Judith Butler & Sunaura Taylor Sunaura Taylor. 6 October 2010. Interview.
Davis, Lennard J. Constructing Normalcy . Binghampton : Verso Publishing, 1995. Book.
Dick, Phillip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Del Rey, 1968.
No Child Left Behind Act. 27 January 2011. Document. 8 October 2017.

“What makes us human?” This question has been brought up quite a bit, especially throughout the book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Phillip K. Dick. Figuring out what makes us human is a difficult task, all humans are different and there is not one sole trait we all share. The differences we have as humans should be the traits we celebrate, not things we can use as reasons to think that we are better than anyone else. Being human is a beautiful, complex affair and it is something we take for granted. Humanity is also not something that can be tested for. Humanity is accepting all of the things that make us unique and not putting others down for their differences.

In the book, Do Androids Dream of Elecrtic Sheep, they have a test to figure out who is human, and who is an android. The test they use is one that measures empathy, because evidently, being empathetic is what makes a human, human. In the book, Rick, has to give the empathy test to Rachael, to see whether or not he can test to figure out who are androids. The test consists of scenarios that refer to animals and questions on how you would react to the different scenarios. One of the scenarios is, “You are given a calf-skin wallet on your birthday.” This test has no proof behind it, you cannot tell who is human solely based on an empathy test. And, you cannot determine who is empathetic or not based on questions that all deal with animals. There are lots of outlying factors that could cause someone fail an empathy test. For example, some people have social anxieties and other neurological diseases that would keep them from being able to pass the empathy test. This is shown in the book due to the fact that John Isadore did not pass the empathy test and is considered a “special” and not allowed to reproduce, as if him not passing an empathy test makes him less than other humans. However, throughout the book, we are shown different examples of how Isadore is actually the most empathetic character of them all.

Determining what makes us human is not something that can be figured out by taking a test. One can come up with arguments for different tests, because what makes us human is not a single thing, it is a combination of different things. There is no single thing that makes us human; being human is a complex manner. All of us are different, and in a bunch of amazing ways. It is great that we are all different. We, as humans should be celebrating all of the differences we have, not tearing each other down for it. Unfortunately, the reality is that one of the main traits that makes us humans, are the fact that we are insecure, and we do not accept the fact that being different is not only okay, but that it is normal. In order to better ourselves as humans, we need to start being accepting of those that we consider “different” from us.

In today’s day and age, people have slowly become true to themselves, and started showing the world who they truly are. This generation has been more accepting of differences in people, however, there is still a good deal of backlash among older generations, and they can have quite the influence on their children. Bullying is still a large issue, and with the technological advances, cyber bullying makes the whole ordeal even worse. There are bullies that tell the people that are different than them that the world would be a better place without them, so they should just killed themselves. This is exactly the kind of behavior that we need to do away with. We should be celebrating the differences in everyone and building each other up. We cannot expect to be our best selves until we all realize everyone is the same, there is nothing about anyone that makes the any less of a human than the next person.

Like there are many ways we can determine what makes us human, there are many definitions of “different”. Lately, the majority of people would think the main difference we have from one person to another would be the fact that more people have been “coming out” and sharing their true sexual orientation. There are more people than ever now who are openly gay, and this is something we should be celebrating. It is amazing that people now feel comfortable enough to be themselves; this is what we need to be celebrating. However, being gay is not the only difference humans can have. There are many different mental and physical differences people can have. These differences need to be celebrated all the same. Every difference that a human has is one that cannot be changed; they are the exact person they were always supposed to be and we should never make anyone feel any less because of a difference, especially one they cannot change.

In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, John Isadore is outcast by society due to the fact that he did not pass the empathy test that the government gave to all citizens in order to determine if they had the values and morals they wanted to have passed on to the next generations. Due to the fact that John Isadore had a lower IQ than the majority of society at the time, he was forced to live alone. John Isadore was left to fend for himself in an environment where the majority of the population had left Earth to go and live on Mars or on a space shuttle in order to escape the radiation left over from the war. Being exiled to live in an abandoned apartment building made life hard for John Isadore, who enjoyed the company of others and was quite the caring, sensitive man. He was forced to live a life alone, even though he was one of, if not the, most caring, empathetic character in the book. John Isadore was what someone would categorize as “different”, and that is true, he is different than everyone else in his society. However, the difference in John is what makes him the most human in the book, and his difference actually is a good thing, but the knee-jerk reaction for all humans when something or someone is different from them, is for them to shun it. In cases like with Isadore though, we get a look at how we, as humans need to be more open and understanding towards the differences we have.

There have been horrible tragedies that go hand in hand with the recent trend in the gay community of more and more of them feeling comfortable enough to be themselves. One of these tragedies being the shooting that occurred last summer in Orlando, Florida. In the article, What Becomes of Empathy by Tim Recuber, he says, “Like so many others across the country and the world in the wake of the Orlando massacre, I experienced an intense form of empathy for the victims and their families, made possible in part by increasingly timely and intimate forms of news gathering in the digital age.” The fact that humans can hear these stories and feel such a sense of empathy towards the victims and their families makes me wonder if acceptance of everyone and their differences, can be something we all accept and do not look down upon others for choosing to be their true selves. I have hope that one day, all humans will be able to boost each other up for their differences, not tear them down and commit awful crimes, much like the one at Pulse Night Club last year.

Throughout human history, there have been many occurrences where the differences of people have been hidden due to the feeling of shame they get from being different than the mass majority. In A Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway, she says, “The cyborg is a creature in a post-gender world; it has no truck with bisexuality, pre-oedipal symbiosis, unalienated labour, or other seductions to organic wholeness through a final appropriation of all the powers of the parts into a higher unity”. The fact that cyborgs are going to be able to look past sexuality differences is something we as humans should move forward to adopt. There is nothing wrong with having different sexual preferences and we should encourage those who do to feel comfortable enough to go out in the world and be themselves. Throughout Haraway’s article, she mentions the changes we as humans have gone through in different aspects of life. For example, Haraway mentions the changes that women have gone through with jobs and in the economy. Women used to be expected to get married, have children, cook and clean the house, and it was looked down upon for them to even consider getting a job. Humans should learn from our past to realize that wanting to step out and do things differently than have been done normally is something that we should adopt in modern times.

Overall, I believe that we as human beings need to come together and celebrate the differences we all have. The best part of being human is that we are not the same as anyone else. That is something that we need to be proud of. Humans need to start boosting each other up instead of tearing down anyone who shares their differences instead of hiding them like the majority of people have been doing for all of their lives. Humanity is not something that we can test for; humanity is accepting all of the things that make us unique and celebrating the others who are confident enough to share their differences with the world.

Works Cited

Haraway, Donna Jeanne. “A Cyborg Manifesto.” A Cyborg Manifesto: science, technology,

and socialist-Feminism in the late twentieth century, 2009, pp. 291–324.

Pages, The Society. “What Becomes of Empathy?” Cyborgology, 26 July 2016,

thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2016/07/20/what-becomes-of-empathy/.

Dick, Phillip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?Del Rey, 1968.

 

In today’s society, the increase in technological innovation has led to the creation of superior artificial intelligence systems. This will lead to a future filled with superior human like AI called androids. This begs the challenging question of how can you differentiate between humans and these androids? The deciding factor in this question cannot be seen by any physical distinction but by the inner workings of humans and androids. Humans have a sense of empathy when it comes to certain situations, but androids lack the empathy trait. This dilemma can be seen played out in the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, and further supported in the article “What Becomes of Empathy” by Tim Recuber, and in the article “Empathizing 101” by Allie Grasgreen. I believe that empathy is not a good way of deciding if something or someone is human, there are too many flaws in this idea that empathy is a successful way of seeing what is human.

“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” is a story placed in the future after Earth was almost destroyed by toxins. Most of the humans ended up moving to Mars where the quality of life was great, and they used androids as servants. Back on Earth, life is not as precious, as in the standard of life was less than that on Mars. These human like androids are hard to spot in society and they are not accepted since they are all escaped slaves from Mars. On mars, they basically worked as servants to the humans, waiting on their every need and being controlled by the humans. The protagonist Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter who is paid to find and retire these androids. He uses a certain test in order to test to see if someone is an android, called the Voigtt Kampf test. This tests an individual’s empathetic response to certain scenarios and based on their answers, Rick is able to tell whether they were an android or human. Humans are subjected to empathy but androids are not and this can be seen with every failed test of the Voigtt Kampf. When Rick gives the test to Rachel Rosen, he makes the statement about his briefcase “One hundred percent genuine human babyhide”(Dick). Rachel was supposed to react right away when she heard babyhide but she did not.  There was only a reaction after a pause, almost like she had to think about it and fake an empathetic response. With any human being, they hear the word “babyhide” and instantly would feel sick or uneasy about that but Rachel wasn’t really affected by it. This is basically one of the only ways you can differentiate between human and android, and empathy can be considered a human characteristic.

In the book humans evoke empathy through an empathy box where they experience the life and teachings of Wilbur Mercer. Mercer tells the humans to be empathetic towards each other. While humans can experience empathy with Mercerism, androids cannot and that’s what sets them apart. One android, Roy Baty, knows this is the case and tries to create Mercerism like feeling. On his poop sheet it says “…and experimented with, various mind-fusing drugs, claiming when caught that it hoped to promote in androids a group experience similar to that of Mercerism, which it pointed out remains unavailable to androids”(Dick 185). This demonstrates how even the androids themselves know that Mercerism can only be found by humans. The empathy in the humans can be seen when Rick realizes he is set up by having sex with Rachel Rosen. After having sex with her he wants to kill her because she has sex with him in order to build a relationship which would make him stop retiring these androids. He goes to kill her but cannot because of the empathy he has towards her. He has his laser tube ready to shoot her and at the last second he says “I’m not going to kill you” (Dick 201). This might not be the most in depth quote but it shows that he has empathy toward her from their relationship that blossomed; he just cannot hurt someone he fell for even though she played him.

In the article “What Becomes of Empathy”, there are a lot of good points made that can be helped to further explain how empathy is a human trait. This article starts out by Tim Recuber discussing how he reacted to the Orlando night club shooting. He states “Like so many others across the country and the world in the wake of the Orlando massacre, I experienced an intense form of empathy for the victims and their families…” (What Becomes of Empathy?). Along with Recuber, I and so many others felt the same empathy towards all the victims and their families. This same type of feeling can be seen in the book where Rick was somewhat empathetic over his old pet sheep that was killed from Tetanus. He discusses how he forgot to take wire off of the hay and that the sheep got a scratch, ultimately leading to its demise. From what I took from it he is empathetic towards the animal and really feels his sheep’s pain to the point where he gets an artificial sheep that looks identical to his old one. Also during the same conversation, you can tell that Ricks neighbor (Barbour) also is empathetic towards Ricks situation. He finds out that his sheep died and that Rick got a new one and he feels for Rick and understood his situation.

Another quote in this article directly related to everything that occurred in the book is when Recuber states “Empathy has increasingly come to be seen as an important component of efforts at social justice across a host of different contexts” (What Becomes of Empathy?). This is exactly what happens in the book with Rick and the battle between human and android. Empathy is an important factor in deciding what is right and wrong in this book. Is killing androids right? Do they deserve to live amongst humans? Once again, we can refer back to earlier where Rick’s empathy doesn’t allow him to kill Rachel, even though it would have been the right thing. In today’s society we see the people supporting certain events like hurricane relief or black lives matter because of a general empathy towards the victims. This can be seen with John Isidore and the three androids he was protecting at his apartment. Mercer tells him to protect them or he will be out of Mercerism. He also feels empathetic towards them and their situation of being rejected on Earth. Another big example of the lack of empathy in androids comes towards the end of the book when Ricks wife Iran tells him that their goat had died and been killed by a young-looking girl who he knew was Rachel Rosen. She had pushed the goat off of the roof killing it in the process. Any human being knows that animals are precious creatures who shouldn’t be brutally killed. Every time you drive by a dead animal you automatically feel empathetic and sad for the animal. In this case, no human being would’ve done that to the goat like Rosen did. The thought processes of humans and androids are just completely different in certain situations.

When it comes to empathy humans feel between animals and androids, there is a drastic difference. Humans feel the most empathy towards animals than anything else. Animals in this book are considered to be a royalty due to the fact that most animals became extinct due to the toxic dust. That is why everyone wants to buy an artificial animal, because of what owning an animal says about your status. On the other hand, androids get no empathy from humans; in fact they receive the opposite. All throughout this book, we can see humans killing androids with no remorse for what they do. Granted, they are technically on Earth illegally, but they are still murdered and to have no type of emotion towards these androids shows a lack of empathy on the human’s part. This begs the question can empathy really decide if someone is human? With all of the examples in the texts and even in real life, we can see that empathy is not a reliable test of a human. This can be seen in both the novel and in real life with people always murdering others and having no sympathy or emotions toward the situation. For example, if someone robs another person and gets shot to death people react positively to it nowadays as if the robber deserved to die for that. More and more people are becoming less empathetic, making it increasingly hard to base someone as human because of empathy.

The next article, “Empathizing 101” by Allie Grasgreen, discussed how one college president had the idea that you can teach empathy to people. If this is so, then you could teach empathy to humans like when the individuals in the book were subject to the empathy box. They kind of learned how to be empathetic from Wilbur Mercer. On the other hand, when it comes to androids, they can’t learn anything after they have been created because it is all about the processor inside them. Once they are created, all they can process and understand is preprogrammed so there would be no possibility of them being capable of learning this skill. In my opinion this cannot work. People are either born or taught empathy at an early age, or they were born without it and weren’t taught at a young age. Unless you teach an individual at a young age, they will never be able to learn empathy. The same goes with androids, if they never were programmed with empathy, they’ll never show signs of it.

From the information provided in these three sources, we are able to try and determine what makes us human. The main concept that is discussed is the fact that humans experience empathy in the appropriate situations. This is false because throughout the novel and in today’s society we see a huge lack of empathy in humans. There is no way you can say that all you need is empathy to determine if someone is human. If anything, humans looked more like androids in this novel if we are basing everything off empathy. The author really tried to use empathy to differentiate human and android and did a very good job, but there are just too many cases where empathy or lack thereof doesn’t prove you’re human.

 

 

 

Works Cited

Dick, Philip k. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Del Rey Books.

Grasgreen, Allie. “Empathizing 101.” Inside Higher Ed, 24 Nov. 2010,

www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/24/empathy.

Pages, The Society. “What Becomes of Empathy?” Cyborgology, The Society Pages, 26 July

2016, thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2016/07/20/what-becomes-of-empathy/.

Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep poses many questions that relate to today’s society. The questions are formed mainly from the characters and their choices as the novel progresses. It poses questions about empathy and equality for women or the lack thereof. Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” and the United Nations’ “Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” are articles that discuss the struggles that many women face and how society is attempting to change this issue.

These pieces, in some way, all connect back to the idea of empathy – the idea that we can put ourselves in another’s shoes and experience their problems as if they were our own without any judgement and without any form of bias. Society shapes the way we view those that are different than ourselves and how we view the world as a whole by using opinions via social media that manipulate our minds, which over time is making us less empathetic. The idea of empathy is something that society and more importantly college students have struggled with. According to “Empathizing 101,” college aged students are 40 percent less empathetic than those who were in college decades ago (Grasgreen 2010). This article also states that empathy is strongly believed to be an advocate for understanding and civility (Grasgreen 2010). This article then poses a question about society. Would the younger generation be less empathetic towards feminism issues than an older generation?

Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep delves into many of these social issues that we face in our own society. Chapter 16 of the novel goes into more detail about the inequality between man and woman or in this case man and android. Rick, a bounty hunter, and Rachael, an android, end up having sexual relations even though Rick is already married. Many argue that this is considered adultery and that it’s wrong; however, some also argue that Rachael is just an android and isn’t even real so it doesn’t matter if Rick uses her for sex. There was one quote in this chapter that stood out as being almost discriminatory. Rachael showed up at Rick’s hotel room and started to unpack and get undressed when Rick decided to observe her appearance. “The total impression was good, however. Although definitely that of a girl, not a woman. Except for the restless, shrewd eyes” (Dick 187). Describing her appearance as young or as a girl instead of a woman after observing the fact that Rachael was built with a smaller frame and bust, in a way is discriminating towards women who naturally have a small build. While that may seem far-fetched and a little strange to connect a novel to real life, we do see this happening in our society. Women are constantly being judged by men and even by other women just by the way that they are built and by the way that they look. We don’t have control over our appearances unless we alter ourselves, so why judge one another?

To go along with this thought, Rachel questions Rick about whether or not he would have sex with another android. Rick replied with “If it was a girl. If she resembled you” (Dick 197). The fact that Rick is a married man and can go out and have sex with another woman, android, or human, is disturbing in a way. He’s willing to cheat on his wife just to fulfill his own needs, which is a disgusting thing to do. However, many women in today’s society go through this every day. We all probably know someone that has been in a relationship with someone that has cheated on them just to get what they wanted.

Much has been written about women’s equality and feminism. Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” argues that women face a lot of trials and tribulations and sometimes aren’t even accepted by other women. This often means that they face some form of discrimination within their own groups. Haraway talks about “oppositional consciousness,” which is the idea of an empowering mental state that prepares members of an oppressed group to undermine, reform, and overthrow a dominant system (Haraway 296). This idea was mentioned to explain how women should work together in order to prove their abilities and come together as one in order to go against the more dominant group, which in our society is men. However, she also mentions how women of color are being discriminated against by other women and are usually found being “left out of even the privileged oppressed authorial categories…” (Haraway 296). Not only are these women being discriminated against by men, they are also facing judgment from other women. This connects back to chapter 16 of Dick’s novel where Rick was judging Rachael by her appearance or body type; however, in this case these women are being judged because of their race and social class. Haraway also mentions how most feminists are “marginalized” mainly because of “epistemologies,” which is defined as being mainly opinions, which essentially means that women are seen as insignificant based off of opinions (Haraway 297).

Recently, I also read a short article published by the United Nations about women’s equality and why it matters. The article explains how women and girls make up “half of the world’s population and therefore also half of its potential” (“Gender Equality: Why It Matters,” n.d.). To relate this back to Dick’s novel, we could think about how the female androids were actually worth something. They all were living beings and they had lives of their own. If the world were different in that novel, would life for the female androids be different or would it be just like our society where women have to fight for their rights every single day of their lives?

This article also states how “gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world (“Gender Equality: Why It Matters,” n.d.). Unfortunately, I don’t think that we are there yet nor will we be there for a while. This meaning that our society is so stuck in its ways that achieving equality for everyone, regardless of gender, is going to be almost impossible. We have made a lot of advancements such as women being able to vote, work, and drive; however, there are still a lot of cases of discrimination towards women. A lot of women today face differences in pay, harassment, and inclusion. There are also a lot of cases in which men in relationships still want to be in control of almost everything. There is a great example of this in the beginning of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

Going back to the beginning of the novel, Rick and his wife, Iran, get into an argument over the Penfield mood organ, which is what controls their feelings for the day. Rick tells Iran that she set her Penfield too weak and that he’ll fix it for her so she can be more awake. After attempting to explain that, Rick then explains to Iran that if she sets it high enough she’ll be happier to be awake and that “at setting C it overcomes the threshold barring consciousness” as it does for him (Dick 3). Throughout that chapter, Rick tries to control Iran and her decisions, which relates back to feminism and women’s equality. Rick feels like he needs to make decisions for Iran and try to help her even though she is an independent person who is perfectly capable of making her own choices. Just like in today’s society, a lot of cultures such as modern day American cultures, Muslim cultures, and Indian cultures have a dominant male figure that make the decisions for the women and if the women don’t comply, they will most likely face some form of punishment. American culture is getting better, but there are still cases where the men want to be in control.

Like mentioned earlier, all of these articles relate back to one key theme of empathy. An article by The New York Times states that “One death is a tragedy. One million is a statistic” (Cameron, Inzlicht, Cunningham 2015). This can also be said for women and feminism. One woman being discriminated against is an awful thing; however, when millions of women face discrimination, nobody bats an eye. This quote also can be related back to Dick’s novel. When Rick and the other bounty hunters retire or kill an android, nobody seems to care because it’s the normal thing to do. The article also states “not only does empathy seem to fail when it is needed the most, but it also appears to play favorites” (Cameron, Inzlicht, Cunningham 2015). Like we see in Haraway’s articles, feminism and the empathy within it can play favorites. Haraway states that even “we,” meaning feminists, can’t claim any innocence from practicing dominations (Haraway 297). It’s sad to think that even women aren’t empathetic towards each other and can’t be innocent when it comes to cases of mistreating one another.

In the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, we see that empathy has favorites. Rick only seems to have empathy for Rachael. This might be because they had sex or it might be because he sees something in her, meaning that he sees the potential and good in her. Since Rick was probably socialized to think that androids were awful beings, it’s interesting to see how he only cares for Rachael, but is still willing to retire the other existing androids. We can also see this in today’s society with feminism. We, as a society, only seem to care when we can relate to it or when it impacts us.

This then raises the question of what makes us human? What differentiates men and women other than anatomy? So many people can empathize when a male goes through some sort of adversity, but when a female faces some sort of trouble it’s no big deal. Nobody is innocent to this, even other women ignore these troubles. To give an example, I’m no innocent one to being blind to these issues. I for one am not huge into the feminist movement; however, I do feel as though equal treatment is necessary so when I hear about the typical issues that women face I tend to be blind to them. By this I mean that I tend to ignore the issue because I feel like it doesn’t quite involve me yet, which is a problem considering that instead of ignoring the problems I should be looking at what’s going on and focus more on helping out or supporting other women.

The next question is does empathy actually make us human? According to The New York Times, “the ‘limits’ to our empathy are merely apparent, and can change, sometimes drastically, depending on what we want to feel” (Cameron, Inzlicht, Cunningham 2015). If we can truly choose what we empathize with, then is empathy actually something that we can look at to define ourselves as human? Just because someone doesn’t put themselves into another’s shoes, doesn’t mean that they aren’t human. We all are blind to something in today’s society whether it’s the shootings that constantly occur or if it’s the degrading of women.

Nobody can claim innocence to being blind to society’s ugly side: it’s what we are socialized to do. We see events like this on the news so often that we start to become numb to the fact that terrible things happen every day. When we hear about the protestors that come out to spread their opinions and sometimes hate towards something like the feminist movement, does anybody actually do anything to stop it? The bystander effect, which is when an individual is less likely to help someone due to the fact that they think someone else will help, occurs a lot in society and occurs a lot during various protests and means of spreading the word about feminism and other social issues. This effect will most likely never stop and will lead to more people becoming blind to empathy.

Overall, empathy isn’t the determining factor of whether someone is human or not since we all can be blind to major social issues like feminism. There really is nothing that determines us as being human other than basic biology. We see this through works like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and “A Cyborg Manifesto” and if those works do actually relate back to our everyday life, the problems we face are far beyond what we can change.

Works Cited:

Daryl Cameron, Michael Inzlicht and William A. Cunningham. “Opinion | Empathy Is Actually a Choice.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 July 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/empathy-is-actually-a-choice.html.

Dick, Phillip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Del Ray, 1968.

“Empathizing 101.” Inside Higher Ed, www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/24/empathy.

“Gender equality and women’s empowerment.” United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/.

Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto.” N.p. n.d.