“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.