In chapter nine, Deckhart attempts to apprehend Luba Luft for the first time but she calls the “police” on him and he is brought into a police station that doesn’t know he exists. It is revealed that this station is fully populated by androids and is fairly self-sustaining. They have their own bounty hunters that hunt androids with their own test of distinguishing androids. Phil Resch is one of the ones living there, and he’s very quick to throw Garland under the bus as an android. He’s extremely eager to kill androids, but is shocked once he finds out he is an android. Resch believes “that the best place for an android would be with a big police organization such as W.P.O.” (Dick, 109). Resch has a point, because he is fairly good at taking out other androids.
If there is an entirely self-sustained police force that has their own test to determine androids, how would they rival the force Deckhart is in? Is it possible that Deckhart and his force is full of androids that would fail the “reflex-arc response” that is used at Mission Street Hall of Justice? Could Deckhart be like Resch? How effectively can one truly measure humanity if differing tests exist like this?
I think this is possible. The way that I interpreted how the “reflex-arc response” works is that it is a test of reflexes that would show an android reacting quicker than a human. This could have been more helpful for the androids because if they knew how this test worked they could underclock (slow themselves down) to have the reaction time of a human but not faster for the duration of the test. This also seems like this test wouldn’t be helpful if it was purely based on reaction time since human reaction time can be a spectrum. It is also possible that they could rig the test to make people like Resch think that they are androids by making the reaction standards different.
I don’t think rival would be a good way to put it. I know idealistically they would “work together” but also the androids are seen as escaped slaves/property so I know that is not happening. I feel like if they had not been found out by Rick they would have been able to continue to function in peace with their small community. I don’t think Rick’s department is made of androids. It would be a wild plot twist though but I think the mentioned one or two of them having families or something relating to human functions (maybe it was about owning animals). They just don’t strike me as androids but then again that is the point of the nexus 6 being so convincing too. On rick being an android i’m honestly unsure. He could fully well died a long time ago and been replaced with an android with his emotions and memories.
I don’t think either of these tests are good at testing humanity but rather check for emotional reaction and empathy. Something the androids are unable to feel or express (at least not well so far) is how they have been able to tell the difference, but what is stopping them from evolving to outsmart this test like previous ones as well.
I think it’s very possible that Deckard’s force could contain androids; it’s possible that Deckard himself is an android. Resch is a great character because he is another version of Rick, and the entire “police force” on Mission Street is another version of Rick’s police force. They have the same job, the same doubts in their humanity. I actually think the more tests the better, because what if one is flawed? I think a safer approach to testing would be to issue multiple tests, The Voight-Kampff, the reflex-arc response, and a few more on top of that.
The other police force has a test that could be even more flawed than the Voight-Kampff test. The androids could be able to match their reflexes with that of a human and some humans may have faster reflexes than others. At least with the Voight-Kampff test, the androids won’t be able to mimic the sympathy that humans are able to experience. It is definitely possible that all of the police at the Hall of Justice could fail the “reflex-arc response” test, but they use the test because they know how to pass it. Deckhart could not be like Resch because he has sympathy and Resch does not. Sympathy is the true test of humanity.