Tag: androids

The Hardest Choices Require The Strongest Wills

A machine of sorts, called the black empathy box, immerses its users in a new setting where they are all physically and mentally unified into one being, “You felt it, too, he thought. Yes, the voices answered.” (Dick 22-23). Through a “special”, named Isidore, we experience this. Of course Isidore also experiences everyone, just as everyone experiences Isidore. “He experienced them, the others” (Dick 22). In this new place Isidore, now living through a mythical man named Wilbur Mercer, must climb a seemingly endless hill. However, that impossible task alone, is not enough. There are also antagonists wishing to make his infinite journey that much worse. They pelt him with rocks, and one connects with his arm. This pain is felt by all connected to the black empathy box, and not only is it felt there, but it is there waiting for them when they return to the real world.

My question is, could something like this black empathy box teach empathy? If so, is it ethical? In the pursuit of empathy, is it morally okay to put everyone through pain?

Dial 3: The desire to dial

One of the most interesting sections in the first few chapters of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? begins on page one, where the reader is first introduced to a device known as the Penfield mood organ. The mood organ gives users the ability to preprogram their emotions. The main character, Rick, uses his mood organ to help him wake up content in the morning and perform in a professional manner at work. Rick’s wife, Iran, also has a mood organ but she uses her organ in a much different way. Iran sets her moods organ to allow her to feel despair. Iran believes that feeling hopeless, even if it’s only twice a month, is reasonable since she still witnesses the things that would have made her sad but the emotion is blocked by the mood organ (Dick 5). Rick on the other hand, disagrees and tells her to change her setting for the day.

Iran brings up a good question about the use of the Penfield mood organ. If we had the ability to control or change our moods with an external force, should we? How does the ability to use the mood organ relate to the use of antidepressants?

Mors Certa, Vita Incerta

A troubling scene in the second chapter of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, features newly introduced character John Isidore watching a live television broadcast from Mars. On the broadcast a women is being interviewed and asked if she likes New New York, Mars and her response was that she felt a sense of dignity, from owning humanoid androids that she can depend on to serve her (Dick 16-17). In this same interview, she is asked if she was ever worried about being deemed as “special” meaning unintelligent and unable to leave the deteriorating earth. this in turn elicits a livid response from Isidore, because he was deemed special leaving him trapped on the earth, alone, and unable to get a well paying job. This part of who Isadore is impacts him so deeply that he continuously throughout the rest of the chapters calls himself a chickenhead.

 

Question

How should intelligence be measured- through the use of standardized testing, critical thinking in scenario based procedures, through determination to succeed, or through something else entirely?