In chapter 12 of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Rick Deckard and Fellow bounty hunter Phil Resch are in pursuit of Miss Luft, an android. The two hunters make there way to the Museum where they have been told they would find her in the Munch exhibit. During there search at the museum, Phil asks Rick if he has “ever heard of an andy having a pet of any sort?” Rick informs Phil that he indeed has but it is very rare and generally failed over time because the andy is unable to keep the animal alive for a long period of time. Phil counters Rick claiming he has kept his pet squirrel Buffy alive and well. Phil claims that he “grooms and combs” the squirrel everyday which in a sense makes him empathetic. We know from previous chapters that Phil is just and andy with false memories which could account to his empathy to an animal.
My question for the class is, can Phil actually be a human but with some andy qualities? Or is he an andy with human qualities? And furthermore, we know that the test administered to the andy’s has it flaws so do you think that aided to the determination of Phil being and andy?
I believe Phil can definitely be a human with andy qualities. The tests that distinguish between andy and human are extremely flawed and If they were asked of many humans in our world most of us would fail and be declared androids. The book seems to only follow their textbook definition of a human which is not all the time correct.
It is possible that Phil is an andy with human qualities; despite being an android he is willing to help Rick in his job as a bounty hunter. In chapter 11, Rick finds himself in a police station filled with androids such as Garland. Instead of Phil helping Garland kill Rick, he instead kills Garland and helps Rick escape the police station to help him pursue Luba Luft. Furthermore, in chapter 12 Rick feels guilty about killing Luba Luft and reconsiders his job as a bounty hunter. Phil persuades Rick however that bounty hunters are necessary, as androids have killed humans in order to escape. Bounty hunters are acting defensively against androids trying to kill them.
The test administered to andys does have flaws, however I do not think that it aided in the determination of Phil being an andy. Rick, a human, as taken the tests several times and his results do not define him as an andy. Furthermore, in chapter 11, Phil mentions the possibility of having false memories, which may have contributed to his test results defining him as an andy.
Phil Resch, as Rick finds out, is a human with android qualities since he takes no empathy with the androids he retires. Furthermore, Resch claims he can’t possibly be an andy because he owns a (real) squirrel. The argument is that an android couldn’t possibly care for a squirrel since it only cares about itself. Of course, Deckard isn’t convinced, especially after he guns down Luba Luft in cold blood. Through this act, Rick theorizes that Phil takes joy in retiring andys. Both men’s theories are then put to the Voigt-Kampff test and the results come back negative. Because of this, Resch is clearly human. So no, the flaws of the Voigt-Kampff test did not aid to the determination of Phil being an andy.