In Chapter 17 after Rick and Rachael went to bed together, Rachael shared her thoughts with Rick the next morning. She said, “We androids can’t control our physical, sensual passions. You probably knew that; in my opinion you took advantage of me,” (Dick, 197). However, as the chapter will explain Rachael did not seem angry at all. On the contrary, she appeared to be cheerful and it closely resembled the happiness that would emanate from another human. Also, I found Rachael’s statement of how she commented on how sad Rick looked as he thought about how he will stop being a bounty hunter after the Battys.
Both when she shared her opinion of how she was taken advantage of and how she picked up on Rick’s emotions, it closely resembled how a human would react to both situations. My question is that can Rachael’s ability to understand Rick’s expressions and emotions so well be a sign that androids to a certain degree, may empathize with others? Or can Rachel’s understanding simply be labeled as mere intuition or something of that sort and nothing more?
I think it can be a sign of both depending on the android. I think Rachel herself can truly feel empathy. If she couldn’t, she wouldn’t have slept with Rick to try and stop the killing of androids. She does seem to genuinely show emotion; however, it is hard to tell because she was manipulating Rick from the start. Then again, the fact that she cares so much about the death of her friends shows that on some degree she can feel empathy. For other androids, I can understand how it could be mere intuition rather than true empathy. With Pris, for example, she seemed like she cared but that was completely proven false when she dismembered the spider like it was no big deal. All in all, Rachel herself seems like an android that truly can feel empathy. But who knows? She did kill the goat.