Midterm Essay- The “Superior” Race: How Empathetic Is Our Society?
In Philip K. Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the author gives us the question “what makes us human?” to ponder. During many moments while reading this novel, we start to think we have an answer, but are thrown for a loop throughout and more questions are generated. Throughout this novel, we are introduced to a post-apocalyptic version of San Fransisco set in 2021, where a great nuclear war has destroyed much of Earth as we know it. Animals have either gone endangered or extinct, most humans have migrated to Mars, and a whole new species called androids has been introduced to our world.While the lines between human and android tend to blur, Philip K. Dick uses empathy to differentiate the two by giving humans animals to care for and androids a life of servitude. The idea of humans being the “superior” race is not only a major theme in this novel, but also in real life today. One race, all humans in the case of the novel, being seen as somewhat better than another, or androids, is something we see today in our world through the media, so it is not very difficult to see where the book relates to modern day life. But like the characters in the book, we are blinded by the unspoken rules of society that allow us to see where these concepts intersect. And in order to understand this, we must ask ourselves: how empathetic is our society?
In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, we meet two very unique characters, whose stories we follow throughout. First, we are introduced to Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter on Earth who earns a living from “retiring” androids. Within the first few pages, we get a feel for his world and the environment he lives in with his wife, Iran, a world where they are fortunate enough to rely on a Penfield mood organ to control and convey their emotions. This is already a strange concept to deal with, the idea of being able to control your emotions through technology, causing us to question their humanity. Philip K. Dick counteracts this a little later by showing us how Deckard cares for his sheep, which he reveals to his neighbor to be electric. Though this knowledge is looked down on, he is so insisted upon proving how empathetic he is, he wants to buy his neighbor’s colt, even going as far as saying he would pay her “ five hundred dollars a month for ten months. Full catalogue value,” to which she still denies due to scarcity (Dick 10). Deckard’s desire to have a real animal is his motive to take on his mission to retire six Nexus-6 units, but the fine line between what is the morally right thing to do gets confusing. Throughout the novel, he begins to question his own morality as he does care for his electric sheep like a real one, while also hunting its “humanoid” counterparts. This is Deckard’s struggle throughout the story. Though it seems like the author is reaching for a lot with this idea of owning an animal to prove one’s self worth, it is not too far off from how we hold ourselves today. We, as a society, are so invested in being better than each other that we will use our wealth, intelligence, and even looks as leverage over others, but make excuses for why it is done, much like Deckard’s neighbor’s denial.
In the chapter following, we meet John Isodore, a “special”, sitting in his apartment while watching a government propaganda commercial, attempting to convince those remaining on Earth to move to the Mars colony. During the commercial, those remaining are offered their very own humanoid servant robot, customized to their specific needs, referring to it as “duplicates of th halcyon days of the pre-Civil War Southern states!” (Dick 17). The government is basically giving away their most human-like androids to cater to the whim of every human migrators needs, telling us as readers that it is basically their form of slavery. This also provides a reason for Deckard’s mission, as many androids, as about as aware as they can be, would want to escape and migrate to Earth. It also is revealed to us that Isodore has distorted genes due to the nuclear dust left after to war, which prevents him from ever possibly emigrating to Mars. He leads a simple life, working to pass the time and living alone in his very vacant apartment building. It is in Isodore we see a blurred line between humans and androids, or at least a sense of how being different is not a good thing. Though as a spoken rule, it is looked down upon to outcast people or groups of people for their differences, only a side glance is casted towards it, but nothing is truly ever done about it.
We again find ourselves asking a question on whether or not empathy is only a human emotion. In the book, the lack of empathy was something that differentiate the humans and the androids, even though androids were capable of empathising. But the bigger question of whether or not common similarities overthrow people’s differences is something we also must focus on. Without looking at the major themes of the novel, many will fail to see how similar our society is today to that of the book. In today’s society, we as individuals often look for for ways to separate ourselves from each other, while still blending in, much like the androids in the novel. Though Philip K. Dick goes to drastic measures to say this, he was not far off. The creation of the Nexus-6 units is shows us how it can be extremely hard to tell and makes one question their own humanity because we are all so desperate to be similar, yet different.
It is often argued on whether or not empathy can be taught, and if it can, to what extent. In the novel, the Nexus 6 “have the ability to [learn] empathy, [and] the distinction between human’s and android’s empathy is difficult to understand,” (Is Empathy Only A Human Ability?). This difficulty to understand ties back into the idea on how empathetic we, as a society, can be. We often find ourselves relating to those who are similar to us in one way or another, or even those who appeal and interest us, much like how it is revealed that Deckard only has empathy for female androids. Humans as a whole will only empathize with other humans, unless we look further into what makes us different from one another. This is where that distinction comes into play. In the novel, humans are seen as the “superior” race, while androids are seen as lesser. This idea speaks to the racial divide we face everyday in our own world.
The divide between the humans and the androids is a major theme in the novel, even going as far having “important” figures like Buster Friendly to help portray this idea. This is similar to us because we are constantly dividing humanity in our media as well. Androids are “not like us” and therefore, that makes them bad. We live by this idea everyday, that those who are not like us must be the enemy in a way. Take the presidential campaign for example, one candidate basically ran their platform on this concept of “different equals bad.” However, that is not the case because we are also teaching people to embrace their own differences. So how can we be empathetic to one another when we can barely make up our minds on whether or not to embrace each other? That is the largest question of all that we are faced not only while reading the book, but also in real life.
Empathy, as defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary, is the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions or the ability to share someone else’s feelings. But if we force ourselves to empathize with one another or to even “out-empathize” each other, we are not an empathetic society at all. Empathy is not created by mankind, a message that Philip K. Dick really tries to push throughout his novel, but can be taught or at least learned early on. We later learn that Officer Resch is actually an android who cares for a squirrel, and all that we knew before about androids becomes unclear. There is a blurring line of how empathy comes about and what we define as humanity. Androids have actually become more human than we initially thought. A Cyborg Manifesto, by Donna Haraway, touches on this idea that we as humans will eventually evolve much like the androids have done.
In Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto, Haraway introduces us to a new way of thinking about cyborgs and how androids may actually be the “superior” race. We are presented with the idea that gender, race, and class are just social constructs forces on us to follow as beings due to the course of history. This, in term, makes us weaker than androids because we are always so quick to categorize, whereas labels do not define androids and cyborgs alike. Haraway hopes we are able to move past this way of thinking, but we have yet to see change. Through our society, we let these labels define us and dictate who is above all of the others, much like how Mercerism in the novel does. Philip K. Dick uses this to expand of that idea of making excuses for why people believe that they are be better than each other. Like religion, we see faith as a way to prove ourselves. Those who are able to experience what Mercer felt, have reached the “highest” level of empathy. In our society, this notion of one-upping each other is something we experience everyday. But with this in mind, we see that everything is only done to be better than others and that we never truly better ourselves.
Through the way the world is portrayed through the media, we are basically given, first hand, the issues that we should care about. This makes it hard to differentiate whether or not our feelings towards something we see online are truly our own. Like our society, the novel’s “media” is portrayed the same way. Nothing is ever our own and we do not realize it because we are bred that way. Our identity is taken away when we let others dictate how we see things, and though we like to believe that we are different, we led to believe the same things, or variations of the same opinion. But if we really begin to pay attention to what is going on around us, we will eventually see the world for what it really is. We could even possibly move towards a world like the one Haraway created, to a more realistic extent, where we do not judge people by their differences or let society tell us what is best. Only then can we truly be seen as an empathetic society. Philip K. Dick’s novel is a perfect example of what our world will be like if we do not evolve past our ideals of what makes someone more human than another. Even though we are not nearly as complexed as androids, our nature to do and say what we are told dominates our life. If we began to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”, we will learn how to empathize with the people around us, and actually care for what is going on in the world. And though it may seem like a hard task to accomplish, we can start by having our own opinions on things, while also letting ourselves see something from someone else’s point of view. Empathy is not something we can force or try to outdo others in, it is an emotion, capable of being felt by humans, and even androids alike. So are we really an empathetic society? Through time and willingness to change, we could possibly learn to care about something or someone other than ourselves, not for praise or a reward, but because it will be human nature to do so.
Dick, Philip K., and Philip K. Dick. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. “Is Empathy Only A Human Ability? – Kyle Paulsen.” Is Empathy Only A Human Ability? – Kyle Paulsen. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2016.
Kerman, Judith. Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State U Popular, 1991. Print.
Tim Recuber on July 20, 2016. “What Becomes of Empathy? – Cyborgology.” What Becomes of Empathy? – Cyborgology. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.