Empathizing with Androids

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

By Philip K. Dick

Michelle Wong

Are you able to distinguish between a real life animal and a robotic one? Apparently John Isidore can’t because he accidentally  let one die by bringing a real cat to a mechanic instead of a vet. His employer was extremely frustrated with him, but one of Isidore’s coworkers asked his boss to cut him some slack because in their world, the difference between a real animal and fake animal is virtually impossible. As a punishment, Isidore had to call the owners and inform them that their cat died and ask if they would like to purchase an electric cat as a replacement. Luckily, when Isidore reluctantly called the owners, Mrs. Pilsen picks up. Isidore forced himself to lie and say the cat died of pneumonitis and she should consider buying a replacement cat from the Sidney’s catalog:  “What about an exact electric duplicate of your cat?”(80), asks Isidore. If I was Mrs.Pilsen, I would definitely purchase an electric cat, but it obviously wouldn’t be the same. You could program the perfect cat replica of the cat that died with all the memories intact, but something would still feel uncanny about owning an electric cat like a real one. Mr. Pilsen purposely didn’t get to close to his cat when it was alive, but I still think he would notice that the fake cat isn’t his cat. Once you get close with someone, the thought of losing them can break you. Novels like these help me remember and appreciate the people I love. Mr. Pilsen shouldn’t be mad that his cat died. He should be happy that he was able to become so close with someone and become so sad and frustrated by them being gone. It says something really. To be able to love, care, and be so close to someone and be happy with them just tells how happy you were with them around. All these emotions are human and something that an android could never feel. Which leads to Rick Deckard’s bounty hunt for androids.

First on the list is Polokov. He is an android posing as an important figure for a trash collecting company. Once he finds him they battle it out and Rick is able to successfully “retire” , or kill and android. Next, Rick takes a break at an opera house. He sees someone, Luba Luft. He notices something odd about her and makes it his job to perform the Voigt-Kampff test on her, which leads into one of the most annoying, yet entertaining character interactions in this novel next to Isidore and Pris’ interaction. Ms.Luft is a character you love to hate, but nevertheless, her interaction with Rick is priceless. So the test runs smoothly until the Voigt-Kampff test starts asking some...frisky questions. Ms.Luft calls a patrolman over and oddly enough, Rick nor the patrolman recognize each other.  So to solve this problem they pack up to go to the police station. Unfortunately for Rick, he is brought to an unfamiliar police station which Rick assumes is a fake, android-run police station.

The novel is getting really exciting right now yet still able to bring up all these questions of a real and fake world. I can’t wait to finish the novel and if I could, I would write another blog post on it, but since I can’t next time you’ll see me taking a 360 and reading a romance novel. See you next time and I hope you enjoyed.