Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep Analysis

Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? compares humanity to androids. The novel calls into question what makes these two seemingly disparate beings contrarily similar to each other. Although humans would like to believe they are the superior race, humans are not any different from a programmed machine. Since androids and humans are so similar, specific characteristics are to be examined in order to attempt to spot a difference. “Empathy” is thought to “exist only in the human community,” contributing to Rick Deckard’s belief that humans can be distinguished from androids based on this “autonomic response” (Dick 29, 44). Even though androids cannot experience this compassionate feeling, they maintain “intelligence” allowing them to act as if they can, causing the “Voigt-Kampff” test to be inaccurate at times (29, 35). These “devious,” machines began to be programmed with more human-like characteristics, such as a false sense of empathy (57). The constant modernization of these

Humans believe their race is “pristine,” but this is not the case for all people (Dick 16). Phil Resch, a bounty hunter, is suspected to be an android due to his apathetic attitude and actions (127). Deckard highly questions Resch’s capability of being human after he kills Garland without administering an android test, proving that Resch “like[s] to kill” (127). When Luba Luft, an android, asks Deckard and Resch to buy her an art book, Deckard accepts; Luft expresses her gratitude by commenting that “an android would never have done that” (123-124). Resch refuses buying the book before Deckard accepts, implying that Resch is not human. Contrary to these suppositions, Resch is labeled human after taking a test (130). Humans similar to Resch contribute to the convergence of humanity and humanoids, strengthening the difficulty to tell the two groups