Philip K Dick's Ubik: Character Analysis

The definition of humanity is not something students spend much time thinking about. It seems all of humanity has a silent agreement on the definition, but it is never clearly stated, simply for the fact that we do not know how to say it. While the most accurate definition is surely defined by an array of unique features, there is one aspect that, devoid of, one cannot have a human. To be human is to be able to think for oneself, and only to oneself. Sentience is no strange measure of one’s humanity, it has been used countless times before as such a metric. However, I propose to you today that the ability to think is, by necessity, private, or else humanity is lost. Once people can read each other’s thoughts, they are no longer human, they are just an asset; a self-computing computer. In short, Psychic powers rob the humanity from a person, which is plainly demonstrated in Philip K Dick’s Ubik. I believe we can all agree that all people existing in the fullest definition of humanity have the ability to think. This has not changed in Ubik. Unless I have read some majorly abridged version, there were no characters lacking of this capacity. In this respect, all of the characters in Ubik have their humanity. As strong willed New Yorkers often do, they have no fear of expressing this ability to think in their every action, on every page. The

Even when Runciter, leader of an organization in charge of making such powers inert, uses such powers to his advantage with a client, it does not stop him and his team from walking head first into danger on Luna. Be it for corporate espionage or personal purposes, no event in the book shows the psychically-abled doing anything more than asset-izing humans for whomever they please. It even defeats the “you can observe what I do, but you can never know what I truly think” mentality, as they are directly observing exactly what they are thinking. This can cause some trust