Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?--Christine Ellis

Philip K. Dick is one of the most famous science fiction writers and his work "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" is undoubtedly his masterpiece. The inspiration for "Bladerunner", it revolves around the life of Rick Deckard. Rick Deckard has a unique job to say the least. In the future, humans have developed incredibly life-like humanoids that they use as slave labor on off-world colonies. The Earth is covered in post-nuclear war dust and animals are considered to be a precious commodity, right down to spiders and ants. The book raises many questions about how humans define "life". While a toad is considered to be a sacred animal that must be protected, an android, a highly intelligent creature with implanted memories of a human life, is still considered subhuman.
There are many things that are left unsaid but that are very disturbing, like the fact that there are no children in this dreary world and all males are required to wear lead cod pieces. There are also many strange passages where it seems all of the characters have a fixation for breasts, symbols of maternity. Anything associated with reproduction, with life itself, is highly prized and even worshiped. It reminded me of research I had done for Hinduism and Native American culture. It seems that the world of Philip K. Dick has a warped religion of animism. During the course of the book, a bunch of androids escape, leaving an important question unanswered. If an android can develop feelings like dignity, anger, and longing, than is it a machine?
Many of the humans of the book seem less human than the androids. Deckard himself uses a "mood organ" where he can dial in emotions at the touch of a button. The Voight-Kampf test, used to sniff out androids' for their lack of empathy, is completely flawed because in the world that the characters live in, empathy seems to be missing entirely. In a sad way, I thought about how all of us seem to get caught up in the daily hustle of life and lose what makes us human. We forget what it really means to be alive, and what a privilege it is. The only way to stay grounded in this reality is to expose yourself to as much life as possible, whether its growing, crawling, or flying overhead. Without a speck of green in their world, few animals and no children to remind them of the life cycle, the character of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" are doomed to lose their humanity.