Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Synopsis

In a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, the bounty hunter Rick Deckard is tasked with 'retiring' six escaped Nexus-6 androids that are nearly indistinguishable from human beings. The hunt becomes an interrogation of empathy, animal life, religion, and what counts as 'real.'

Editorial review

Dick's short novel is the basis for Blade Runner, and a much stranger book than the films suggest. Its philosophical core — what does it mean to be 'real' if empathy is the criterion, and most humans flunk it? — is more disturbing than its action plot.

Key takeaways

• 1

  If empathy is the test of humanity, the test cuts uncomfortably close to home.

• 2

  Authenticity is harder to define than the technologies that imitate it.

• 3

  Religion, in the novel, is itself a technology — and not necessarily a fake one.

• 4

  The most haunting science fiction often takes place at small domestic scale.