'Reality
is that in which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away' - Philip K. Dick
‘Do
Androids Dream ...’ is a futuristic novel set in the
aftermath of World War Terminus (abbreviated WWT), representing our world as a
devastated dystopian world, killing nearly all wildlife and animal life from
radiation poisoning. Humanities population on planet Earth is sparse since “the
dust contaminated most of the planet’s surface” (pg. 11). This settled nuclear
radioactive dust has prompted the human race to enter a new colonizing phase
into outer space, planets such as Mars “emigrate or degenerate! The choice is
yours!” (pg.5); actively encouraged by the government “the UN had made it easy
to emigrate, difficult if not impossible to stay” (pg.12). A principle incentive to emigration is a
Synthetic Freedom Fighter, an android servant. However, there are thousands of
people left to live on planet Earth clinging on to what they find familiar.
Some humans like John Isidore do not have this pleasure to emigrate, he is
considered a ‘chickenhead’ where he is socially ostracised because of being
mentally impaired from being subject to the radioactive dust. The main
protagonist however, is Rick Deckard a bounty hunter working with the San
Francisco police department who’s job is to ‘retire’ six specific androids
Nexus-6’s who have claimed human identities, who have escaped and returned to
Earth from colonised Mars. Rick seems to be a parallel character to John, he
begins as a self centred character obsessed by the social status he would gain
from owning an organic animal (his sheep which has died and since been replaced
by a robotic electric sheep) and the financial gain from retiring these
humanoid robots. Rick now has the demoralising task to take care of an android
sheep but in Rick’s own mind to kill these androids will only contribute to his
financial gain and taking him one step closer to owning a prestigious organic
animal.
The novel explores many controversies and themes, the
principle being the blur on reality; dreams and hallucinations, superior
artificial intelligence on mechanical replicas that you are unable to tell the
difference between original and the copy in human and animal form. This
problematic issue takes into account the calamities of capitalism and with it
consumerism “we produced [androids] what the colonists wanted” (pg.43). Rick’s
bounty hunter characteristics portray him as a man of control, even over
control of life, he shows us the fragility of life when firstly threatened by
the repercussions of nuclear war and the pressure it has on personal and
interpersonal relationships with those left on Earth, especially between him
and his wife Iran. A way of connecting colonised humanity and humanity on Earth
is through mass media a process of mind control created through the television
set and Buster Friendly’s news reporter’s sub-reality. What P. K. Dick examines
is the moral philosophy of what it means and makes you to be a human being with
Dick emphasising a large part of the novel is based on the feeling of empathy
and to understand and share the feelings of others, a trait androids are not
programmed to possess.
‘Do
Androids Dream ...’ is a novel which concerns a individual and
cultural transformation it has a narrative that twists and turns and questions
your ability to understand the characters that playfully toy with your mind. Both
Rick and John find themselves placed in situations that show them to be more
alike than first presumed; the task is for them to hunt for the ultimate truth
like predator and prey.
