Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author	Philip K. Dick
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	1968
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	210 pp
ISBN	0-345-40447-5
OCLC	34818133
Followed by	Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick first published in 1968. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids, while the secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-normal intelligence who befriends some of the androids.

The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic near future, where the Earth and its populations have been damaged greatly by Nuclear War during World War Terminus. Most types of animals are endangered or extinct due to extreme radiation poisoning from the war. To own an animal is a sign of status, but what is emphasized more is the empathic emotions humans experience towards an animal.

Deckard is faced with "retiring" six escaped Nexus-6 model androids, the latest and most advanced model. Because of this task, the novel explores the issue of what it is to be human. Unlike humans, the androids possess no empathic sense. In essence, Dick probes the existence of defining qualities that separate humans from androids.

The book's plot served as the primary basis for the 1982 film Blade Runner.

Setting

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? takes place in 1992 (2021 in later editions), years after the radioactive fallout of World War Terminus destroyed most of Earth. The U.N. encourages emigration to off-world colonies, in hope of preserving the human race from the terminal effects of the fallout. One emigration incentive is giving each emigrant an "andy" — a servant android.

The remaining populace live in cluttered, decaying cities wherein radiation poisoning sickens them and damages their genes. Animals are rare and people are expected to keep them and help preserve them. But many people turn towards the much cheaper synthetic, or electric, animals to keep up the pretence. Rick Deckard owned a sheep, but it died of tetanus, and he replaced it with a synthetic sheep.

The main Earth religion is Mercerism, in which Empathy Boxes link simultaneous users into a collective consciousness based on the suffering of Wilbur Mercer. The television appearances of Buster Friendly and his Friendly Friends represent a second religion, designed to undermine Mercerism and allow androids to partake in a kind of consumerist spirituality.

Androids

Androids are used only in the Martian colonies, yet many escape to Earth, fleeing the psychological isolation and chattel slavery. Although made of biological materials and physically indistinguishable from humans, they are considered to be pieces of machinery. Police bounty hunters, such as Rick Deckard, hunt and "retire" (kill) fugitive androids passing for human. Oftentimes, Deckard's police department will collect and analyze the corpses of suspected 'andys' to confirm that they are, in fact, artificial.

Earlier androids were easier to detect because of their limited intelligence. As android technology improved, bounty hunters had to apply an empathy test — the Voigt-Kampff — to distinguish humans from androids, by measuring empathetic responses, or lack thereof, from questions designed to evoke an emotional response, often including animal subjects and themes. Because androids are not sympathetic, their responses are either absent or feigned, and measurably slower than a human's. The simpler Bonelli Test, used by another police department in San Francisco, measures the reflex-arc velocity in the spinal column's upper ganglia, but is very painful to the subject, as well as the results taking longer to produce.

Plot summary

The novel follows bounty hunter Rick Deckard through one day of his life, as he tracks down renegade androids who have assumed human identities.

Despite his marriage, he falls for and sleeps with Rachael Rosen, an attractive female android he initially believes to be human and who attempts to turn him away from bounty hunting. Deckard becomes confused about humanity, morality and empathy. He is arrested after attempting to retire the second android, but escapes with fellow bounty hunter Phil Resch after encountering an android posing as police chief. His moral quandary deepens after working briefly with Phil Resch, who turns out to be a particularly callous fellow bounty hunter.

Deckard's story is paralleled by that of J.R. Isidore, a driver for an animal repair shop who cannot qualify to leave Earth and so lives alone, with little outside contact other than his Empathy Box. Pris Stratton moves into the building and the lonely Isidore attempts to befriend her. Pris proves to be a runaway android, identical in appearance to Rachael Rosen.

Deckard eventually retires all of the illegal androids, earning him a citation for the record number of kills in one day. He returns home to discover that Rachael Rosen killed his (real) pet goat by pushing it off the roof. He understands that Rachael was taking revenge, and is thankful that the loss is financial; the android could instead have killed his wife.

He travels to an isolated desert to meditate and has an epiphany. He also finds a toad, thought to be extinct and considered to be Mercer's favorite animal. Deckard brings it home, where his wife discovers that the toad is in fact synthetic. Deckard is not glad but "prefers" to know the toad is artificial.

Adaptations

Film

Main article: Blade Runner

In 1982, Hampton Fancher and David Peoples' loose cinematic adaptation became the film Blade Runner, which was directed by Ridley Scott. The international success of Blade Runner helped bring Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and its author into the public eye. For that reason, after 1982 some editions of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? were branded with the title Blade Runner.

Audiobook

The novel has been released in audiobook form at least twice. A version was released in 1994 that featured actors such as Matthew Modine and Callista Flockhart. It was an abridged version running approximately three hours over two audio cassettes.

A new audiobook version was released in 2007 to coincide with the release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut. This version, read by Scott Brick, is unabridged and runs approximately 9.5 hours over eight CDs. This version is a tie-in, using the Blade Runner: The Final Cut film poster and Blade Runner title.

Theater

A stage adaptation of the book, written by Edward Einhorn, is planned for November/December 2010 at the 3LD theater in New York.

Comic book

In 1982 Marvel Comics did an adaptation of the film called A Marvel Comics Super Special: Blade Runner. It was written by Archie Goodwin with art by Al Williamson, Ralph Reese and Dan Green.

Beginning in 2009, BOOM! Studios started publishing a 24-issue comic book limited series adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, containing the full text of the novella. In April 2010, Boom! Studios announced a follow up comic was in production. Dust To Dust is a four issue miniseries starting on May 26, 2010 and written by Chris Roberson and drawn by Robert Adler.

Cultural references

Names of mobile phone products from Google are based on the book. Both the mobile phone operating system, called Android, as well as the physical phone, Nexus One, make references to the book.

Fox television show Fringe pays homage to the title in the Season 3 Episode 4: Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep.

American Rock Group, Incubus, refer to the title in their song "Talk Shows on Mute" from their album A Crow Left of the Murder wherein the lyrics mention "still and transfixed, the Electric Sheep are dreaming of your face".

Trip-hop due UNKLE released a triple CD DJ mix called Do Androids Dream of Electric Beats?.

Mega Man 10 reference the book by a Robot Master named Sheep Man.

Sequels

Three novels intended to serve as sequels to both Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Blade Runner have been published: Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human (1995), Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night (1996), Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon (2000). The official and authorized novels were written by Philip K. Dick's friend, K. W. Jeter. They continue the story of Rick Deckard and attempt to resolve many of the differences between the novel and the film.

Awards

• 1968 - Nebula Award nominee
• 1998 - Locus Poll Award, All-Time Best SF Novel before 1990 (Place: 51)

See also

• Biorobotics
• Electric Sheep

Further reading

• Dick, Philip K. (1968). Do androids dream of electric sheep? New York: Ballantine Books, 1996. ISBN 0-345-40447-5. First published in Philip K. Dick: Electric Shepherd, Norstrilla Press.
  Zelazny, Roger (1975). "Introduction"
• Scott, Ridley (1982). Blade Runner. Warner Brothers.
• The Electric Sheep screensaver software is an homage to Do Androids dream of electric sheep?.
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? at Worlds Without End

Criticism

• Benesch, Klaus. "Technology, Art, and the Cybernetic Body: The Cyborg As Cultural Other in Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", Amerikastudien/AmericanStudies, 44:3, 1999, pp. 379–92.
• Butler, Andrew M. "Reality versus Transience: An Examination of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner", Philip K. Dick: A Celebration [Programme Book], Merrifield, Jeff (ed.) Epping Forest College, Loughton: Connections, 1991.
• Gallo, Domenico. "Avvampando gli angeli caddero: Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick e il cyberpunk", Lo sguardo degli angeli: Intorno e oltre Blade Runner, Bertetti and Scolari (eds.), Torino: Testo & Immagine, 2002, pp. 206–18.
• Galvan, Jill. "Entering the Posthuman Collective in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Science-Fiction Studies # 73, 24:3, 1997, pp. 413–29.

External links

• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? at the Internet Book List
• Complete publication history and cover gallery
• Template:It Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?