Friday, March 14, 2014

Gaspari: Androids

In Michael Heileman's essay analyzing "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" there is a focus on dehumanization and the focus on what human-ness is. Heileman focusses on the idea the ideas of mercerism, "Mercer is also for mankind a way to separate themselves from the androids, seeing as their lack of empathy makes them unable to use the empathy box" (Heileman, 8). I think that there is clear evidence in the novel that shows that the empathy box and the Voight test actually blur the lines between android and human and can cause the perception of what human is to be almost imperceptible. The issue that comes with this goes along with how Roy Baty uses drugs to try and induce an empathy response through the effects of an altered state, and also there is the problematic issue of the Voight test not actually being completely effective as we see when it fails on Rachel Rozen.

Mercerism is as a whole uneffective and does not accomplish what it is set out to do. If the goal is to define a human identity that is separate from the machines, there is an inherent flaw. This flaw comes from the empathy box, a machine, playing a major role in Mercerism. The problem of the empathy box is clear as it does not provide identity it only provides a communality. Deckard shows how manipulative the machine is and how much they depend on the empathy box when he is arguing with his wife early on in the book. The identity that the empathy box pushes on individuals strips away their personality and is actually a clear fake. In the end we see this as Mercer is outed as a con and he admits, "I am a fraud" (214, Dick). This bit of information is very vital, because it further complicates the roles that are played in the novel, but I think the one thing that it does confirm is that religion in this book does not effect humans in a positive manner. 



    Works Cited

Dick, Phillip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? New York: Ballantine,

          1996. Print.

Heilemann, Michael. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner". 2001. Blackboard. Web 13 Mar 2014

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1 comment:

  1. UnknownMarch 16, 2014 at 1:48 PM

    First off I would like to say that it was a pleasure reading your anaylsis. First off i would like to say that a enjoyed reading your analysis.
    Dick did not create a plot device that shows the world in which feelings come from an object that is independent of human or simply out of their control. He did not create a world full of humans who had drastically lost the empathy that is present in most humans. The devices such as the mood organ or the empathy box do not create emotions for humans, they simply alter the emotion that are already present. A human’s ability to gives them a unique difference from an android because an android cannot exhibit feeling naturally.

    I would disagree with your statment of "Mercerism is as a whole uneffective and does not accomplish what it is set out to do" because Mercerism as a whole can be seen as one of the ways of keeping humanity together. I think that religion can effect humans in a positive manner.

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