Miller: Human v Android

Michael D. Miller

Androids Blog

15 March 2014

Human v. Androids

The book entitled, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Phillip Dick examines what appears to be his theories on what makes humans, humans. Dick chose empathy as the quality that separates human from all other creatures and androids on the planet. 

An android, no matter how gifted as to pure intellectual capacity, could make no sense out of the fusion which took place routinely among the followers of Mercerism — an experience which he, and virtually everyone else, including subnormal chickenheads, managed with no difficulty (Dick 12).

Phillip Dick in his book states that the use of the empathy box by humans is an avenue for humans to experience their feelings of empathy. Mercer is the character depicted in the vision seen by the humans in the empathy box as a person engaging in a seemingly endless struggle to climb a mountain while rocks are thrown at him. The human using the empathy box feels the struggle and pain of Mercer that connects the user with the other humans using the box at that very moment.

Heilemann writes, Mercer is also for mankind a way to separate themselves from the androids, seeing as there lack of empathy disables them from using the empathy box (8). Humans feel empathy as well as a host of other emotions because it is engrained in the human soul. Feelings in humans are not connected to a religion. Feelings are connected to being human. Mercer is not the only way for humans to feel. Deckard experiences feelings toward Racheall Rosen and may even have fallen in love with her. He also experiences the feeling of empathy for Luba Luft after she was murdered by Resch.

Mercer’s experience bring about feeling of empathy in the human that is using the box, just as when Pris is cutting off the legs of the spider prompts feelings of empathy in Isodore. Isosdore feels empathy for the spider as its legs are being cut off by Pris. He believes it is better to drown the spider rather than allow it to suffer. The empathy box could very well bring about the feelings of anger, frustration, or revenge for the human experiencing Mercer’s trial.

Buster Friendly and his Friendly Friends compete for the attention of viewers on Earth and other colony planets alike. Isodore found it disheartening that Buster frequently insulted Mercer. Isodore suspected that Buster was possibly an android;

            How did Buster Friendly find the time to tape both his aud and vid shows? Isodore

wondered. And how did Amanda Werner find time to be a guest every other day, month after month, year after year? How did they keep talking? They never repeated themselves — not so far as he could determine. Their remarks, always witty, always new, weren’t rehearsed. Amanda's hair glowed, her eyes glinted, her teeth shone; she never ran down, never became tired, never found herself at a loss as to a clever retort to Buster's bang-bang string of quips, jokes, and sharp observations (Dick 29).

Buster Friendly was dumbing down the humans with mindless television talk, much like television today. In some fashion, Buster Friendly’s show was dehumanizing people, essentially turning off their ability to feel emotions; such as of empathy through the mindless chatter and endless talking about nothing. 

The androids were incapable of feeling empathy. Because of this, the three remaining androids find it rather amusing that Buster Friendly and his Friendly Friends in front of millions of viewers on worldwide TV reveal that Mercerism and the empathy box is a hoax (Heilemann 8). However, it was not a hoax. Regardless of the assumptions made by anyone using the box; Wilbur Mercer is not a human being, that he is in fact an archetypal superior entity perhaps from another star (Dick 83). The experience of human emotion is genuine. Very much like watching a sad movie when you cry at the end. The actors are portraying a character’s experiences, which thereby provokes an emotional response from the audience. The actors themselves did not experience the trial of the character. The feelings experienced by the viewer are genuine prompted by either a factual or fictional character portrayal. 

I believe that Phillip K. Dick was writing this book because he was experiencing the influence of television and how it affected his life and the lives of viewers. Not to mention the turmoil of racism in the era in which he lived and most likely watched on television. I believe that he was pondering these ideas and wanted to relate his feelings to future generation, not knowing how or what future generations would most likely be able to relate to. His generation of television shows included a variety of sci-fi TV shows, moon landings, and speculating how life would be in the future greatly influenced the writing his book.

Works Cited

Dick, Phillip. Do Androids Dream of electric Sheep? New York: Oxford, 1968. Print.

Heilemann, Michael. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner. Web

15 March 2014.