Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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Is he an android?
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Scott
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Dec 30, 2013 08:37PM
Phil Resch, I mean. The bounty hunter from the fake police station. Deckard said he's not, but did he just say that 'cause he didn't want to kill him?
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Good question. It's left ambiguous. I believe he might be an android.
There's no conclusive evidence to support either theory. It's obviously meant to be ambiguous and raise issues regarding Deckard's own humanity.
I wondered during the reading, but didn't think so afterwards.
I Love how the pretense of that is left hanging throughout the story. One of this books many and enjoyable layers.
There was nothing conclusive in the book, which made it even better. I don't think he was though
I saw a fascinating show about Phillip K. Dick on netflix. The series is about the visionaries of science fiction. Dick was borderline schizophrenic, and most definitely paranoid. He was able to harness those serious issues and channel them into his writing, and it comes out in his work. The paranoia of a society in which the humans are indistinguishable from the artificials is a direct result of his suspicions about just about everyone.
You know that is one of the most interesting things about Phillip K. Dick. He was a paranoid schizophrenic, and yet, he was able to talk about real issues that came to past before and after his death. I think his illness made him intensify his fear of things like technology, which helped him make better books, but was also a personal ailment.
He certainly foresaw (when no one else could) where technology was taking us. Like Zuckerberg says, "privacy is dead."
I like to think that the remaining "humans" on earth were actually the newest model of androids: Nexus-7's. Whereas the old (obsolete) Nexus-6's were being junked and had been previously deported to the junkyard that is Mars. They could have achieved this with artificial memories implanted, and refined it with the use of the empathy boxes. It's very possible, because he spent a lot of time talking about fallout and radiation that would be present (and the main character was outside during those periods). There were very few animals, and mostly animals that could survive high toxicity rates (rats, goats, etc). Additionally, Deckard did a lot without any rest. They even hinted on how Buster could do so many long shows. And how could the humans be remotely connected to Wilbur Mercer when away from the empathy box? Heck, it would also explain why Phil Resch's boss could be replaced with a Nexus-6 that looked so much like him, that he was fooled by the swap after having known him "for 3 years."
Rose wrote: "Jeremy wrote: "I like to think that the remaining "humans" on earth were actually the newest model of androids: Nexus-7's. Whereas the old (obsolete) Nexus-6's were being junked and had been previo..."I don't think that that would change much. It would just be a calibration for the Nexus-7's genetic code, which would be a slight variance from the Nexus-6. If you're already steeped in a world full of Nexus-7's with implanted memory, then it wouldn't matter if they were searching for humans as opposed to androids if their definition of human has been updated to the Nexus-7 genome. It's like if you run a computer program to find the difference between an old file and a new file. The old file will come up as different from the new file, but the question being asked isn't "is this human?" it's "is this what we perceive to be our default perception of human, e.g. Nexus-7's"
I always got the impression that the whole point of the book is that people have become so dehumanised that they increasingly cannot be differentiated from androids, so in that respect the question over whether the other bounty hunter was an android is almost irrelevant. However I think it makes more sense if he is not an android but works among them and is unable to recognise them for what they are and is stripped of human feeling that he might as well be one.
Ian wrote: "I always got the impression that the whole point of the book is that people have become so dehumanised that they increasingly cannot be differentiated from androids, so in that respect the question..."That is actually what makes it so relevant, I would say that it is actually the moral conflict of the book.
I thought it was determined in the story that Resch was an android...?
The other androids finger him, but they're not the most credible people. Luba says to him, "You're not human," but as she was lying about her identity, I don't know if we can believe her.
Looking at the comments on here a year on and I realize what a fantastic book it is.
not an android. I didn't have any doubt about that when I finished the book, have never seen the movie.
The fake police station isn't in the movie.
Doug wrote: "not an android. I didn't have any doubt about that when I finished the book, have never seen the movie."Ditto.
♥,
Cat at Galaxy Press
Elements within the director's cut of Bladerunner seem to hint at this possibility, but I did not see suggestions of this idea in the novel. His discovery in the final scenes of the narrative indicate that he is not. At least, that's my read on it.
I think you're thinking of Decker. I'm talking about the cop from the fake police station in the novel whom I don't think is in the movie.
Scott wrote: "I think you're thinking of Decker. I'm talking about the cop from the fake police station in the novel whom I don't think is in the movie."
Oh, damn it. You're right, I was thinking of Decker. I'm going to have to read that over.
Oh, damn it. You're right, I was thinking of Decker. I'm going to have to read that over.
I take issue with the diagnosis of PKD as a schizophrenic. I doubt very much that he was. First, the onset of organic schizophrenia is usually in the late teens and early twenties, and during that time PKD had no such symptoms. I think he was odd, and definitely neurotic at that age. If you watch documentaries on him like this one:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cK2M...
and this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmAta...
...you get a pretty strong sense that he was more "sane" when younger. His early short stories reflect this. What really happened, IMHO, is that he burned his brain out on speed. Ever hang out with a meth addict? If not, and you're interested in PKDs madness, I suggest you do so. PKD was addicted to speed/crank, that is, the older forms of amphetamines that meth has supplanted. He used it daily to write, for the better part of a decade and a half. Now, if you are fortunate enough not to know or work with meth addicts (I work with recovering ones at times in my regular job, not one myself thank God...and sometimes socially around Burning Man timeframe each year), I'll fill you in on something. Meth/Speed/Crank, due to some inherent chemical factor, create affects very similar to schizophrenia: voices, delusions, intense fantasies involving God and religious ideas. They also become paranoid. PKD comes across as a classic speed/crank burnout. He was a very high functioning one, true, but more important was that he was doing them in an era which was more or less innocent concerning the dangers, so that, as he points out in Scanner Darkly, he wasn't even aware of the break between the speed and his own thoughts. PKD was a romantic concerning drugs. This was really where the art in his later works came from. Valis, I admit, I can barely read as literature but it is very interesting as a historical document on the early days of the modern rehab industry. Anyways, back to today, every single meth addict out there tries to get on disability for schizophrenia sooner or later because the symptoms of meth withdrawal are similar to actual schizophrenia that would come on naturally in those unfortunate enough to be afflicted by it at birth. Maybe he had a mild form earlier? Maybe not. As Dick said himself, he had almost no interest in religion prior to using speed for a decade or so, and then it suddenly appeared. Well, do enough meth and you start babbling about God. Not every meth addict, mind you, but a good proportion. This is just my opinion, but when people say PKD was schizophrenic I think they should put a little asterisk above it.
* The after-affects of speed abuse, the voices and delusions etc, can continue for years after quitting the drug, so this would also be in keeping with PKDs religion-mania. To my understanding he quit speed in the early 70s after a multi-year binge. I could be wrong about this, dunno if he was using through the 70s or not. The damage would have been long-lasting though after that many years of use.
That's very interesting. I didn't know he was an addict. It would certainly explain a lot.
I've always attributed PKD's paranoia & visionary works to his drug use. But then, I've not done much research.Re Jeremy's suggestion that all remaining humans are actually Nexus-7s, I like that it explains the empathy box. The Mercer/ Sisyphus experiences could then be seen as training exercises.
However, I don't think Decker, his wife, his boss, his neighbor, the 'chickenhead' (sorry, forget his name)... are androids. They're dehumanized, to a greater or lesser degree... but they're still 'born of woman.' Imo.
But overall, yes, I do agree that the ambiguities that we find are intentional, that PKD wants us to think hard and to have discussions like this.
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