Philip K. Dick
The best part of Dick's work is his ability to raise thought-provoking questions that deeply pierce the human psyche and affect every aspect of our lives without offering didactic solutions or condescending moral platitudes. Indeed, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? leaves the reader richer for having read it despite its lack of ultimate conclusions. Dick offers a hint of resolution in the book's final, enigmatic conversation but does not bludgeon readers with a sense of unassailable "right" and "wrong". Even without absolute resolution, the book feels complete and only refines its razor-sharp questions about sentience and the value of intelligent life. The premise of the book, that corporations have developed androids operating on human-level intelligence and lacking only incredibly small (and difficult to detect) biological signals when asked to empathize, itself raises important questions and subtly forces readers to reach their own conclusions as the narrative escalates and Rick Deckard, the main character, is forced to revisit his own priorities. Dick's work centers on questions of reality and veritability- how do we know what is real and how can we verify that reality, if at all? His walking, talking androids know all of the right things to say and can, in fact, outwit humans. Neither he, the reader, Rick Deckard, nor the androids themselves fully know what this implies about the morality of bounty hunting or the desirability of androids' presence on Earth.
Dick raises these deeply philosophical questions and others (including the morality of slavery, among other sticky issues) in an easygoing and highly readable prose. There are a few sections that are a bit confusing, but the back story is integrated well into the text and does not leave the reader hanging for too long. The world is easily and immediately recognizable and relevant, more eerily so because of recent advances in artificial intelligence technology and robotics. Rick Deckard is likable and is an excellent manifestation of the book's central questions about empathy and its necessity in humanity. At the heart of the novel lies an unresolvable dilemma about empathy that becomes real through Deckard's experience, which nonetheless never feels forced or overly moralistic. The action is fast-paced and continual plot twists only heighten the tension and raise more questions. Despite the somewhat muddy ending, the narrative progress of the novel fully and acutely presents, explores, and tentatively resolves its central issues, offering a sense of completion despite its lack of outright resolution. Philip K. Dick possesses an incomparable ability to twist and distort reality to emphasize the problems and questions most relevant to our own implied reality. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is far more than a quick science fiction adventure in a speculative universe. Quite subtly, the book is in fact a meditation on the importance of empathy in human interactions and the disturbing possibilities of the continued escalation of artificial intelligence technology.
Grade: A
Dick raises these deeply philosophical questions and others (including the morality of slavery, among other sticky issues) in an easygoing and highly readable prose. There are a few sections that are a bit confusing, but the back story is integrated well into the text and does not leave the reader hanging for too long. The world is easily and immediately recognizable and relevant, more eerily so because of recent advances in artificial intelligence technology and robotics. Rick Deckard is likable and is an excellent manifestation of the book's central questions about empathy and its necessity in humanity. At the heart of the novel lies an unresolvable dilemma about empathy that becomes real through Deckard's experience, which nonetheless never feels forced or overly moralistic. The action is fast-paced and continual plot twists only heighten the tension and raise more questions. Despite the somewhat muddy ending, the narrative progress of the novel fully and acutely presents, explores, and tentatively resolves its central issues, offering a sense of completion despite its lack of outright resolution. Philip K. Dick possesses an incomparable ability to twist and distort reality to emphasize the problems and questions most relevant to our own implied reality. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is far more than a quick science fiction adventure in a speculative universe. Quite subtly, the book is in fact a meditation on the importance of empathy in human interactions and the disturbing possibilities of the continued escalation of artificial intelligence technology.
Grade: A
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