Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Editorial review

Dick's short novel is the basis for Blade Runner, and a much stranger book than the films suggest. Its philosophical core — what does it mean to be 'real' if empathy is the criterion, and most humans flunk it? — is more disturbing than its action plot.

AI-generated summary

In a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, the bounty hunter Rick Deckard is tasked with 'retiring' six escaped Nexus-6 androids that are nearly indistinguishable from human beings. The hunt becomes an interrogation of empathy, animal life, religion, and what counts as 'real.'

Key takeaways

• 1

  If empathy is the test of humanity, the test cuts uncomfortably close to home.

• 2

  Authenticity is harder to define than the technologies that imitate it.

• 3

  Religion, in the novel, is itself a technology — and not necessarily a fake one.

• 4

  The most haunting science fiction often takes place at small domestic scale.