Book - Do androids dream of electric sheep ?

Book –Do androids dream of electric sheep ? 

Author :  Philip K. Dick 

Score: 10/10

Year: 1968

Publisher:  Orion Books

ISBN 978-0-57507-993-9

Pages  214

Language: English 

Last year, I had watched Blade Runner, which is inspired from this 1968 science-fiction novel. Last year,  I watched it on a particularly sensitive evening and couldn't truly appreciate the movie, as it was quite violent. 

In preparing myself to another viewing, I just read the novel, over the past few days - as a break between Harry Potter 5 & 6. 

The author's title is very intelligent and the content, although written with simple English, is far more complexe, raising philosophical and existential questions, resonating now even more than in the late 1960's. 

It is a cautionary tale about us, humans, and the dangers of letting go of empathy - one of the most important characteristics that we need to keep alive and present in our lives. 

Indeed, in the immediate near-future in this fictional tale, the world has seen a devastating war  leaving Earth in ruins ; most animals are now extinct and revered as sacred, and all cruelty to animals is a crime.

The original story action starts in 1992 but after that year passed, editions changed to 2021, with the war happening in the 1990's.

In spite of the passage of years, Earth is still covered by dust, the war's remnant, which still can damage - and there is a subplot regarding its effects, as well as difference between IQ and empathy. 

Humans have developed increasingly sophisticated androids, and used them as labour whilst colonizing Mars ; these androids haven't been programmed with empathy, and it is through empathy personality tests that humans can now recognize androids. 

Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter, for the police, and his mission is simple : he has to kill androids ; but his dream is to own a real animal, not just one of the many fake, robotic ones that he can find in shops. 

This novel raises many ethical, existential and philosophical questions and cleverly debates the notions of artificial life forms VS ''real'' ones, empathy VS sociopath cold blooded murder, and is it murder to kill that which is labeled as not living because it is artificially created. 

The biggest difference I noted in this novel is the only religion of this fictional future (Mercerism), isn't present in Blade Runner. This part is interwoven in the main plot and also bares social messages, both evident and more subtly told than the rest of the novel's story, and my thoughts on this aspect might reveal too much so I will hush any possible spoilers.

Instead, I'll invite you to read this cautionary, classic science-fiction tale and then, move on to extensions of the topics raised here, into specific stories in Star Trek the Next Generation,  and the rest of the plots in Star Trek Voyager (starting at the end of season 3 but mostly fleshed out in seasons 4 through 7).