ENGL 121 Term Paper. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Set in post-apocalyptic era, Dick’s book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, explores the meaning of life and humanity. During the era, human beings live in Mars after escaping the Earth since the radioactive dust on the planet threatens their survival. Owing to the advanced technology, human beings have managed to make humanoid Androids that perform various tasks such as manual labor. The technology during this era becomes so sophisticated that one can mistake a humanoid for a real person. Moreover, Androids start mimicking human behavior. For example, some of them are unwilling to continue offering the forced labor and they free to Earth. Rick, a human being tasked with destroying rebellious humanoids, has a hard time distinguishing between the real and artificial people. The only solution is to test the being’s level of empathy. Rick is convinced that only omnivore and herbivores are capable of showing signs of humanity such as empathy. Dick urges human beings to embrace empathy despite advances in their external environment, as it defines their humanity.
Empathy is one of the aspects that make us human. It enhances our ability to understand other people and express our emotions as well. Empathy is the foundation of social behavior as it influences the choices that we make. In the story, empathy was the main indication of humanity in the creatures. It was expected that humanoids were unable to express any form of empathy, regardless of their great similarity to people (Dick 13). It was proven that the humanoids were not capable of expressing empathy due to their artificial nature. For example, Rick expresses his frustration about the inability of his electric sheep to show any form of emotion. Although empathy was believed to be an accurate test for humanity, there are doubts on whether all human beings are capable of showing empathy. Characters such as Rick were not empathetic, yet they were regarded as human beings or real beings. As a bounty hunter, his work was to terminate the life of humanoids that had fled Mars. Although the humanoids were not real, they resembled human beings and even interacted with them. Killing or terminating the functioning of such creations was a sign of low or lack of empathy, yet Rick was a real human being.
Dick’s portrayal of empathy as the main aspect that defines humanity applies to the modern world. It is through empathy that policy makers can understand the plight of workers, for example. Yet, some workers are subjected to deplorable working conditions. Some of the social issues that people face in the modern world result from actions taken devoid of empathy. For example, discrimination against the minority ethnic groups has been linked to social issues including police brutality and health inequality. Human beings are in charge of regulations that benefit or oppress other people. In the book, human beings show a lack of empathy for their fellow humans. They discriminate against the people they regard as mentally weak, yet they claim t...