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DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?
PHILIP K. DICK, 1968
Futuristic Societies
Philip K. Dick, 1928-1982
Born in ChicagoBegan writing 1952Interest in metaphysics
and theologyQuestioning the
universeFictionalizing
philosophizer44 published novels, 121 short storiesBlade runner, Total
Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly
The Apocalypse?
What is behind our appetite for doomsday visions?Are we confronting deep-seated species-wide fear?Can’t we wait for the end of the world?
Philosophy & Culture
The Road , 2006, Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey taken by a
father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed all civilization and, apparently, almost all life on earth.
Android?
An android is a robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human.
Largely within the domain of science fiction
Frequently seen in film and television.
Android
Honda and several other corporations and private enterprises have developed impressive androids
A long way to go to make them fully human like.
c-3po
Star Wars – Luke Skywalker and c-3po
Humanity
What constitutes the quality of being human?
What role does nature play for humans?
Destruction of the world as we know it
Insanity if humansNon-comprehension of their insanity
Artifice
Artificial humansArtificial animals
Self-extermination
Empathy – group fusion / moral choices
Move to Mars!
Social Body
Michel Foucault:“the idea of a social body constituted by the universality of wills” is a great fantasy
the “phenomenon of the social body is the effect not of a consensus but of the materiality of power operating on the very bodies of individuals.”
Earth has created a hierarchy of power
Hope?
The “Specials”Empathy – social structureRational hope? Religious hope?
NatureKipple
Rick Deckard, Bounty Hunter
Married to IranNo children, but an artificial sheepIdentity linked to destroyed natureCreation of a subject-identity ~ possession of
power over an animal (nature)Fake nature fake identity grey zone
between human and androidAndroid are indistinguishable from humans
empathy test
Westworld
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFmKvY6PN2M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAy8YnKvHQ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVWP8fP5To
Identity-crisis
Power hierarchyAnnual, decisive personality testsBuster FriendlyMercerSurvival of the fittestCentral irony
Fulfillment & Humanity?
Empathy and fusionHuman = non-androidEmpathy solely towards other humansDoubt creates a dilemma despair and
resignationInter-subjective identity formation as key to
humanityThe empathy box
Aliens?
Marital relationships ~ Rachel RosenReconciling the diminishing distinction
between humans and androidsMercer: “the basic condition of life to be
required to violate your own identity”Enlightenment – The Tomb World
Mercerism
Religion called MercerismEstablish ethical, moral norms of behaviorCreate empathetic fusionShame / blushing reaction
Mercer, the person ~ Jesus?
Repetitive cycle – no forward momentumOpposed to Kierkegaard – the individual + God
Humans and Animals
SquirrelsSisyphusMankind’s inherent stupidityWrong choicesHopelessnessCollective path to doomSelf-destruction / Existential angst
Blade Runner, 1982