About the title of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"

[Kyriakos]

In greek the (afaik) only translation renders it as "The electric sheep". Which is decent-ish, but given I included the book in my new online seminar I had the chance to reflect on why Dick uses that title.

I think it is pretty clear he uses the title to juxtapose the androids to the humans. While the human protagonist tries so hard to get enough money to buy a biological pet - and hide that the pet he owns is electric - the androids couldn't care less about owning such stuff.
The androids aren't into the hyperconsumerist society in the novel, and only aspire to stay alive.

That said, there is also a negative reason why the androids don't care about owning pets (bio or electric), and that is their lack of empathy. As shown when one of them tortures a spider for no reason at all - and obviously demonstrated through the human protagonist's machinery, which calculates if the being in front of him is a human or an android specifically measuring time of response to empathy-related questions.

So while androids don't dream of electric sheep, ultimately they aren't better than humans - likely they are even worse, given they have no issue with even betraying their (android) companions if it means saving their own skin.

Here is also a funny/unfortunate arrangement of words in an english edition of the novel by Philip K. Dick...:

 

[abradley]

Do androids dream?

Does your tv remote dream

 

[Kyriakos]

Do androids dream?

Does your tv remote dream

Do you read books? ^_^

 

[abradley]

Yes.

But Dicks wasn't on my reading list. Tried one or two of them ... not impressed.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Well, in the book the androids are sentient. So in that world it is a reality - not saying I agree with it (I actually don't).

 

[abradley]

Well to be honest I enjoyed Blade Runner, especially liked:

But Dicks tale was about people and their pets.

 

[warpus]

It seems that androids wouldn't have to sleep, so writing a whole bunch of code to have them dream wouldn't make sense to me.

Unless these androids have brains like humans do somehow? Then sleeping could just be a part of their e-biological programming. But why? Instead of sleeping they can be out there working in the fields. Or painting. Or whatever they want.

 

[innonimatu]

I guess the title may be even questioning the androids' ability to even dream "like humans". Tbh I wasn't a book I enjoyed, seemed rather shallow to me. My impression when I read it was of a book that grew out of a small exploratory story, without much of a point to make... found the movie adaptation much more enjoyable because it nearly ignored the environmental destruction/animals idea to focus on the androids. I hate science fiction that makes no sense, and any one with "environment apocalypse" but humans enduring makes no sense. For dystopic earth future SF give me Wolve or even Zelazny over Dick any time: they do a more amusing destroyed Earth!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I haven't read this novel, so I'm going to toss out a few thoughts that may or may not be related.

When humans can't sleep, one of the old traditional remedies is "counting sheep." The idea is to imagine a flock of sheep jumping over a fence, and that fairly soon the person will drift off because counting sheep is boring.

So... if an android were to try sleeping (there's a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode about this), would they count electronic sheep or real sheep? Could they relate to real sheep?

From the above points about empathy, it would appear not.

FYI for anyone here who has never watched a dog or cat sleep... it's entertaining when they dream, as they twitch, their paws move, and they make cute little yipping or mewing noises.

 

[Kyriakos]

@innonimatu I think that Philip K. Dick's writing style is rather awful, although even in that respect he isn't the worst of the famous authors (let alone in the rather not that known for great stylists, scifi genre...)
And while he isn't the most intellectual writer to have ever lived, at least he has some intellectual qualities - probably due to personal obsession, if one goes by his theories on matrix-like reality.
So... yes, I didn't find DADOES that good either, but I have read worse, and I certainly have to include scifi in my seminar on fantasy literature, so Dick is not the worst compromise ^_^

 

[GinandTonic]

Dick was getting paid peanuts so he had to knock out books in days. Douglas Adams would have been happy with a perfect paragraph in that time. You cant have polish without the necessary time.

I think the title just sets up the central concern. I had an A level philosophy mock exam with the question "Does a wristwatch have a soul?". The title is just a cute way of asking the same question. If a human being is just a very complicated machine is a android that passes the Turing test actually less of a being than us? If the mind is just a machine then at what doing does "god" enter the machine? If it is wrong to kill why is it ok to turn off a sentient machine? If it is wrong to tun off a sentient machine is it wrong to smash a watch?

I dont see any great significance in the sheep being electric. The question is what makes us "human", in the sense of possessing a soul, however you wish to categorise it.

 

[Commodore]

I think the title just sets up the central concern. I had an A level philosophy mock exam with the question "Does a wristwatch have a soul?". The title is just a cute way of asking the same question. If a human being is just a very complicated machine is a android that passes the Turing test actually less of a being than us? If the mind is just a machine then at what doing does "god" enter the machine? If it is wrong to kill why is it ok to turn off a sentient machine? If it is wrong to tun off a sentient machine is it wrong to smash a watch

It's my belief that a creator reserves the right to destroy what it creates. So for me, it doesn't matter how sapient or sentient a machine may be, if it was created by humans then it would not be morally wrong for humans to destroy it.

 

[Hygro]

Ahahaha that pic, Kyr

 

[Angst]

Book has more complicated stuff going on, but movie is better.

 

[Angst]

It seems that androids wouldn't have to sleep, so writing a whole bunch of code to have them dream wouldn't make sense to me.

Unless these androids have brains like humans do somehow? Then sleeping could just be a part of their e-biological programming. But why? Instead of sleeping they can be out there working in the fields. Or painting. Or whatever they want.

Have you tried keeping a pc turned on forever?