Philip Dick’s work is a unique illustration of how a gray morality can be properly spelled out to reveal the ambiguity of any characters and story. The central figure, Rick Deckard, is manifested in the plot as a man confronting evil; but at the edge of the narrative, the reader already doubts humanity’s virtue. The question of what it means to be human is becoming more and more obscure. The book exposes a blurred line between people who gradually forget how to feel in modern realities and robots who do not feel anything due to their nature.
One of the fundamental dogmas of the story is the ultimate demand for empathy. Androids are examined specifically for empathy; the central religion is based on emotional and spiritual wholeness; the protagonist talks a lot about sympathy and the moral side of exterminating androids. For Rick, being human means having emotion, empathy, and compassion. After another murder, the man assumes that sympathy has eradicated the line between predator and prey, winner and defeated (Dick, 2008). Compassion for the robot prevents him from concentrating on performance; empathy blocks his feeling of satisfaction with the accomplished duty.
Another severe dilemma in the story is the changing and deforming of one’s identity. Robots are forced to disrupt their nature and manifest emotional affection to survive. People need to overcome compassion and sympathy to kill creatures that are frighteningly similar to real people. Rick says numerous times that identity violation is a fundamental condition of life (Dick, 2008). In Philip Dick’s world, both sides have to make big sacrifices against personality to adapt to the cruel reality. Robots pretend to be empathetic people, and humans themselves pretend to be soulless androids to relieve the burden of assassination.
The story turned out to be quite ambiguous and with a controversial blurred gray moral. The writer does not give a point-blank response to what is the actual harm in his book. People appear in the story as beings capable of intense and conscious compassion, but still occupiers and slave owners. Androids and humans, on closer examination, are not much different if the world erases human empathy and integrates robots into society. Both parties can live in peace without disregard and slavery. The book is especially relevant in our time when technology is developing at a tremendous pace, and artificial intelligence is progressing day after day.
Reference
Dick, P. K. (2008). Do androids dream of electric sheep? Ballantine Books.