Struggling with human-like machines: the fading boundaries between humans and androids in Philip K. Dick s Do androids dream of electric sheep?

Abstract

Due to the technological progress, humankind has become more and more dependent on technological gadgets. The intimate relation with technology has led humans to create machines that function based on the human body and mind, with the potential to surpass the human skills. Such proximity of natural and artificial has caused humans to become suspicious of their artificial doubles. For being hard to distinguish these human-like constructs from natural born beings, human beings are led to think of what makes them unique as species. This present project intends to analyze the lines separating human characters from androids in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by the North American science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. In this novel, the author confuses the reader by blurring the notions of natural and artificial, making it hard to tell who is human and who is not. Dick s novel induces readers to reflect upon what it means to be human. This dissertation aims to show how the fading boundaries between human beings and androids in Dick s work serve to show that the literary figure of the artificial construct, rather than being opposite to humans, carries the issues that constitute our very notion of humanity