Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

- Why do androids want to escape?

Its interesting how the people of the new earth are okay with being controlled. We are unaware for the cause of WWT, however we can assume that the government were able to make the people believe that they some how had something to do with it. Think about it... If the government put the people in harms way, the people would no longer have faith in their government. It's the total opposite, the people are more controlled by the government than ever before. The difference between the androids and humans is empathy, that's the only way to tell them apart. Androids are smart. I believe if they wanted empathy to be apart of their system, somehow they would be able to portray some form of empathy. What does empathy do for humans? What makes them better than androids? Empathy! Humans have to value empathy but I think by doing so it causes them to become depressed at one time or another. The government has way to much control over humans. Meanwhile androids who were build by humans in power, break away to be free. Once an android is free there is no one controlling their thoughts, actions,  plus they don't have to show empathy to others. Androids are free! Free to think, act, and live. This is probably the main reason the government wants them killed. Another theory could be androids were very close to the humans with money and power, maybe they spoke freely in front of them and the androids that escaped had a bigger reason to run bigger than being controlled... 

Racist computers

Hi all:

Here's the NPR article I was talking about in class today. See you next Monday.

best,

jt

http://www.wnyc.org/story/deep-problem-deep-learning/

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Why is Rick angry that the Rosen Company has the new Sidney catalog early?

Rick was very upset about the Rosen company having the Sidney catalog before it was to come out. I believed Rick felt like him and the rest of the world were being miss treated, he thought it was unfair. In the story "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep" everyone is supposed to be treated equally, including the animals. Everyone uses the Sidney catalog for information. It can be a question that one needs to be answered or a concern they need to be addressed, they all open up the Sidney catalog. Rick felt that public trust had been violated. I believe that Rick feels no one should be treated better than others and this was a perfect example to help Rick realize, everything that's told is not followed.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Why does Rick let Rachael Rosen go?

I think the main reason that Rick lets Rachael goes is because he has feeling for her. They both seem stunned at first when Rick arrives to The Rosen Co. Plat form. At first Rachael seems to believe that it is not him that has exited the hoover car. After going through all the the animals and stories that they have to tell him he decides that it is time to start the testing. His first test is administered on Rachael. In the end he finds out that she is an android and that she has the new nexus-brain. He feels some kind of empathy for her because he does not retire her, so that tells me that he has feelings for her. Later in the novel, Rick gets a call from Rachael saying that she wants to help him find the other androids because she think she would be help because she is one of them and has there brains. Another reason could also be that he sees in the end that the Rosen have something on him because at first he was not sure that Rachael was a android of not, but he also might think in the end they might be able to help him in need if something is to go wrong.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

In "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", the difference between owning a real animal and a fake one is pretty clear. Rick is the main character of the story that secretly owns an electric sheep and he longs having a real animal since the neighboors look down on him for it. Though in order to accomplish this, he needs to retire many androids in order to have the money for a real animal. Empathy in this story is the one emotion that differentiates a human from an android since the androids have no true feelings. The difference between a mechanical breakdown ans an animal dying is similar but still different since one is falling apart artificially while the other is falling apart naturally. It was a crime not to own a real animal since Mercerism revolved around empathy and an electric sheep is obviously the opposite of something natural or being able to express empathy.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Empathy can mean many things.
But it seems as if in this story Empathy is the main theme.
I feel as if every character has a story behind empathy and it values them.
Rick has a love/hate relationship with his electric sheep. Rick seems to crave love and empathy and that is something that the sheep cant provide for him.
I believe that Rick learns that androids might be capable of empathy just as much as humans.
Empathy in this book seems to be a learning process for Rick, and that is something i have learned in the first 10 chapters.

Interesting Article

Hi all:

This interesting article on the death of conversation is relevant to some of the stuff we've been talking about over the last couple weeks.Check it out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/books/review/jonathan-franzen-reviews-sherry-turkle-reclaiming-conversation.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

After reading the first 10 chapters of Do androids dream of Electric Sheep, I found it to be very interesting actually. A little bit to much going on but the idea I get a lot. I like the fact that the story is basically based on a hunt. Rick is on the hunt for Nexus-6 androids who are these robotic human things that’s weird to explain, but its cool. The one thing I don’t get it how the story shift from talking about Rick then John then back to Rick then back to John and then back to Rick. Its like what ? but then the entire part of the fighting and trying to kill is pretty interesting.

I’m not understanding so much as to why each person has an animal or better yet wants to have an animal. Maybe its because that the way they tell the difference between a human and android ? I don’t know. But I feel that the reason why the animals part is important is because the Test to see if your human or android is based on an empathy which to me means a feeling or feelings and I feel that a “robot” no matter how alike to a human it may be will not have those emotions that a human does. And so when the questions are asked the reactions of a human would be shown as more of a sympathetic or more caring than that of a robot and when you talk about an animal, all of a sudden something in a humans heart kind of just softens and becomes “nice” but if you were to ask the same question to a robot or android who has no feelings he wouldn’t be able to respond in the way a human would

But overall as far as getting to chapter 10 the story is getting really interesting

I am actually reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and I am realizing that it is one of the most complex book I have ever read. I need to pause, meditate and re-read to understand the paragraphs.I must admit that Philip K. Dick is a visionary. He plays with what could happens if radio-actives have ruined a big part of the Earth. It is fiction at first sight but on the other hand he is not wrong. It could be realistic. K. Dick wrote with humor on  how people would react in this extreme case.  The society that we know today would suffer major changes and fighting to reach what we might think is "norm" would be even more harder and absurd. 

[7] More Questions" Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep?

I think they believe Androids or ANDYS must be retired, retired meaning destroyed, because of the fear that the can take over.  Mercerism significance I feel is to have people all feel the same, if one is happy, all should be happy, and if one is sad, all should be sad. When I saw Tomb World, my first thought actually is that a Yu-Gi-Oh card. But I think the tomb world is basically like a graveyard for those humans still alive. The empathy test really determines if you are really human or not. I think the kipple is a reference to like a fungus or something I saw online that it says it’s a clutter of useless material that reproduces on its own.  As for the second police station, what if it’s a police station for non humans? 

[6] Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep?

The difference I think between owning a real animal and a fake animal is when you own a real animal, because real animals were hard to find, owning one, showed that you were basically someone who was wealthy, or very high in society. Unlike a fake electric animal, which were cheap. It is because of Rick having a electric sheep, prior to a real sheep, that the neighbors of Rick would look down at him, because of the fact that it shows Rick is not as wealthy as he looks. It’s like in today’s society how people look down at the homeless, and bums on the streets. What this has to do with Mercerism I think is that the fact, that in this society, its either all experience joy, or all experience suffering. This leads to the empathy box, which they use to practice mercerism. The reason I believe they do this is because since not everyone is a real human, they aren’t able to feel empathy towards one another. The difference between a mechanical breakdown, and an animal dying, is that when a animal has a breakdown, it can be fixed, and restored. An animal dying however, it cannot be fixed once its dead. It was a crime not to own an animal, because if you didn’t own an animal, you were looked at as being a poor person. This story seems to be a lot about how people present themselves to others.

More questions on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Some of you have already asked this: Why must androids be "retired"? (And why that euphemism?)

Other questions:

What's the significance of Mercerism? Why does he ascend the hill, fall into the "tomb world" and then do it all over again endlessly? (Do you know the myth of Sisyphus? Albert Camus thought this myth said more about human existence than any other. What is its relationship to Mercer?) Why is an empathy box necessary in this world?

Does the scene where the Rosen Corp. tries to trick Deckard remind you of any similar shenanigans in contemporary corporate America? (google "VW scandal" for just the latest example)

Why does the "baby hide" question (59) stump Rachael Rosen? What does the empathy test measure?

What is "kipple"?

Why is there a second, parallel police station that seems to know nothing about Deckard's station?

Eric Nash wrote in The New York Times that Dick was "a kind of pulp-fiction Kafka." What does this statement mean?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Revisit Ch. 1, particularly the end of it (11-14). What is the difference between owning a real animal and a fake? Why would the neighbors look down on Rick for having a fake? What does all this have to do w/ Mercerism/the Ascent/two handles of empathy? What's the difference between a "mechanical" breakdown and an animal dying? Why was it a crime not to own an animal after WWT?

This whole aspect of Mercerism is completely absent from Blade Runner. Make note of this b/c it makes the two texts very different. (In the second half of the novel, Dick will get more into the philosophy/religion).

(Interesting trivia: Dick was offered a lot of money to write the novelization tie-in to Blade Runner. As part of the deal, he had to agree to let Androids go out of print so essentially the novelization would have become the "real" novel even though Androids was the inspiration. Dick refused. It's a real-life postmodern moment--he was offered money to create a simulacrum of his own novel.)

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Phillip K. Dick is easily the most different story out of all the ones read in class. The time the story takes place in is after a devastating nuclear war in the year 2021. The main character named Rick Deckard has a job as a bounty hunter where he is retire the androids. I find this story interesting and can make someone wonder if the world could ever be this way in the next several decades or centuries. Overall, I feel that this is one of the best  representations of science fiction in literature and had no idea it inspired the really good movie "Blader Runner".

As I kept reading this book I have to admit it began to attract my attention. I recently took a history class about western civilization during a lot of the same times the book speaks of. Taking this class brought a lot to light while reading this book and I definitely found it beneficial and helpful in regards to understanding a lot of the view point the author brings out about postmodernism. I actually found it intriguing and the book more interesting because I had knowledge of a lot of the time periods and socialists such as Marx or leaders such as Hitler. I am glad we read Kafka first then postmodernism because as the author used him as an example I understood what postmodernism was. I found it especially interesting when powell spoke of kafkas metamorphosis and how a lot of postmodern writers use their life experiences and twist it into their stories which was apart of one of our discussions in class.

Postmodernism

At first when I began this book I truly felt that I was not understanding what it was about or the point of it quite honestly. It completely threw me off when it began to talk about basically making something simple into a more "detailed" I guess descriptive sentence.When it translated the sentence,"the way white guys treat Third World women as sex objects is shallow and disgusting" into "The hemogenic misrepresentation and devalorization of the always-already multi-de/gendered plurivocalities and decentered deconstructed and dialogically problematized ludic simulacra of absent/present postcolonial female subject-positions, by hyper-eroticized and orientalize phallocratic and panoptic dead-white-male subject-position discourse,is a textually reinscribed praxis of pre-disseminated, counter subversive depthlessness, I immediately thought what for? I get the creativity in it but at the same time who wants to read al that. I literally sat with a dictionary and that sentence alone for most likely 20 minutes.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? My thoughts...

This story is very different from anything I have ever read. WOW. But many things were a bit confusing. First off, wow a crazy world war filled with nuclear damage. It wiped out a lot of animals, humans but some humans did survive, just had serious brain damage. They were referred to as "special". So I don't know if I missed the explanation or just didn't understand but then how did android people and animals come about? Was it because there wasn't a lot of people left after the war. And why did these androids look and claim to be people that were alive before? Or did the nuclear war turn people into androids?
Another thought running through my head is why does Rick want to find all the androids and kill them off. I don't see any harm. But, he has animal androids himself because they are cheaper. I find that to be a bit weird. But I find it cool that they test if you're an android or not by the empathy test and bone marrow test. This story is filled with cool and futuristic aspects and pull you in and grab your attention. It has you wonder if life will be like this in the future. Will we experience this?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

My reaction to the first nine chapters in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", by Philip K. Dick was that I found the storyline to be very interesting. I enjoyed the story, because I enjoy reading a lot of science fiction and seeing the different scenarios that are presented in each science fiction novel. Before I took this class, I have never heard of this novel, and did not know that it inspired "Blade Runner". I had only seen the movie once with my family, because it is my dad's favorite movie. I didn't really understand it when I saw it the first time, but I hope to enjoy it more the second time. I was shocked when I found out that the setting of the story takes place in 2019. which is not that far off. According to Rick, it sounds like it takes place after a nuclear war, because the weather is always talking about a fallout. The police in the future seem to be different too, in which the main character Rick must kill androids for some reason. I don't get why Rick must kill the androids if they are not hurting anyone else. Is this because the people are afraid of the androids becoming more intelligent than humans?

                                                                 what is postmodernism 
Although postmodernism was a period in the late 20^th century, it can also represent an idea. My idea of postmodernism is the conception and growth of thoughts, concepts and innovation that comes after a period of modernism. Life around us can get stale when society reaches a point where they start defining rigid rules and guidelines on how to do something, how to build, draw and work. Our society stops to innovate and progress, without the unique and innovative ideas. Postmodernism can be these abstract thoughts that break the walls and create abstract matters or conditions in various forms of our everyday society. There have been several work of art that have defied conventional ideas in architecture, art, music, television, science and technology, etc. Movies are presented with unique plots,  while internet and social media have revolutionized the way that we connect to others and advanced technological devices have changed the way we communicate among ourselves. Mankind has always progressed with unique ideas and therefore postmodernism is inevitable because our society is always dynamic and developing.

What is Postmodernism?


Postmodernism is often viewed as a culture of quotations. Postmodernism as a concept stems from its wide usage in a range of cultural and critical movements since the 1970s. Postmodernism describes not only a period but also a set of ideas.


A few examples of postmodernism involve the media, reality television, current events, stories, perspectives, and advertisements.

[5] What is Postmodernisum?

Postmodernism, is a way we are able to re-look at the ideas or theories from the past, and give them a new look, and view them in a new way. We can do this by, drawing a conclusion based on what we predict, and then actually when we start to see that our prediction could actually be backed up and proven, we move away from a truth that we made, and begin to prove that out prediction is right. 

An example of this is shown on page 31, of “Postmodernism, For Beginners,” the first paragraph.

What is postmodernism?

Postmodernism came about after modernism in the late 20th century.  It is a movement in art. It contains examples of culture, literature, history  and art from the past. It was brought up to enhance what is happening in our day today.

Examples of postmodernism is found in many of our everyday lives. One example where you can find it is in music. Some artist in music now a days use postmodernism in their lyrics. Another example is in art. Many artist in drawing or speaking or body language express how they feel and what they think of the events happening in the world.  The last example is in literature. Authors write about experiences that they have witnessed or even went through. The world carries postmodernism everyday...

After reading the book, I feel that I understand what postmodernism is but there were so many descriptions that it became overwhelming and difficult to give a very brief definition of postmodernism.

As for me. postmodernism is a critic of modernism. On page 13, they say that it "rediscover the essence of humanity, finding an eternal value beyond all the chaos. I think this movement started by the industrial revolution to the time this book was written. Its summarizes  episodes in the course of history and critics the beliefs or facts that were inexplicable by science.  As for me there will always be a postmodernism movement because "modern" will come and a critic of it after it will come.

What is postmodernism?

What is postmodernism? After, modernism but what else? Examples of postmodernism in your world /culture

Post modernism is a late-20th-century concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism that serves as a departure from modernism. It is an attempt to make sense of what is going on now. 

Examples of postmodernism are the differences between reality and the media.

Postmodernism

What is postmodernism? after, modernism, but what else? Examples of postmodernism in your world/culture.

postmodernism to me is some what of a free way of thinking. In the past so many people were controlled. There was always a leader that the people had to obey, everyone had to follow someone. know one were able to think  them selves. Postmodernism allowed people to think in my opinion. people were unable to express many ideas that was once never challenged. today postmodernism is def expressed by using social media and the Internet. people have so much more information available to them. you can research many ideas and choose to do what u want with it. social media has allowed people to express their opinions on different issues openly. the news is there to inform us, however they are controlled. we have a right to freedom of speech but that is sometimes controlled. with the Internet and social media its very hard for someone to shh you. billions of people all around the world are able to express themselves with "send". another example for pm in this day and age is the way people are raising their children. parents are bringing up more leaders rather than followers. my mother raised me to believe there is a heaven and hell. if your good you'll go to heaven and if your bad your going to burn in hell. really scary. but as an adult i see that as control. my pm allows me to express to my family facts, things that can be proven. without me being harmed.

Postmodernism is the world we live in today. its accepting to new cultures and it tries to make sense of whats going on. an example of today postmodernism i guess would be .....

Postmodernism for Beginners

Postmodernsim is a form of style or concepts dealing with art,architecture ,and certain things that constitute a shift from modernism and" its heart a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a problematical relationship with any form or art." Postmodersim was like an new world it allow people to be free , think and speak as they like. In our world / culture you can find postmodernsim everywhere from in our classroom to social media.....

From reading Postmodernism for Beginners, I got a better sense of what postmodernism is. To truly grasp the concept, you have to have an understanding of what modernism is. In the modern era, people were highly influenced by religion and had one way of thinking. Many events happened that made people begin to question their existence and beliefs. People began to question if the ideas they once knew to be real still existed. Out of this came the postmodern era in which people turned to science and reasoning for answers. Most importantly people began to express themselves in a different way through various art forms.

What is Postmodernism?

Postmodernism is a late 20th century movement that consists of interpretations of art and culture. In the book "Postmodernism For Beginners", it is shown that the post-modern era was based on the advancement of science but it is was also a movement where artists were able to portray what life was like after bad periods like the war and what other people have mentioned about it. Postmodernism is mainly a reaction to how certain people see reality and according to the book, "it is a reaction to the most profound spiritual and philosophical crises of our time which is the failure of the Enlightenment, which was the era of reason where views on art and society were changed and the capacity to think for ourselves was to be important.

What is postmoderism?

             When I first thought of the term Postmodernism, I tried to break the word down to try to understand it more. I know that 'Post' often means after something, and anything to do with modernism deals with art or ideals that are happening in our everyday culture. It really isn't an easy word to define briefly.
               The events that happen in today's society that can be portrayed in cartoons, movies, and television shows can actually be considered post modern. When I thought about it, it really stood out to me that the show "Family Guy" was a representation of this. Although to some of it's audience, "Family Guy" may seem like a witty, clever adult cartoon but I wonder if they knew what each episode held other than the sarcastic jokes and remarks. I certainly didn't know that Postmodernism could be presented just about anywhere. In reality shows, the things we post on social media, and even in cartoons. Everything of what we do now can be considered postmodern.

Postmodernism is a way of seeing things differently and going back and forth between dream and reality. For example a lot of Kafka's books have this sense of postmodernism. Like in "The Metamorphosis and Other Stories" there is a lot of switching between realism and fiction. Post modernism is basically a different way of trying to understand things; taking things into deeper thought and analyzing it in a way that is very far from common. Its about making people uncomfortable and making them think outside the box.....