On Blade Runner by Phillip K. Dick
by Shane Timson
For High Plains Public Radio Readers Club, I'm Shane Timpson in Colby, Kansas.
Today, we're talking about the book Blade Runner, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick. Now, the original title is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
This is what the movie Blade Runner was based off of, so then after that movie became successful, they added Blade Runner to the title because people wanted to read the book that the movie was based off of. Now, this book was written in 1968, but it takes place in 2021. There is a big nuclear-type war, and a lot of the universe is uninhabitable.
So, a group of androids come to Earth. There are two types of androids. There's, I guess, regular androids, and then there’re the next six. The next six are the problematic androids. They want to cause harm to the Earth. Rick Deckert is the bounty hunter in charge of retiring the androids or Andes, as they're called. You can't kill an android, so all you can do is retire them.
Now, in this, you can buy electric animals. You can buy electric sheep and all other kinds of things. There's this catalog that comes out and you can order it. And that's what a lot of people do. To get a real animal costs a lot more money. And that's how you can tell if somebody's really made it, if they can afford a real animal.
So that's kind of the short version of the plot, which I think is good. I think the book reads quite well. It goes quickly. I think I read it in about four hours. But here's what I take away from the book that I like about it.
It was written in 1968, taking place in 2021. The Earth is only partially inhabitable. Well, what happened in 2021? We had COVID. We were shut down. They talk in this book on video phones. Well, we all were having Zoom meetings in 2021, right? And think about Android technology. I'm not talking about the Android phone, but whether you've got an Android or an iPhone, we all depend so much on our phones for everything, much like they did in the book.
And the book kind of ends without giving it away, but it's just kind of sad because nobody really feels anything anymore. Everybody's just so dialed into these machines. They have empathy machines because that's the way that androids differ from humans. Humans can feel emotions, androids can't. So, they'd get these empathy machines, and they could dial in what it feels like to be depressed or what it feels like to be happy.
And so, I reflect on it, aren't we kind of like that? Most people today would rather text somebody than call them. I'm guilty of that. I grew up in a time when you had to use the phone to talk. But now I would rather text than call somebody.
Yep, I think this is a very good read, and it's just so stunning how much they predicted where we would be. In 1968, Philip K. Dick predicted so many things. The video phones, the technology, that would kind of take over the world in a sense, and it kind of has. Think of how much we'd use AI today. In fact, just the other day, I read that now you can buy this AI that could help you write a book. Is it possible, not too far from now? I could be doing a book review that has a human name on it, but it was technically written by AI.
For High Plains Public Radio Readers Club, I'm Shane Timson in Colby, Kansas.
