Do androids dream of electric sheep?

Do androids dream of electric sheep? (Original English title: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ) is a dystopian novel by the American writer Philip K. Dick from 1968. The 1982 film Blade Runner by Ridley Scott is based on this book, but differs considerably from it the template. The book has also been sold under the title Blade Runner since the film was released . In 2017, Blade Runner 2049 was a cinematic sequel.

theme

The theme of the novel is the blurring boundary between humans and (in this work biological) androids and thus the question of what makes humans human. According to Philip K. Dick, intelligence is not the distinguishing feature between androids and humans, but empathy , i.e. the ability to empathize with other people.

content

The novel is set in North America in 1992 (revised to 2021 in later editions), mainly in San Francisco . After a nuclear war, the earth is hardly habitable. Most of the survivors emigrated to Mars . Those who remained on earth must always fear that they will become sterile as a result of the radiation or that they will degenerate spiritually and become “special cases” - second-class people who are denied the right to emigrate.

The emigrants are given an android as protection for their journey to Mars. The androids are seen as a threat on Earth and are no longer allowed to enter it after their departure. If they do, they will be dealt with by “bounty hunters” (English “bounty hunters”). The English word for killing in the future world, which likes to work with euphemisms , is "to retire", something like "to retire".

One such bounty hunter is Rick Deckard. The difficulty of his task is to identify the androids, since they can hardly be distinguished from humans and appear in all possible identities - for example as an opera singer or as a Russian colleague Deckard. To this end, he works with a specially developed empathy test, which tests the suspect's reaction in various situations.

Empathy plays a central role in the lives of the people in the novel. The religion of society is based on it: Mercerism . Her spiritual act consists in using a "unification box" to enter a virtual world, where one becomes one with Mercer, the salvation figure of this religion, and with him hungry and thirsty and repeatedly hit by rockfalls on a slope in a desolate desert landscape goes up.

Since real animals became rare after the nuclear war, pets are considered a status symbol. But since the purchase of live animals is very expensive, many people fall back on deceptively real-looking electronic dummies. Rick Deckard, for example, keeps an electric sheep on his roof terrace. The desire to be able to afford a real animal is the main drive for his work.

After Rick Deckard initially fulfilled his mission without hesitation and shot a few androids after the empathy test, he began to have doubts as to whether androids were not also androids - especially due to closer contact with the android girl Rachael Rosen, with whom he was starting an affair dream of electric sheep, that is, to become more and more similar to people in their empathy. He fears that he will soon no longer be able to do his job. This is possibly intended by Rachael, because on the one hand she is an android herself, on the other hand she belongs to the Rosen group, which manufactures the androids and is in conflict with the police. When Rachael reveals to him that she has already slept with several premium hunters to make it impossible for them to carry out their job, Deckard experiences a crisis of meaning.

In the meantime, three of the six androids that Deckard has to kill have taken up residence in the "special case" JR Isidore who lives alone. Like almost everyone else, he watches and listens to the television program by Buster Freundlich, a presenter who incessantly sprinkles people with meaningless statements. Isidore lets the androids live with him because he enjoys the company.

It turns out that TV presenter Buster Freundlich is also an android. He reveals the truth to mankind that the scene in the unification box is a fake: It comes from an old, cheap Hollywood flick. "Mercer" is a now seedy, alcoholic actor. The androids have found this out and are hoping that the religion of mercerism and the "unification" from which they are excluded will now collapse.

Shortly afterwards, Deckard tracks down the androids at Isidore's. Although he doesn't want to help him, he can track down the androids and kill them. At home he learns that Rachael killed his new, real goat, which he had bought dearly with his bounty. Desperate, he flies north, away from civilization, where he has a vision of Mercer. He finds a toad that is previously thought to be extinct and returns home. But the toad also turns out to be artificial.

Voigt-Kampff machine

The fictional Voigt-Kampff machine is used in combination with fixed questions as a Voigt-Kampff test to measure emotional reactions. In the film, the device is called Blade Runner ( 1982 ), a deviation from the Roman Voight-Kampff machine (with an “h”).

The device resembles a polygraph and is used by "Reward Hunters" (called "Blade Runners" in the film) - the undercover police force that detects androids - to determine whether emotionally is based on blood pressure , breathing rate , blushing and eye movements appropriate answers to given questions that generate empathy are given. In the film Blade Runner , two replicants undergo the test with the machine: Leon ( Brion James ) and Rachael ( Sean Young ). The main character Deckard explains in the film that 20 to 30 partly related questions are normally necessary to reliably distinguish between replicants and real people . For Rachael, a colleague of Tyrell, who is a replicant, Blade Runner Deckard needs more than a hundred questions, in the book, however, only "six to seven".

The Voigt-Kampff method described by Philip K. Dick as a test for androids emphasized very early on the increasing interest in "the boundary between what people create and what they are". From today's psychological point of view, the Voigt-Kampff test is an invented but correct test of individual items of psychopathy with an emphasis on the best-known item “lack of empathy ”. Tests with a similar functionality have now also been carried out in reality. Historically, the test refers to the Turing test proposed by Alan Turing in 1950 , which attempts to differentiate between humans and machines through linguistic performance.

The Voigt-Kampff test also found its way into general perception, for example when it was used, sometimes with a twinkle in the eye, when testing all candidates for mayor of San Francisco.

Differences from the movie Blade Runner

The film Blade Runner is not a true film adaptation, but differs in many details from the novel. The only scene in which dialogue has been copied verbatim is when Deckard interrogates Rachael.

• The time and place have been moved from San Francisco, 1992, to Los Angeles, 2019. In the novel there was a nuclear war, and the Soviet Union - and with it the bipolar power relationship on earth as in the Cold War - apparently still exists. The film shows the deteriorated environmental conditions, but does not explain their background. The political situation is also not discussed in detail.
• The entire storyline about the religion of Mercerism is missing in the film, as is the program Buster Freundlichs and the androids' plan to expose Mercer as a hoax. Instead of the media shower in the private area, the film mainly shows huge advertising screens in the public area. The “mood organ”, a device with which people can manipulate their emotions, is missing in the film.
• The extinction of many animal species and the importance of (real or artificial) animals as status symbols play a major role in the novel. This is only hinted at in the film.
• The artificial humans are simply called "androids" or "Andys" for short in the novel, and they are pursued by "reward hunters". The film uses the terms “replicants” or derogatory “skin jobs”, the “premium hunter” becomes a “blade runner”.
• Deckard is married in the novel, and his wife Iran plays a major supporting role. He is an active bounty hunter. In the 1982 version of the film, Deckard briefly mentions his ex-wife, while nothing is said about his marital status in the Director's Cut. In both versions of the film he quit his job at the beginning.
• Character Change: The Rosen family and corporation have been renamed Tyrell . The mentally retarded "special case" JR Isidore became the highly intelligent but physically ill JF Sebastian. Both characters, however, have in common their good nature. The androids Polokov, who works in the garbage disposal, and Luba Luft, the opera singer, became the worker Leon Kowalski and the snake dancer Zhora. Roy Baty (in the film: Batty) is married to the android Irmgard in the novel, who became the replicant “Mary” in early scripts and who is ultimately missing in the film. Pris and Rachael are of the same model type and look identical in the novel, but they have nothing to do with each other in the film (director Scott declined this as too confusing).
• The Voigt-Kampff test that the androids / replicants are subjected to is explained in more detail in the novel. There are also stronger doubts about its functionality. Ultimately, only an examination of the bone marrow is considered reliable evidence . The Rosen Group tries to produce androids that cannot be detected by the Voigt-Kampff test, and so is in conflict with the various police stations around the world.
• In the film, the battles between Deckard and the Replicants are action-packed, with the battle with Roy Batty being the climax of the film. In the novel, the androids also fight, but at a certain point they accept their fate and become lethargic . They are also less committed to one another. The killing of Pris, Irmgard and Roy is portrayed rather unspectacularly in the novel.
• The film suggests that Deckard might be a replicant himself. This is not completely excluded in the book, but it is also not intended.
• The main tone of the film has been described by most reviewers as melancholy . The novel shows more sarcasm .

Although Dick was offered the then very high sum of 75,000 US dollars to rewrite his novel so that it could be sold as a book for the film, he declined and devoted his energy to a new book, for which he was significantly less Got money. Dick died a few months before the premiere of Blade Runner, but after initial skepticism, he received excerpts from the film that Ridley Scott showed him very positively.

German-language editions

A German edition of the novel was published for the first time in 1969 by Marion von Schröder under the title Dreaming Robots of Electric Sheep? , translated by Norbert Wölfl. All later editions are based on this translation, which, however, was reviewed and supplemented by Jacqueline Dougoud for a new edition in 1993 by Haffmans Verlag . When the novel was filmed as Blade Runner in 1982 , Heyne Verlag published an edition under the same title that was also used for the Haffmans edition from 1993. It was not until the 2nd edition of the Haffmans edition from 1997 that the title was used directly as Androids dreaming of electric sheep? translated. In 2002 the novel was published again (by Heyne) as Blade Runner . In 2017 a new translation by Manfred Allié was published by Verlag S. Fischer under the title Blade Runner .

radio play

In 1999 Bayerischer Rundfunk produced a 53-minute radio play based on the novel under the title BLADE RUNNER - Dreaming Androids , which was awarded the Kurd-Laßwitz Prize . Editing and direction: Marina Dietz. Music: Thomas Bogenberger. Actors: Udo Wachtveitl (as Rick) , Sophie von Kessel (as Rachael) , Arne Elsholtz (as Isidore) , Thorsten Nindel (as Roy) , Michael Mendl , Max Tidof , Henry van Lyck , Michael Habeck , Dorothee Hartinger u. a. The radio play is available on CD with the ISBN 3-89940-681-8 .

The radio play is more accurate than the film. No people were renamed, only the Voigt-Kampff machine is simply called 'Voigt-Test' and special cases are simply called 'B-Type'. The similarity between Rachel and Pris has been maintained. It is not Buster Freundlich who informs about mercerism, but Roy. Ireen, von Decker's wife and the mood organ play an essential role. The new androids are called 'Nexus 5' and Rachel is exposed by Decker with the casual remark that his bag is made of "real human baby skin" after the standard test fails.

Audio book

• 2017: Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (read by Torben Kessler ), Argon Verlag, ISBN 978-3839815816

Sequels

The sci-fi author KW Jeter , who is friends with Dick, has written several sequels to the novel since 1995; however, they are more like literary sequels to the 1982 film. The titles of the novels published so far are Blade Runner II (Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human, German 1995) , Blade Runner: The Return (Blade Runner 2 & Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night (1996), German 2004) and Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon (German 2000) .

Others

• The screen saver Electric Sheep is named after Dick's novel .
• The German band Haujobb chose their name after the name of the replicants, but due to a hearing defect, Hautjob became Haujobb . A band that is musically located in the Screamo is called Do Androids dream of electric Sheep? .
• Two bands have also named themselves after the novel: the American garage rock band Electric Sheep and a Japanese hard rock band of the same name.
• The remix album for science fiction by the band Blackmail is titled Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep? .
• John Scalzi published a novel called Android Dreams (Originally The Android's Dream ). Among other things, the book is about a genetically modified breed of sheep that has electrically blue wool as a characteristic. This breed is called the "android dream". Aside from these conceptual similarities, the book has little in common with the story of Androids Dreaming of Electric Sheep? .
• In his book “Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?”, Jean Baudrillard asks the familiar question: “What do the digital sheep dream of, Dick?”
• In the third season of the television series Fringe , an episode is entitled Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep?
• In the third season of the television series The Americans , the ninth episode in the English-language original is entitled Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?
• In Gwent: The Witcher Card Game , as an homage to the book, one finds the question: "Do golems dream of magical sheep?"

literature

• Paul M. Sammon: Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner . 2nd edition. Gollancz, London 2007, ISBN 0-575-08160-0 .
• Judith B. Kerman: Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" and Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Bowling Green State University Popular Press, Bowling Green (Ohio) 1991, ISBN 0-87972- 510-9 .

Web links

• Description of the Voight-Kampff machine
• Voight-Kampff test of the US magazine "Wave" with the mayoral candidates of San Francisco ( Memento from January 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
• Do androids dream of electric sheep? in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Richard Bernstein (English WP)
2. ↑ The New York Times , Nov. 3, 1991, on Philip K. Dick: Philip K. Dick. In: kirjasto.sci.fi. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014 ; accessed on January 9, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Key symptoms: Lovefraud.com - sociopaths, psychopaths, antisocials, con artists, bigamists. In: lovefraud.com. February 2, 2016, accessed January 9, 2015 . 
4. ^ Suffering Souls. In: newyorker.com. November 10, 2008, accessed January 9, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Portable MRI Scans For Psychopathy Like Voight-Kampff: Science Fiction in the News. In: technovelgy.com. Retrieved January 9, 2015 . 
6. ^ Barbara Johnson: Persons and Things . Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2008, ISBN 978-0-674-02638-4 , pp. 162 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
7. ↑ Voight-Kampff test of the US magazine "Wave" with the mayoral candidates of San Francisco ( Memento from January 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )