Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author Philip K. Dick
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction novel
Publisher Doubleday
Publication date 1968
Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages 210 pp
ISBN ISBN 0-345-40447-5
Followed by Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, written in 1966 and published in 1968. It tells of the moral crisis of Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter who stalks androids in a fallout-clouded, partially-deserted future San Francisco.

Along with The Man in the High Castle, this novel is Dick’s most famous. It is one of the defining science fiction works exploring the ethical dimensions of the "android" concept, as a literary device understanding concepts of persecution based on narrow distinctions, such as ethnicity.

Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples loosely adapted the novel into the 1982 film Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer. For this reason some post-1982 editions of the book have been published as Blade Runner. The computer game Blade Runner is set in the same universe as the movie but incorporates many more elements from the book.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

[edit] Concepts and back story

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" takes place in 1992 (in later publications, it takes place in 2021) several years after the fallout resulting from "World War Terminus" destroyed much of Earth. In the aftermath, the United Nations encourages people to emigrate to off-world colonies to preserve the human race from the effects of the radioactive dust. One incentive is that each emigrant will receive a custom-built android servant (colloquially referred to as an "andy").

The people who remain on Earth live in cluttered cities where radiation poisoning causes significant illness and gene damage. All animals are endangered. Owning and caring for an animal is considered a civic virtue and a status symbol, depending on the rarity of the species. Animals are bought and sold according to the price of the latest Sidney's Catalog, including extinct animals (listed as 'E') and animals currently unavailable on the market (listed in italics at the last going price). Some people who cannot afford an animal choose to buy an artificial, robotic animal to maintain social standing. The protagonist Rick Deckard owned a sheep, which died of tetanus and was replaced by an electric replica to maintain the illusion of animal ownership.

Androids are only used on the colony planet of Mars, but many flee to Earth to escape the isolation and to be free of slavery to humans. They are made entirely of organic components and are physically indistinguishable from humans. Bounty hunters, such as Deckard, track down and "retire" fugitive androids posing as humans. A bone marrow test is performed on the body of each retired android to confirm that it is not a human who has been killed. Due to differences in the vagus nerve, an android can commit suicide by holding its breath. An android can only live to about 4 years, since they cannot reproduce many of the cells needed for life function.

Earlier models of android were easily detectable by their lack of intelligence. With successive improvements, bounty hunters are required to apply tests such as the Voight-Kampff empathy test to differentiate humans from androids. The test measures facial reaction ("blushing") and involuntary tension of the eye muscles in response to emotional triggering questions, most of which involve mention of animal harm. Because androids cannot feel empathy, their responses are either missing or, when faked, measurably slower than those of human beings. The simpler Boneli test measures the speed of the reflex-arc response which takes place in the upper ganglia of the spinal column.

Another device from the novel is the "Penfield Mood Organ," named for neurologist Wilder Penfield, which induces emotions in its users. The user can dial a setting to obtain a mood. Examples include "awareness of the manifold possibilities of the future," "desire to watch television, no matter what's on it," "pleased acknowledgement of husband's superior wisdom in all matters," and "desire to dial." Many users have a daily schedule of moods. The Mood Organ also has a setting for depression states, which contradict its original purpose to cheer up its user.

The most significant cultural icon on Earth is Buster Friendly, a jovial talk show host whose simultaneous radio and television programs air 23 hours a day. The character Roy Baty explicitly references him as an android. Buster is seen as competing ideologically with Mercerism, openly attacking it in his programs.

[edit] Mercerism

Mercerism is a prominent religious/philosophical movement on Earth. The movement is based on the legend of Wilbur Mercer, a man who lived before the war. Adherents of Mercerism grip the handles of an electrically powered empathy box, while viewing a monitor which displays patterns that are meaningless until the handles are gripped. After a short interval the user's senses are transported to the world of Wilbur Mercer, where they inhabit his mind in an experience shared with any other people using an empathy box at that moment.

Mercerism blends the concept of a life-death-rebirth deity with the values of unity and empathy. According to legend, Mercer had the power to revive dead animals, but local officials used radioactive cobalt to nullify the part of his brain where the ability originated. This forced Mercer into the "tomb world." He strives to reverse the decay of the tomb world and ascend back to Earth by climbing an enormous hill. His adversaries throw rocks at him along the way (inflicting actual physical injuries on the adherents "fused" with Mercer), until he reaches the top, when the cycle starts again, much like the plight of Sisyphus.

[edit] Storyline

Deckard, an active bounty hunter for the San Francisco Police Department, prepares for a typical work day. He feeds his electric sheep as usual to prevent his neighbor from suspecting its true nature. Meanwhile, his wife spends her days at home under the influence of the empathy box and mood organ.

At the police station Deckard learns that the active senior hunter Dave Holden has been incapacitated by a Nexus-6, the most advanced and humanistic type of android created to date. Deckard is chosen to find the six remaining Nexus-6 models in the San Francisco area. His superior asks him to travel to the Seattle headquarters of the Rosen Association, the makers of the Nexus-6, to confirm that the Voigt-Kampff test will work on the new model. There he meets Rachael Rosen, a sharp-tongued, dark-haired woman who claims to be the company heiress.

Rosen is selected as the first test subject, which reveals she is an android. The Rosens inform Deckard that Rachael is in fact a schizoid human which would invalidate the Voigt-Kampff test, requiring a new test to be developed. He administers a last question, testing Rosen’s reaction to a fabric supposedly made from baby hide. Her reaction proves conclusively that she is an android (partly because of a delay in the reaction, but mainly because an ordinary human would not react at all due to the absurdity of such a claim).

Deckard returns to San Francisco to begin his work. After searching the apartment of the first Nexus-6 on his list, Max Polokov, Rachael phones Deckard offering to help with the Nexus-6s, but he dismisses the offer. Deckard meets with W.P.O. agent Sandor Kadalyi from Russia, who turns out to be Polokov. Deckard struggles with Polokov in the cabin of his car, but manages to shoot Polokov in the head with his .38 Magnum while still in its shoulder holster.

Deckard moves on to the android opera singer Luba Luft. After an attempt to administer the Voigt-Kampff test, she calls a police department claiming Deckard is a "sexual deviant", and an officer escorts him to a police headquarters he had never known existed.

At the headquarters, Deckard is passed along to officer Garland, who is discovered to be Deckard's next target. He is introduced to the department's own bounty hunter, Phil Resch, who, in light of Polokov's confirmation as an android, comes into conflict with Garland about administering the Boneli Reflex-Arc test (a variant test, a similar but simpler version of the Voigt-Kampff test) to station personnel. Resch leaves the office to retrieve the testing gear, and Garland produces a laser tube, hesitating to fire until Resch re-enters. Resch shoots Garland in anticipation of his reaction and the pair escape the station to retire Luba Luft.

After Luft is retired at an art gallery, Deckard administers the Voigt-Kampff to Resch, who fearfully suspects himself to be an android after unwittingly working under them for two years. Given the apparent eagerness by which Resch retires androids, Deckard is convinced he is not a human, but to Resch's relief he passes the test. Deckard becomes concerned to the degree with which he empathises with androids. He uses his bounty money to buy a genuine goat in an attempt to reassure himself of his ethics.

The final three Nexus-6 models are holed up in an abandoned suburban apartment building with John R. Isidore, a "chickenhead" (a person, officially termed a "Special", whose intelligence is too far deteriorated from radiation to emigrate from Earth). Isidore is kind towards the three, although they are indifferent towards him, and exemplify androids’ lack of empathy. After discovering a live spider, they clip off its legs one by one to see how many legs it requires to move. At his apartment, Deckard uses an empathy box; when he does, Mercer converses with him directly, telling him that doing the wrong thing is sometimes necessary.

Deckard's superior phones to insist that he retire the remaining three androids in the same day in order to catch them by surprise. Deckard decides that he will need Rachael Rosen's help and accepts her offer, arranging to meet at a San Francisco hotel room. At the hotel room they drink antique bourbon, and after going over the remaining assignments, end up having sex. Afterward, while travelling in the hovercar, Rosen reveals that she had done the same with nine other bounty hunters in order to stop them from bounty hunting, and that the only one to maintain his profession after a liaison with her was Phil Resch. Deckard threatens to retire her but wavers. Rosen has scored a minor victory, but Deckard continues with the assignment.

Deckard shows up at Isidore's apartment building to retire the last three androids. Mercer appears and saves him from being shot in the back by Pris Stratton, an identical model to Rachael. Deckard efficiently retires the remaining two androids.

Back at the apartment Deckard learns that Rachael has pushed the goat off the roof of his building. To clear his mind, he heads out for "one last trip", flying north in his hovercar to the highly radioactive Oregon desert. He walks up a hill in the manner of Mercer and is struck by a rock, whereupon he quickly returns to his car and finds a live toad (presumed extinct) buried in the sand. Back at the apartment his wife Iran finds a control panel on the toad's underside, revealing that it is artificial. Deckard is too exhausted at that point to mind. After he has gone to sleep, Iran orders a batch of artificial flies for the artificial toad.

[edit] Major issues

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[edit] False hierarchies and divisions of life

On post-war Earth, life forms real and artificial are classified in hierarchies. Animals are considered endlessly precious, humans are considered less so and androids are considered meaningless. After their sexual encounter, Rosen explains this to Deckard, “That goat. You love that goat more than you love me, more than you love your wife probably” (page 202).

The three groups are sub-classified. Humans organize animals (both real and artificial) into a system of compulsory commodity fetishism, whereby the authoritative Sidney's Catalog gives the exact worth of every type of animal, and thus defines each human by what type of animal they can afford. Humans are further divided between those who are allowed to emigrate off-world (genetically intact "regulars") and those who can't ("chickenheads" and "antheads").

Yet these classifications have many flaws, especially between humans and androids. New androids, superior to previous models, are constantly produced. The latest androids are more intelligent than some classes of humans. Isidore even calls the three androids living with him "superior beings." Empathy is the trait that definitively separates human psyches from those of androids. Yet Deckard notes that, to perform their job, bounty hunters must not be empathetic towards androids, thus their superiority to the androids they hunt is questionable.

Two of the most respected “persons” on Earth may be artificial creations: Buster Friendly and Wilbur Mercer. Friendly, who often mocks Mercerism, reveals in an exposé that the stimuli humans encounter in an empathy box is based on old Hollywood films starring an alcoholic actor. Thus, Mercer may be nothing more than a repeating computer program.

Plus, androids’ flights to Earth reveal that they have the capacity to imagine a better life for themselves. This is epitomized by Luba Luft, the android opera singer, who likely performed menial work on an off-world colony.

While androids struggle for true contentment, many human beings are relying on artificial means of happiness, such as the mood organ. “Most androids have more vitality and desire to live than my wife,” Deckard notes (page 94).

At the novel’s end, Deckard comments on the way that his conflict with his profession has turned him into an “unnatural self,” which would make him android-like (page 230).

[edit] Decay and renewal

The twin forces of decay and renewal play an important role in the book. This can be seen in the allegory of Mercer, who possessed the ability to resurrect life and who now is dead and in a continual quest to rise back to life.

It also can be seen in the slowly dying Earth that is the novel’s backdrop. “Kipple” is a term given to "unwanted or useless objects." Kipple is self-reproducing, and it's invasive: the first law of Kipple, J.R. Isidore tells Pris Stratton, is, "Kipple drives out nonkipple." People can turn into "living kipple," and an apartment can become "kipple-infested." Buster Friendly asserts that Earth will die "under a layer—not of radioactive dust—but of kipple." And Isidore, as he secures his apartment, notes that he is in a continual battle between “kipple” and “anti-kipple.” These and other descriptions of kipple suggest an analogy to entropy.

Deckard sees the larger picture of decay and renewal and his own part in a microcosm of the process while watching Luft rehearse for a production of The Magic Flute (which also supplies German quotes for Dick's novel A Scanner Darkly):

This rehearsal will end, the performance will end, the singers will die, eventually the last score of the music will be destroyed in one way or another; finally the name Mozart will vanish and the dust will have won. If not on this planet then another. We can evade it awhile. As the andys can evade me and exist a finite stretch longer. But I get them or some other bounty hunter gets them. In a way, he realized, I’m part of the form destroying process of entropy. The Rosen Association creates and I unmake. Or anyhow so it must seem to them. (page 86)

[edit] Humanity versus non-humanity

Dick's inspiration for the central plot point involving androids which are indistinguishable from humans came from specific factors in his own life experience. First and foremost, he could not accept that the people who committed atrocities such as the Holocaust during World War II were truly human. He felt that they must be inhuman monsters who merely appeared to be human. While this was initially a figurative philosophical concept, Dick was a user of amphetamine, which he used to fuel his writing. As a result, he developed a high level of paranoia, and his notion about people appearing to be human when they were not became more literal.[citation needed]

[edit] Differences between the novel and film

The plot and characterizations of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are different from that of its movie adaptation, Blade Runner, in a number of ways. The key few differences are:

  • The film takes place in the year 2019, replacing the novel's 1992 (2021 in a later edition).
  • The film takes place in Los Angeles, replacing the novel's San Francisco.
  • The Penfield Mood Organ, Empathy box, Buster Friendly, and Mercerism are all important aspects of the novel not mentioned in the film.
  • In the original theatrical version of the film, Deckard is divorced, not married. His relationship with Rachael is more intensely romantic, and the two enjoy a “happily ever after” ending in some releases of the film. In the Director's Cut, he and Rachael also share a romance, but no mention is made of a divorce or wife for Deckard.
  • In the novel, the Earth is covered in dust from nuclear fallout. The dust is radioactive, and male characters in the novel wear lead codpieces to avoid becoming sterile. This does not appear in the film.
  • Deckard is retired from bounty hunting in the film. He is active in the novel.
  • Bounty hunters are called “Blade Runners” in the film. This phrase does not appear in the novel; it is taken from a very different novel The Bladerunner by Alan Nourse. Likewise, an android is called a replicant or rep in the movie, but an android or andy in the novel. However, the terms "Voight-Kampff test", "Nexus 6", and "retirement" are identical in both novel and film, although the novel occasionally also refers to "killing" an android.
  • In the novel, androids are made by the Rosen Association, run by the Rosen family. In the movie, replicants are made by the Tyrell Corporation, run by the Tyrell family.
  • In the film, six replicants escape; one is killed by a containment fence and one is never mentioned again in the film (considered by fans to be either an error in the script, "Mary", or Deckard himself - see below), thus leaving four androids for Deckard to retire (Roy Baty, Zhora, Leon and Pris). In the novel, eight androids escaped, and two are retired by another bounty hunter, leaving six androids for Deckard to retire (Roy Baty, Irmgard Baty, Pris Stratton, Luba Luft, Max Polokov and Inspector Garland). In the final cut Bryiant reports two replicants have been killed or died.
  • In the film, androids are limited to a four-year lifespan as a safety feature, deliberately included so that the android beings could not grow into fuller humanity; the androids have come to earth expressly to find a "cure" for this limitation. In the book, androids can still only live four years, but this is only mentioned in passing and described as a natural consequence of the fact that their cells cannot be replaced as they deteriorate. There is no suggestion that this could be curable, and the androids have come to earth only to escape a life of isolation and servitude on Mars.
  • In the novel, the androids seem to "give up" when certain of their imminent death, and it is suggested that the self-preservation instinct in androids is different from that in humans. There is no statement on their physical capacity compared to humans. In the film, the androids are much more retaliatory, far more highly skilled in combat, and obviously physically superior to humans (the androids, Baty especially, demolish walls like crackers), creating climactic fight scenes. The novel's Roy Baty, however, does "give up" when he realises he is due to die when his four-year lifespan runs out.
  • Combat in the novel is almost exclusively with "laser tubes", a device apparently resembling a laser gun or lightsaber, which are used by both hunters and androids (although Deckard retires one android with a bullet-firing pistol). In the movie, Deckard attacks the replicants with a relatively ordinary chemical slugthrower (albeit a high-caliber revolver based on a Steyr Mannlicher rifle), while the replicants tend to attack hand-to-hand using martial arts or simple brawling.
  • Roy Baty is called "Roy Batty" in the film. In both, he is the leader of the group of rogue androids, but in the movie he visits the leader of the Tyrell corporation to demand an increase to his lifespan, then murders Tyrell when he refuses. In the book, he makes no attempt to contact or murder Victor Rosen - he remains in Isidore's apartment until Rick hunts him down - although it is suggested that prior to the androids' escape, he was attempting to make it possible for an android to use an Empathy Box, thus trying to remove what was seen as the key difference between humans and androids. In the book, Roy is retired unceremoniously; in the movie, Deckard does not retire Roy at all. Instead, while Deckard and Roy are playing cat-and-mouse on the rooftops of the city, the moment of Roy's four-year timeout arrives. Knowing he is doomed to die anyway, he rescues Deckard (whom he had previously been fighting against) from falling off a building, and delivers a speech which has become famous among film fans (the "time to die" or "tears in rain" speech) before apparently dying (when his time runs out, Roy simply freezes permanently). There is no equivalent of this scene in the book.
  • Pris's name is also identical in novel and film, although the book gives her a full name (Pris Stratton). In the movie (unlike the book), she wears gothic clothing and distinctive make-up, which has no precedent in Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? but does resemble the outfit worn by another character named Pris in Dick's novel We Can Build You. In the novel, Rachael and Pris are identical android models. In the film they are not; they are played by two distinctly different actresses, Sean Young and Daryl Hannah. In both movie and book, Pris meets up with Roy Baty in an abandoned apartment block, and then sets a trap there to kill Deckard. In the book, Pris sneaks up on Deckard in the dark with a laser tube, counting on her resemblance to Rachael to confuse Deckard. In the movie, Pris disguises herself as a mannequin to surprise Deckard, then attacks him with gymnastics and martial arts. The film also lists Pris's role on the colony she was sent to as a "pleasure model", suggesting that sex with androids is commonplace. Although the jobs that the androids did before coming to Earth are never stated in the novel, the novel does state that sexual intercourse with androids is strictly illegal on Earth and all colony planets. In the novel, no mention is made of a “pleasure model” although Phil Resch does say that "in the colonies they have android mistresses ... sure it's illegal ... but people do it anyhow" (page 125).
  • Leon from the movie loosely corresponds to Max Polokov, since both seriously injured the senior bounty hunter, Dave Holden, and Leon tries to kill Deckard, similarly to Polokov. However, Polokov tries to trick Deckard by disguising himself as a Russian police officer, pretending to partner with Deckard to hunt down the escaped androids, and handing him a booby-trapped gun; Leon directly attacks Deckard in hand-to-hand combat. Also, in the movie, Leon is not retired by Deckard, but by Rachael. Combined with the change above to Roy Baty, this means that the movie's Deckard retires only the two female androids, which has been taken to imply a theme of misogyny which is entirely absent from the novel.
  • The showgirl named Zhora in the movie loosely corresponds to Luba Luft the opera singer. Zhora, however, directly attacks Deckard once she realises he is hunting her; Luba Luft makes no such direct attack in the novel. Luba Luft is also an opera singer by profession, while Zhora was constructed as an assassin and only worked as a showgirl on Earth; aspects of the setting in the novel make it unlikely that an android would have been built as an assassin.
  • Irmgard Baty and Inspector Garland are completely missing from the film, although Irmgard's role - Roy Baty's wife - may have been taken by "Mary", the "missing" replicant in the film, who was written out of the script before any production.
  • Rachael has a significantly different character in the two stories. In the novel, she is a devious figure in the service of the Rosen Association (the manufacturing company). She aims to identify the flaws which make Nexus-6's susceptible to the Voight-Kampff test, to report back to Rosen for rectification in the next android model; and later, to manipulate Deckard into not hunting and killing the company's precious products. Rachael pretends to be in love with Deckard, and sleeps with him, claiming that no hunter has been emotionally able to continue hunting androids after that. In the movie, Rachael believes herself to be human until Deckard reveals she is not, using the Voight-Kampff test; she undergoes a serious personality crisis and disappears from the company's headquarters, ultimately finding refuge and genuine love with Deckard. In some versions of the film, Rachael is revealed to have no four-year expiry mechanism; this ending was attacked by fans as tritely romantic, and the Director's Cut and later versions feature an alternate ending in which Deckard accepts her in spite of knowing they may have only a few years together.
  • In the novel, Deckard discovers an elaborate cover-up scheme run by androids, consisting of a fake police station and fake police officers. This alternative police HQ, on the other hand, employs a human bounty hunter called Phil Resch. Resch saves Deckard's life by killing Garland and he also retires Luba Luft, but then he mysteriously disappears from the novel, and Deckard collects the bounty money for the two androids. It remains unexplained how two parallel police HQs could operate in the same city, complete with human employees and bounty hunters, without noticing each other. This subplot is entirely missing from the movie, where Deckard receives no help from the police officer, who seems merely to follow and monitor him.
  • In the novel, J.R. Isidore is a "chickenhead," a person who has suffered genetic damage from the radioactive dust covering the earth that has left him with only borderline intelligence, who is thus not allowed to emigrate. In the film, he is renamed J.F. Sebastian, and is a brilliant young android designer who cannot emigrate due to a hormone disorder ("Methuselah syndrome") that causes him to age at an accelerated rate. (Isidore does not himself design androids, but he does work for a company that repairs robotic animals.)
  • In the film, another Blade Runner, Gaff, continuously shadowed Deckard. The director's cut ending suggested that Gaff knew that Deckard was an android, due to Gaff's leaving an origami unicorn (a distinct connection to Deckard's dream of a unicorn) at Deckard's apartment. The unicorn origami appeared in the original theatrical version but not Deckard's dream. This interpretation suggested Gaff might continue to hunt Rachel even if Deckard takes her away. Gaff does not have an analog in the novel.
  • The film leaves lingering the question of whether or not Deckard is an android. In the novel, Deckard appears more certain not to be an android. Reference is made to him having passed the Voight-Kampff test before the events of the novel, although the test is not assuredly accurate; partway through the novel, Deckard partially applies the Voight-Kampff test to himself, confirming that he is feeling empathy for androids. Also Deckard appears to have human empathic reactions, and is able to use an empathy box (an ability which androids lack). However, some of the aspects of the setting that are missing from the film (the Penfield mood organ, Mercerism, and similar) create the impression that, even if Deckard is physically a human, what constitutes "being a human" in the book's imagined future is very different from the reader's likely opinion.

[edit] Sequels

Three novels intended to serve as sequels to both Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Blade Runner have been published: Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human (1995), Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night (1996), Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon (2000). The official and authorized novels were written by Philip K. Dick's friend K. W. Jeter. They continue the story of Rick Deckard and attempt to resolve many of the differences between the novel and the film.

The television series Total Recall 2070 was based on Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" (the basis for the film Total Recall), and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Thus, it's considered by some to be a sequel to or spin-off of Electric Sheep and/or Blade Runner.

Also the movie Soldier is considered to be what's called a sidequel for the Blade Runner realm.

[edit] References in popular culture

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[edit] Music

  • In the song "Talk Shows On Mute" by Incubus, two verses refer to the book: "The electric sheep are dreaming of your face / enjoying from the chemical / comforts of America", and "The electric sheep are dreaming up your fate / And judge you from the card castle / comfort of America."
  • Japanese guitarist Michio Kurihara recorded a song on his recent solo release, Sunset Notes, entitled "Do Deep Sea Fish Dream of Electric Moles?".
  • Diesel Christ has a song called "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?" on its tribute to Depeche Mode (Diesel Mode: A Tribute To The Masses). It is the only song on the album that is not a Depeche Mode cover.
  • Evil Nine's album You Can Be Special Too takes its title from one of the book's themes: that of being classified as "special." The third track on the album, "You Can Be Special," contains a passage from chapter 2 in which Maggie Klugman talks to a TV presenter about moving to Mars.
  • The band Whale|Horse released a CD/EP entitled Count the Electric Sheep.
  • The World/Inferno Friendship Society's "Zen and the Art of Breaking Everything in This Room" contains the lyric "do androids dream of electronic sheep?"
  • Japanese psychedelic band Acid Mothers Temple have an album called Does the Cosmic Shepherd Dream of Electric Tapirs?.
  • Indie-pop band Coparck have a song, "A Good Year for The Robots," on The 3rd album with the lyrics "do androids dream of electric sheep?"
  • Indie-pop band Gatsbys American Dream, on their self-titled album, have a song entitled "My Name Is Ozymandias" which contains the lyrics "And all night while you slumber you'll dream of electric sheep."
  • The Christian industrial band Under Midnight had a short track on their self-titled album named "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?".
  • Heavy Metal band Iron Maiden's Somewhere In Time album cover features many references to the movie and novel, added on purpose by artist Derek Riggs to blend with the album's musical futuristic concept, like the movie theater named "Phillip K. Dick Cinema" with "Blade Runner" on display and a "Tyrell Corp." sign on one of the buildings.

[edit] Computers and video games

  • The 6th level of the video game Viewtiful Joe 2 is titled "Do Androids Dream Of Romantic Scene?".
  • Several levels of the computer game Marathon Infinity are called "Electric Sheep [number]." The player is often thought to be an android, and the level takes place in his dream.
  • Koei published a hentai game titled "Do Dutchwives Dream of Electric Eel?" for the PC-88 during the 1980s.
  • In the PC version of Melty Blood Act Cadenza (Version B), selecting Mech-HISUI (an android maid) and White Len (who can take the form of a white cat) as a team results in the team being named "Denshi Meido ha Shiro Neko no Yume wo Miru ka", which translates into "Do Electric Maids Dream of White Cats?"
  • In the MMORPG City of Heroes, one of the missions assigned is to interrogate a Captain Rick Deckard and defeat Nemesis replicants.
  • In the game Shadowrun for SNES you are able to hire a bounty hunter by the name of Deckard.
  • The Electric Sheep distributed computing project was inspired by the title of this novel.

[edit] Anime

  • In Bubblegum Crisis, a Japanese animated series, there are various references to the novel. For example, the lead character's name is Priss, and she sings in a band called Priss and The Replicants, referring to the novel's film adaptation.
  • In an episode of Lost Universe titled "And Then a Blade of Light Shines," the computer Canal's memory banks were being destroyed. Shortly before her hologram fades away, she asks "When I die, will I dream of electric sheep?"

[edit] In other films and animation

  • In the film Slipstream, android character Byron tells his friend Matt Owens that he actually fell asleep (and dreamed) the night before. Matt snorts derisively, replying, "How did you fall asleep? Counting electric sheep?"
  • In an episode of The Transformers, while on a ship waiting to be saved by his friends, a boy turns to a Mini Con and asks "do mini cons dream of electric ships?"

[edit] In literature

Now I lay me down to sleep,
Try to count electric sheep,
Sweet dream wishes you can keep,
How I hate the night.
  • John Scalzi's novel The Android's Dream, refers to the title of this book.
  • In noted Commonwealth poet Jeni Couzyn's 1983 collection of poetry, Life by Drowning, her poem "Do Androids Dream" pays homage to Dick's novel.
  • In the webcomic Dieselsweeties the main character of Clango, a robot, is seen asleep in one panel. Above his head, he is clearly shown dreaming of an electric sheep.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Notes and References

1 The term android is sometimes used when referring to artificial beings of a biological composition, though in most modern SF the term has come to refer to non-biological machines instead (e.g. the "Droids" in the Star Wars movies). Debate on such fine details is likely to encounter deep complications; the very issues which Dick–and Isaac Asimov before him–explored along the human-artificial boundary.

  • Dick, Philip K. (1968). Do androids dream of electric sheep? New York: Ballantine Books, 1996. ISBN 0-345-40447-5. First published in Phillip K. Dick: Electric Shepherd, Norstrilla Press.
    Zelazny, Roger (1975). "Introduction"
  • Scott, Ridley (1982). Blade Runner. Warner Brothers.

[edit] Further reading

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Works of Philip K. Dick
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? · The Edge of Human · Replicant Night · Eye and Talon
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