Blade Runner # 1 aka Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick 10 out of 10

 Blade Runner # 1 aka Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

10 out of 10

 

 

A classic that might be better known as Blade Runner, the adaptation for the big screen becoming so popular http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/06/blade-runner-based-on-novel-by-philip-k.html that it has been remade in 2017, albeit the remake has not brought about the same enthusiasm as the first, Harrison Ford in the lead role version…nonetheless, the original material has a few thousand ratings on goodreads and this means that millions of readers have enjoyed the book, for only a small proportion would bother to enlist with the online book club and then note on the novel after finishing it.

 

Rick Deckard is the hero of the Philip K. Dick story – this reader has been impressed by Ubik http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/ubik-by-philip-k-dick-10-out-10.html - and he works as a bounty hunter with the police department in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco – affected by a nuclear war and the resulting radioactive material that has killed most animals and made humans that have the means and/or the right to migrate out of the planet, to Mars – who has a complex personality…indeed, so complicated that there is a question at one point and we doubt if he is not an android himself.

This is part of the magic of Science Fiction, the fact that we can look at the present and notice how accurate writers and thinkers like Jules Verne, Philip K. Dick, Olaf Stapledon http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/08/starmaker-by-olaf-stapledon-10-out-of-10.html and others have been in their predictions…we have in fact androids in this day and age, both literally and figuratively, in the former sense, there is advanced AI that has surpassed the anticipations and in the latter, there are world leaders that behave just like they would if they were mere robots, from America to Brazil, From Russia to Saudi Arabia…they show no mercy for the opposition, killing them with military grade nerve gas – see the poisoning of Navalny – or send teams to execute and dismember adversaries – which is what the Saudi tyrant, Mohamed Bin Salman aka MBS, did to a journalist.

 

The hero of Blade Runner Dreams Not of Electric, But Real Sheep – which puzzles yours truly, for why then we have the strange title – in a world where most animals – all birds and many, many species have become extinct, and this again is not farfetched alas, but it is happening under our eyes, making the under signed think that one entry for the new prize under the auspices of the Prince William and David Attenborough should be a proposal to influence people to vote for those who are aware of and try to stop climate Change, since if you have the aforementioned fools in control, there is little hope for humanity in the near future - - are gone and people keep Electric replicas, though these are not a sign of prestige, and the real ones get very high prices, listed on the Sydney catalogue that is very present in the narrative.

The bounty hunter has a neighbor who is the proud possessor of a horse that is about to give birth, but he is quite arrogant and prompts the hero to advise him to be more modest, since one never knows, the horse can get sick and die, just as his regretted real sheep had done, before he replaced her with an artificial replica…observing his fondness, perhaps obsession reflected in the name of the book, with having an animal, and not a domestic one, the neighbor mentions getting a cricket, but that is quite insulting…

 

When Rick Deckard visits the Rosen Association, he would be offered an owl, who seems to be in the possession of the rich corporation, though she had been declared extinct – it would turn out to be a trap and the animal electric, not ‘real’- but this is an attempt to corrupt the bounty hunter, after he will have tested Rachel Rosen, botching the test in the first instance, only to have an ingenious idea and settle the results and affirming the ‘woman ‘to be in fact an android, of the latest Nexus – 6 model, which is highly intelligent – in fact, much more so than especially the earthlings with sub- par IQ, called insultingly chicken heads, one of them being a relatively important figure in the plot…John Isidore – mostly very good looking, so attractive in fact that Rick will have an affair with Rachel, in spite of the fact that this is illegal.

We can again refer to the present, when the advanced technology – by the way, there are quite a few things that the very clever writers could not anticipate and in the case of Blade runner it refers to communication, which is still made through operators, like in the old days and there is no mention of mobile phones…they could not see the future so clearly and it makes sense, they are not clairvoyant, they are just visionaries – has already placed on the market not just AI but also Artificial SuperIntelligence, which appears in Her by Spike Jonze http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/note-on-her-spike-jonze-joaquin-phoenix.html and other creations, and we can see around the corner the moment when human looking concepts would be able to have a rewarding intimacy in that they would be so super smart and furthermore, able to anticipate the needs, desires, moods of the human to the point where they could be very close…intimately close

 

This game with the moods, and so much more, is anticipated in Androids Dream of Electric Sheep through the mood machine that operates on Rick and his wife, as well as presumably all the other future humans interested in it and we can criticize this and also see the benefit in treating say someone like the very stable genius that is on top of the free world and the deplorable members of his cult and have them tone down their rage, prevent them from trying to kidnap the governor of one state, or maybe all those who do not worship the Superman that would take that country and potentially many if not all others to the ground, if he is allowed to continue for another term and presumably a few more, if his wish is to be granted.

Na interesting take on religion would be the description of Mercerism, which will have replaced Christianity, the Muslim and the other faiths, it seems to be just as justified as Mormonism or other – perhaps all – exaggerations, though we have rising stars like Jordan Peterson, who see the Psychological Interpretations of the Bible Stories – available freely online – and they offer an opposite view to that taken by Nathaniel Branden – the latter is sure that the effects of religion are very negative http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/psychological-effects-of-religion-by.html

The idea of retiring the androids aka killing them is thought provoking, in that this reader would rather have a Rachel – the spouse is not reading this anyway…what am I saying, nobody is Alhamdulillah – to have sex and mutual understanding, intellectual conversations and…let us not get into too many details, than have her retired…