Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, written by Phillip K. Dick, is a notable science fiction classic. Both from the narrative and its themes, as well as the acclaimed movie rendition, Blade Runner, this novel has solidified its stance as a must-read piece of science fiction. While coming to this conclusion myself, it was not surprising to read many different literary reviews reinstating the same opinions. Each, in their own way, however, mainly compared and contrasted between the novel and the movie adaptation to highlight key points in each, and it was rather difficult to find a literary review that solely focused on the story in isolation.
The short article, “What Do We Lose When We Lose a Species”, written by Kevin Litman-Navarro in December
…show more content…
In the last year alone, five different species have gone extinct, not to mention those in previous years and the ever-growing list of critically endangered species. Looking on the IUCN Red List, under the category of critically endangered are 5583 different species, with the vast majority’s population trend decreasing; comparing the listed 44,148 species under least concerned with those ranging from near threatened to extinct in the wild (32,076), nearly 42% of all those listed are within the latter categorizations. Ironically, in newer versions of the novel, the setting is placed in the year 2021, and knowing even brief knowledge on extinction patterns just from high school science classes, it is not surprising if there comes a time in the very near future when only the wealthy can afford living animals and the rest, both domesticated and in the wild, are just robotic versions of the original. With realistic humanoid robots like Sophia already in existence, showing the same levels of understanding as those androids mentioned in the novel itself, it is safe to say that realistic robotic animals may be the next