Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep Sparknotes

In the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick tells of a bleak world covered in radioactive dust where people manufacture androids that are nearly indistinguishable from real humans. As models have advanced and technology has improved, the real differences between humans and androids have become impossibly small, with the only division being humans’ sense of empathy, which has become the most defining “human” trait there is. This is emphasized by Mercerism, the world’s widespread religion, whose philosophy is rooted in empathy, interconnectedness, and collective suffering for the good of others. In a world full of isolation, despair, and dehumanization, Mercerism is a means for connection and unity for all people and a way

As android technology improves and androids, who are already superior to humans in many ways, become harder and harder to distinguish, empathy has become the one thing that sets humans apart from androids. Humans have the ability to empathize and connect with other humans, and to create emotional connections with each other; but while androids do feel some emotions, they lack empathy and in general are unable to have the same kinds of emotional experiences as humans. Mercerism and the empathy box experience, being the vessel for human empathy and the collective experience of fusion, is held in contempt by many androids for this reason. The android Irmgard Baty says, “No, it’s that empathy. Isn’t it a way of proving that humans can do something we can’t do? Because without the Mercer experience we just have your word that you feel this empathy business, this shared, group thing.” (193) To prove the complete equality of humans and androids, and to prove that “the whole experience of empathy is a swindle” (193), the famous android Buster Friendly uncovers the true origin of Wilbur Mercer: an actor on a soundstage being attacked with soft plastic rocks. To an android’s superior, logic-based intelligence, this should crumble Mercerism and the belief in the importance of empathy – and with it, all divides between humans and androids. However, they fail because they are unable to understand the emotional and spiritual qualities of humans, and their investment in the belief in a higher purpose and power, especially in such a lonely world. Mercer himself says, “They will have trouble understanding why nothing has changed. Because you’re still here and I’m still here.” (198) Aside from the emotional unification that it brings, Mercerism persists because it gives people something to live by,