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Do Androids Dream of Electric

Introduction

Philip Kindred Dick born in Chicago, USA, on December 16 of 1928 - Santa Ana, California), better known as Philip K. Dick was a prolific writer and novelist U.S. of science fiction, which greatly influenced the genre. Dick covered topics such as sociology, the politics and metaphysics in his early novels, which predominated the monopolistic firms, the authoritarian governments and altered states of consciousness. In his later works, Dick's thematic focus strongly reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology (Dick. K, pp.12-34, 1977). Often relied on his own life experience, reflected his obsession with drugs, the paranoia and schizophrenia in novels like A Scanner Darkly and VALIS (Dick. K, pp.45-78, 1991).

Discussion

"Do Androids Dream of Electric?" is a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, written in the year 1968. This novel tells the story of a "Bounty hunter” whose name Rick Deckard in the novel, and who is haunted by androids - creatures almost indistinguishable from a person declared illegal on Earth. The action takes place in a poisoned by radiation and partly abandoned in San Francisco of the future. Along with "Man in the High Castle, "this novel is Dick's most famous work. This is one of the classic works of fiction, which investigated the ethical problems of creating androids (artificial humans).

In 1982 based on the novel by Ridley Scott directed the movie "Blade Runner "with Harrison Ford in the title role. The script, which was created by Hampton Francher and David Pipls, is quite different from the book (Martin et.al, pp.56-69, 1982). The action of the computer game "Blade Runner" takes place in the same fantasy universe, but in many ways the game is closer to the novel than the movie (Philip. D, pp.9-23, 1982).

Theme of the novel

Theme of the novel is the blurred boundary between humans and (biological in this work) androids and thus the question of what makes us human. According to Philip K. Dick, this is not the intelligence to think of the androids in most people, but the empathy, the ability to empathize with other people.

The novel is set in 1992 (not dated in later editions to 2021) in North America, mainly in San Francisco. The earth after a nuclear war no longer habitable. A majority of the survivors is the Mars emigrated. The who remained on Earth have always feared, as a result of radiation infertile to be or to degenerate mentally and demoted to "special cases" to be - to second-class citizens, who are denied the right to emigrate.

The people remaining on Earth, living in semi-abandoned cities where radiation poisoning causes serious disease and genetic abnormalities. All the animals are either extinct or are threatened with extinction. Therefore, the possession and care of animals is considered a virtue, almost every duty, and the kind of pet in many respects determines the social status of its owner. Trade in animals is at the prices specified in the catalog Sidney, for the extinct ...