Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - "Pathos"

Jill Galvan stated in his critical essay, "Entering the Post-human Collective in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?":

"...whether we accept it unquestioningly or rebel against it, technology, in the hands of the powers that can be, has acquired not simply a life of its own, but a life that substantially infiltrates our lives, changing our character in subtle yet meaningful ways. If we succumb unwittingly--or, worse, indifferently--to the totalitarian mechanization of our world, we risk becoming androids ourselves, reduced to 'humans of mere use--men made into machines' (187)." (414)

Though the main conflict in Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, arises between humans and androids, I believe it is also interesting to view their conflict in a more general term as the integration of humans and technology/mechanism. In other worlds, how does the integration of mechanisms generate new problems for us, human beings?

One of the examples of human reliance on mechanisms is Iran Deckard's strong attachment to the mood organ, which enables her to control her mood. However, as seen in the quote, we see that her strong dependence on the mood organ has allowed its mechanism to, in a way, control her instead.

Rick Deckard says to his wife:

“I took a test, one question, and verified it; I've begun to empathize with androids, and look what that means. You said it this morning yourself. 'Those poor andys.' So you know what I'm talking about. That's why I bought the goat. I never felt like that before. Maybe it could be depression, like you get. I can understand how you suffer now when you're depressed; I always thought you liked it and I thought you could have snapped yourself out any time, if not alone then my means of the mood organ. But when you get that depressed you don't care. Apathy, because you've lost a sense of worth. It doesn't matter whether you feel better because you have no worth―” 
― (174-175) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick


Iran, from the beginning of the novel, has always felt "depressed." She sets her mood organ to "despair" (5) at certain times because she believes that is "a reasonable amount of time to feel hopeless about everything" (6). But at the beginning, Rick believes that his wife is able to "dial [her] way out" (6) by "program[ming] an automatic resetting" (6). However, at the end, as seen in the quote above, he realizes  that if not for the machine's automatic resetting, Iran would stay in depression forever for she has become "infiltrate[d]" by the mechanics of the mood organ; she simply "[doesn't] care" anymore. The mood organ, for Iran, has become like a drug where she has lost her ability to dial back to "hope" as well as her "sense of worth." Therefore, the mood organ has overridden Iran's confidence in her existence; machine has taken over human worth.


Another important concept seen through the quote above is the relationship between "empathy" and "apathy." Though both words are from the same root--"pathos," an emotion of sympathetic pity (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)-- they have complete opposite meanings. Empathy means "an inclination to think or feel alike" while apathy means "lack of feeling or emotion" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). It is interesting to see how for Rick, the interactions with the androids have allowed him to feel "empathy" towards androids which are advanced forms of technology, while for Iran, interactions with the mood organ, another form of technology, have disabled her ability to have feelings or emotions at all. In a different point of view, however, while Iran does feel a sentiment of detachment for the world she lives in due to the growing effects of the mood organ on her life, she also feels strongly attached and dependent on the mood organ itself, creating some kind of a relationship between her and the machine.


Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, therefore, introduces a new perspective on technology where feelings and emotions become involved. As Galvan said, "to deny technology'spervasive role in our existence means, then, to deny reality--the reality of a world in which we are advancingly imbricated in a mechanical presence. Only by recognizing how it has encroached upon our understanding of "life" can we come to full terms with the technologies we have produced" (414). As seen in the passage, it seems that Galvan is indicating our need to "blast the illusion of an exclusive and empathic community of humans," and recognize it as "one compromised by the technologies with which they share the Earth" (414). In an essence, he tells us to include technology in our emotional spectrum and expand our empathy for technology and machinery for that is the way in which we could "[shape] one another's existence" (414), thereby solving the problem for some, like Iran, of "hav[ing] no worth."