Science Fiction | Book Chatter

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep book cover. A blurred image of a face set against a metal honeycomb backdrop.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
By Philip K. Dick
Del Rey, May 1996, 240pp.

The Short of It:

This gave me all the feels and not in a great way.

The Rest of It:

By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. ~ from the publisher

What a book. It was the inspiration for the film Blade Runner in case you didn’t know but it’s quite different from the film. Living creatures are highly valued and will cost you. A simple house cat? You wouldn’t be able to afford one. Sometimes folks are lucky and can save enough for a goat or a chicken but mostly, all they can afford are simulations of said animal.

People are desperate for interaction but the Androids are so advanced that you can’t tell who is real? Bounty hunters are sent to “destroy”retire” the remaining Androids which are discovered by failing a scientific round of testing in the form of empathy measuring. But still, some of them pass because they’ve nearly become human and want to live.

This is where it gets interesting. When you are so lonely and desperate for human interaction and a droid can provide that AND show empathy in a way you haven’t seen in a really long time? How does that bode well when you are the one hired to destroy them?

I get it. I am the person who will run out of a car when I see the little DoorDash robot floundering in a busy intersection. But Ti, it’s not real. But it FEELS real and it even makes sounds like a tiny child when it’s confused. EEEEEEK. What have we become? It’s terrifying really.

First published in 1968 but so ahead of his time. The story is set in 2021 but look at us now. Talking to Siri, asking Alexa to do stuff for us and people all over conversing with ChatGPT like it’s a friend. Smart refrigerators, vacuums, and cars. I mean, you can’t even buy a car without all the stuff now.

These machines are always watching and listening. Think about that. Does the convenience outweigh the risk? Sometimes. Are we starting to cross a line? Absolutely.

During my most recent hospital stay, I could hear the AI physician talking to patients during their tele-appointments, I also had an AI Nurse that kept asking me how I was feeling. I got up out of that bed and unplugged it. NO. Just No.

Discuss. We all say, “There’s a line I won’t cross” but look at how you live today and really think about it. GPS? Useful for sure but also tracking your every move.

Discuss.

My book club will be discussing this next month. Recommend.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

Oryx and Crake
By Margaret Atwood
Vintage, 2004, 400pp.

The Short of It:

You know when they say that books should make you feel things? Yeah. Oryx and Crake will definitely leave you feeling things.

The Rest of It:

*No Spoilers*

I purchased this book at least a decade ago. I started it a few times and couldn’t get into it, but then a group of us online picked it as a book club pick, and so I looked for my copy, found it (amazing given the pile of books I have) and dove in.

I’ll be careful not to give much away because most of what you feel while reading it, is shock and dismay that such things can exist, and actually do today.

Atwood describes a bleak world. There is the before, and then there is the after. As a reader, you get a glimpse of how we got here but there is much left to the imagination as to what prompted it all. Dystopian worlds are bleak and lifeless but with Oryx and Crake, the story is teeming with life but in the most disturbing way.

Animals are hybrids. For example, Raccoons and Skunks become their own breed. Pigs? Something else entirely. People, aka humanoids, run around without clothing as there is no need for it. Food is scarce. But just like now, there are the HAVES and the HAVE NOTS. The Haves are pulling the strings and everything in this story is Biblical in nature.

Think Adam and Eve and the serpent.

Oryx and Crake is part of a trilogy which includes The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam. This book was a tough read. It was hard on my soul. Not just because of the times we are living in, but because the subject matter is delicate and that is why I will include a trigger warning here for sexual content because Atwood does not handle it in a delicate way. It’s front and center, in your face. I had to put the book down a few times but since it was a group read, I kept going.

Atwood called this story a “romance” and that just blows my mind.

Will I read the others in the trilogy? Probably, yes. Because as numb as we can all be to the nonsense of this world, you have to feel things now and then to know that you are still here.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

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