do androids dream of electric sheep? philip k. dick, 1968 futuristic societies
TRANSCRIPT
Philip K. Dick, 1928-1982
Born in ChicagoBegan writing 1952Interest in metaphysics
and theologyQuestioning the
universeFictionalizing
philosophizer44 published novels, 121 short storiesBlade runner, Total
Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly
The Apocalypse?
What is behind our appetite for doomsday visions?Are we confronting deep-seated species-wide fear?Can’t we wait for the end of the world?
Philosophy & Culture
The Road , 2006, Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey taken by a
father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed all civilization and, apparently, almost all life on earth.
Android?
An android is a robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human.
Largely within the domain of science fiction
Frequently seen in film and television.
Android
Honda and several other corporations and private enterprises have developed impressive androids
A long way to go to make them fully human like.
Humanity
What constitutes the quality of being human?
What role does nature play for humans?
Destruction of the world as we know it
Insanity of humansNon-comprehension of their insanity
Artifice
Artificial humansArtificial animals
Self-extermination
Empathy – group fusion / moral choices
Move to Mars!
Social Body
Michel Foucault:“the idea of a social body constituted by the universality of wills” is a great fantasy
the “phenomenon of the social body is the effect not of a consensus but of the materiality of power operating on the very bodies of individuals.”
Earth has created a hierarchy of power
Rick Deckard, Bounty Hunter
Married to IranNo children, but an artificial sheepIdentity linked to destroyed natureCreation of a subject-identity ~ possession of
power over an animal (nature)Fake nature fake identity grey zone
between human and androidAndroid are indistinguishable from humans
empathy test
Westworld
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFmKvY6PN2M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAy8YnKvHQ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQVWP8fP5To
Identity-crisis
Power hierarchyAnnual, decisive personality testsBuster FriendlyMercerSurvival of the fittestCentral irony
Fulfillment & Humanity?
Empathy and fusionHuman = non-androidEmpathy solely towards other humansDoubt creates a dilemma despair and
resignationInter-subjective identity formation as key to
humanityThe empathy box
Aliens?
Marital relationships ~ Rachel RosenReconciling the diminishing distinction
between humans and androidsMercer: “the basic condition of life to be
required to violate your own identity”Enlightenment – The Tomb World
Mercerism
Religion called MercerismEstablish ethical, moral norms of behaviorCreate empathetic fusionShame / blushing reaction
Mercer, the person ~ Jesus?
Repetitive cycle – no forward momentumOpposed to Kierkegaard – the individual + God
Humans and Animals
SquirrelsSisyphusMankind’s inherent stupidityWrong choicesHopelessnessCollective path to doomSelf-destruction / Existential angst
Blade Runner, 1982
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