Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K. Dick (1968)
“A bounty hunter who kills androids for a living begins to wonder if he is one — and whether the question even matters.”
Why This Book Matters
Published to modest commercial response in 1968, the novel was transformed into a cultural landmark by Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner, which adapted it loosely but amplified its philosophical questions into the mainstream. The book is now among the most taught science-fiction texts in college literature and philosophy departments. It coined or popularized several concepts that have entered philosophical discourse: the question of android consciousness as a test case for theories of mind, the idea of empathy as the defining human trait, and the use of SF genre conventions to do rigorous ethical philosophy.
Firsts & Innovations
First major novel to use the android as a philosophical instrument for testing theories of consciousness and personhood
One of the first SF novels to foreground empathy — rather than intelligence or biology — as the criterion of humanity
Pioneered the SF novel as philosophical thought experiment with commercial narrative drive
Coined 'kipple' as a literary concept for entropy that has entered critical vocabulary
Cultural Impact
Blade Runner (1982, dir. Ridley Scott) — one of the most influential science-fiction films ever made, adapted from this novel
Blade Runner 2049 (2017) — sequel film continuing the androids-and-authenticity questions
The 'replicant' concept entered everyday language as shorthand for an artificial being indistinguishable from real
Dick's question 'What is human?' became the central question of philosophy of mind as AI advanced
The Voigt-Kampff test has been cited in academic papers on consciousness, empathy, and AI ethics
Banned & Challenged
Not commonly banned, but frequently challenged in schools for its treatment of religion (the Mercer fraud), its depiction of casual sex, and its suggestion that institutional violence conducted under legal authority is morally indistinguishable from murder.