Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Format: eBook
Read: June 2026

I first read this in 2013, and it blew my 25-year-old mind. I’ve been very curious to revisit this book and PKD in general to see how I respond to his work now that I’m older, and I’m back into a more literary mindset. This is the first one I’ve re-read, and I’m planning to read (or re-read) at least 4 more of his novels this year.

Published in 1968, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is most famous for being the inspiration for Ridley Scott’s cult classic 1982 movie Blade Runner. Heavy emphasis on ‘inspiration for‘ because that movie just takes the surface-level premise (bounty hunters and androids), some vibes and a handful of character names, but it is a different story. It is certainly a very loose adaptation, so much so that the book is almost unrecognisable except for a handful of character names. The title was apparently taken from this totally different novel by Alan E. Nourse.

In a giant, empty, decaying building which had once housed thousands, a single TV set hawked its wares to an uninhabited room.

The book has a lot more layers to it, and some weirder bits that would be hard to pull off in a 1980s cyberpunk action movie! Philip K. Dick’s writing I always find very interesting; he writes really quite plainly, but at the same time can communicate a vibe and build a world in very few words. I don’t (generally) like a lot of descriptive writing, I believe plain language can be just as effective as beautifully written prose, and so I’ve always loved his work for the brevity. He’s an ideas guy; the plain writing on the surface gives way to some complex philosophical ideas and themes.

I did really enjoy re-reading this, though it took a bit for my brain to settle into the new rhythm it since I came into it after finishing the easy reading of Adrian Mole. It is certainly a really interesting text to engage with, and to reflect on how different it is from the more well known move version is (I may have to rewatch!). The writing (or lack of) for the female characters does feel of its time, but also, we are in Rick’s point of view. Rachen’s small frame and lack of breasts are commented on multiple times. I don’t know if PKD meant that to be a disturbing comment on the fact that men are most easily seduced by a ‘woman’ who has the body of a girl?

It is a short novel, under 300 pages, and so there is a lot that is touched on but not given the space to be fully explored. Ultimately, it is a snapshot of one day at work for Rick Decrard, which means we are limited to his experiences, and there is a lot we will never know the truth of in the world beyond that.

I spent a lot of time thinking about the book after I finished it, so from here, this is less of a book review and more of my thoughts on the themes that were explored. I can’t really do that without the plot; therefore, there are some spoilers, so if you haven’t read it yet (and you should), be warned.

🚨🚨 Spoilers Alarm 🚨 🚨 Spoilers Alarm 🚨 🚨 Spoilers Alarm 🚨🚨

Human empathy

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is at its core about human empathy. This is one of the main themes that runs through the whole story, and the main source of tension for bounty hunter Rick Deckard. The whole book takes place in roughly 24 hours, which is one very long workday for Rick in which he is assigned to track down and ‘retire’ three fugitive androids.

Before he gets started on this, he is told to go to The Rosen Corporation, the manufacturer of the androids, to administer a controlled test on some of the latest models with the same Nexus-6 brain type that his targets have. His boss wants to make sure it is still an effective way to tell an android from a human. The test is a series of questions designed to monitor involuntary biological reactions triggered by an empathetic response, as it has been well established that androids do not have empathy as humans do. This is where he meets Rachael Rosen, whose job in this scene is to invalidate the test, who proves to be a slippery customer right from the off (Rick seems to forget that she’s a liar later in the novel!). It also introduces the idea that some androids may not know they are androids because they’ve had false memories implanted. He correctly identifies that she’s an android, validating the test, but the experience unnerves him, and he loses some of the clarity he had started the day with.

For Rick Deckard an escaped humanoid robot, which had killed its master, which had been equipped with an intelligence greater than that of many human beings, which had no regard for animals, which possessed no ability to feel empathic joy for another life form’s success or grief at its defeat—that, for him, epitomized The Killers.

The conflict in this novel is almost all internal; he actually has very little practical trouble hunting or ‘retiring’ his targets (usually all the information he needs is already on his “poopsheet” and the andies tend to give themselves away). He wrestles with his own empathy towards his human-like android targets and how to reconcile that with his job. As the day goes on and he becomes more exhausted (he doesn’t even stop to eat, it’s a long day!), this question begins to cripple him: is he cut out to be a bounty hunter?

So much for the distinction between authentic living humans and humanoid constructs. In that elevator at the museum, he said to himself, I rode down with two creatures, one human, the other android…and my feelings were the reverse of those intended. Of those I’m accustomed to feel—am required to feel.

He meets another bounty hunter from a different police department – Phil Resch – who initially, thanks to some android plotting, has a question mark hanging over him. It turns out Phil is a human, and he’s actually more hardcore than Rick. He notices that Rick’s having some trouble after they take out Luba Luff, an attractive female android posing as an opera singer, and offers him some advice.

What’s happened is that you’ve got your order reversed. Don’t kill her—or be present when she’s killed—and then feel physically attracted. Do it the other way.”
Rick stared at him. “Go to bed with her first—”
“—and then kill her,” Phil Resch said succinctly. His grainy, hardened smile remained.

At the time, this disturbs and confuses Rick even further, but later, after another encounter with Rachael Rosen, his words make more sense. It seems that Phil went through a similar experience to Rick, only much earlier in his career.

“No bounty hunter ever has gone on,” Rachael said. “After being with me. Except one. A very cynical man. Phil Resch. And he’s nutty; he works out in left field on his own.”

Perhaps Phil is a better bounty hunter. He isn’t burdened by empathy for his android targets, but (by the rules of this world) he is capable of empathy because he has a squirrel – called Buffy – that he loves and cares for at home.

Mercerism and the Empathy Machine

Empathy is highly valued in this world, partly because of how it is the identifying difference between androids and humans, but also because of the harsh and lonely environment of Earth in 2021(!). The prevailing religion is the cult of Mercerism, which is the primary way that a now scattered humanity connects. Androids cannot access Mercerism, and it is mentioned that the Roy Baty android had tried (and failed) to start his own equivalent religious movement.

He had crossed over in the usual perplexing fashion; physical merging—accompanied by mental and spiritual identification—with Wilbur Mercer had reoccurred. As it did for everyone who at this moment clutched the handles, either here on Earth or on one of the colony planets.

They do this through a device called the Empathy Machine, where the user clutches some handles and watching a screen somehow enters a virtual reality environment where they can merge and feel the experiences of others as they follow Wilber Mercer – an elderly man in rags – on his climb up a barren hill, at the top of the hill he is pelted by rocks by unknown “killers” and he dies. It’s very weird, and when you first come across this chapter, you just have to go with it; it comes together by the end.

Mercism is all about having empathy, and a key way that humans can practice this is by keeping an animal.

Real versus Artificial

Technology has gotten so good at artificial life that it has become almost impossible to discern the difference from the real thing, whether this is electric animals or human androids. Rick and John both make mistakes in their work.

“You know how people are about not taking care of an animal; they consider it immoral and anti-empathic. I mean, technically it’s not a crime like it was right after W.W.T., but the feeling’s still there.”

Electric animals are so realistic because owning an animal has huge social capital, but it is out of reach for many. You can buy fake electric animals instead and have them serviced by a company that will be outfitted like a real vet, so your neighbours won’t know. I think the reason why John is called to pick up a real cat is that it’s so hard to tell the difference.

Why the androids are made to be so realistic is a question that the book never answers. Rosen Corporation seem to be immensely powerful; it is only mentioned that Police Departments over the world beg them to stop making androids so hard to detect, but these pleas are ignored. We know that every colonist gets their own personal android slave for free, so perhaps it is the profits in huge government contracts and that the more human-like the slave, the more colonists like them? The colony planets are basically uninhabitable, so the androids are needed to make the land workable and livable. We don’t know the truth of what life is like on the colonies, but PKD drops in this propaganda gem from an ad – chills.

The TV set shouted, “—duplicates the halcyon days of the pre-Civil War Southern states! Either as body servants or tireless field hands, the custom-tailored humanoid robot—designed specifically for YOUR UNIQUE NEEDS, FOR YOU AND YOU ALONE—given to you on your arrival absolutely free, equipped fully, as specified by you before your departure from Earth; this loyal, trouble-free companion in the greatest, boldest adventure contrived by man in modern history will provide—” It continued on and on

There is a single TV and radio show that runs 24 hours a day, which is presented by Buster Friendly (revealed to be an android). Buster runs and exposes Mercercism and reveals that it is all fake, the climb up the hill was filmed in painted sets and that Wilber Mercer was played by an alcoholic bit part actor called Al Jarry. The androids assume that this will rock the world of humans, but at least with the ones that we know in the story, it has very little effect.

Mercer smiled. “It was true. They did a good job and from their standpoint Buster Friendly’s disclosure was convincing. They will have trouble understanding why nothing has changed. Because you’re still here and I’m still here.” Mercer indicated with a sweep of his hand the barren, rising hillside, the familiar place. “I lifted you from the tomb world just now and I will continue to lift you until you lose interest and want to quit. But you will have to stop searching for me because I will never stop searching for you.”

The humans still have faith in Mercerism; in fact, it only increases after this news. Al Jarry and electric animals are tolerated despite being fake because they help humans cope with their surroundings and encourage empathy and connection. Androids are sold as companions, as well as workhorses, to colonists, but when they escape this slavery, they are hunted and destroyed. I think this is because they murder humans and commit crimes, and they do this because they have been made to be too human-like. They have Nexus-6 brains and have been modelled on humans, but they are not human – they cannot think outside themselves and understand empathy and faith. This creates a tension that is not easily resolved.

Animals

Rick’s motivation is entirely centred around collecting the bounties to afford a real animal. He has an electric sheep, but it fucking hates it and is ashamed of it, and he’s incredibly jealous of his neighbour’s horse. At the start, he almost allows himself to be bribed by the Rosen Corporation for an owl (which turns out to be electric anyway, Rosen Corp. are lying liars!). He carries around a Sidney’s Catalogue that prints the current market value for animals. I think this is analogous to car trade catalogues from the 1960s. He looks at it multiple times throughout the day.

People carry around boxes and jars in the unlikely event that they run into a living creature out in the world. This even extends to insects, like spiders. There is something a little sweet about that, but I also found it disturbing. If a creature has survived, it will be caged by a human and is not allowed to live free. Nothing in this world seems to live free. The humans on Earth are trapped by the toxic atmosphere, some never allowed to leave; the humans on the colonies are also in a barren and inhospitable land (despite the propaganda); and the androids are slaves who are hunted down and killed if they escape.

John finds a spider towards the end of the book. He is excited to bring it home, but then the androids observe that eight legs are too many, and Pris begins to cut them off until it only has four, to prove that that is enough. This is proof to John and the reader that, though they may be close to human, androids are not human, and they are given to casual and cold cruelty to other living creatures. John snatches up the spider and drowns it in the sink because it is less cruel than watching it be tortured.

At the end of the book, Rick questions whether that spider was real and reflects that it probably wasn’t. If it wasn’t, then it doesn’t seem like the androids could tell anyway.

The Mood Organ

Another element of the artificial in this world is the Penfield Mood Organ that Iran and Rick own. He starts his day by “dailling” the appropriate mood. This is supposed to help them cope with life on this desolate Earth, but it has not been helping with Iran’s depression or the conflict in their relationship. In fact, she has started programming it to give her a periodic ” a six-hour self-accusatory depression” because that feels more appropriate for the world they are living in.

I realized how unhealthy it was, sensing the absence of life, not just in this building but everywhere, and not reacting—do you see? I guess you don’t. But that used to be considered a sign of mental illness; they called it ‘absence of appropriate affect.’ So I left the TV sound off and I sat down at my mood organ and I experimented. And I finally found a setting for despair.” Her dark, pert face showed satisfaction, as if she had achieved something of worth. “So I put it on my schedule for twice a month; I think that’s a reasonable amount of time to feel hopeless about everything, about staying here on Earth after everybody who’s smart has emigrated, don’t you think?”

“Tomb world” – Entropy and destruction

Earth is irradiated following the vents of World War Terminus, and most of the population left for new colonies on Mars, leaving behind all their crap. All this old crap, and the abandoned buildings, are constantly deteriorating and breaking down, seemingly multiplying, into what is referred to as “kipple.” The humans left on Earth are being buried in the crumbling remains of rubbish the fleeing colonists left behind. There is also a toxic dust that blows about in the air (you can wear, as Rick does, an ‘Ajax model Mountibank Lead Codpiece’ to protect your loins), and some people have been affected by this physically and mentally, and they become designated as “specials.”

There is a second POV character who represents the lonely realities of life on this decaying Earth for the remaining humans. John Isidore is one of those with such a low IQ that he is legally designated as a “chickenhead”, which means he is not allowed to reproduce or leave the planet, to prevent his corrupted genes from further polluting the gene pool.

He had been a special now for over a year, and not merely in regard to the distorted genes which he carried. Worse still, he had failed to pass the minimum mental faculties test, which made him in popular parlance a chickenhead

His “chickenhead” status makes him a social outcast (though his boss and colleague are quite kind to him), and he lives alone in an abandoned apartment block in the suburbs. His sub-human status, low intelligence and stifling loneliness mean he has no problems helping the fugitive androids when they move in.

There is a duality to John and Rick. Rick’s job is to destroy androids, while John’s job is to repair electric animals. Rick lives in the city in an Apartment block with half occupancy (as high as it gets) with neighbours and is married, but he is still lonely and isn’t emotionally connecting with his wife. The book starts with the couple arguing as they wake up in the morning! John is so lonely that he’ll do anything to impress Pris when he meets her, including spending two weeks’ advanced wages on fancy fresh food, which, being an android, she doesn’t appreciate. I felt so sad for him when she didn’t appreciate the wine!

Should we have empathy for the androids?

As I’ve already said, we don’t know the truth of what life is like on the colonies. We only hear propaganda ads and from the escaped androids, neither of which can be considered to be reliable sources. Recreating ” the halcyon days of the pre-Civil War Southern states” doesn’t sound appealing to me. I wonder if the androids were programmed with much Earth history?

Do androids dream? Rick asked himself. Evidently; that’s why they occasionally kill their employers and flee here. A better life, without servitude.

We don’t get an Android point of view in the book, so like Rick, we can never know how they really think and feel and what motivates them. We can only project our human assumptions. The ones we meet are hunted fugitives fighting for their survival, and so they lie and manipulate and cannot be trusted. However, they do display some human emotional reactions and desires. Luba Luff came to Earth and became a famous Opera singer, with an interest in art – she runs into a museum before she is killed. I’d argue she is the only seemingly innocent and sympathetic android Rick encounters on this day.

Roy Baty tried to create his own equivalent to Mercerism, though whether this was from a spiritual motivation, envy over something unique humans have, or a desire to collectively organise, we can’t know.

In addition, this android stole, and experimented with, various mind-fusing drugs, claiming when caught that it hoped to promote in androids a group experience similar to that of Mercerism, which it pointed out remains unavailable to androids.

Pris claims that the hell of Earth is still better than Mars, where she had turned to drugs.

I—” She hesitated. “I got various drugs from Roy—I needed them at first because—well, anyhow, it’s an awful place. This”—she swept in the room, the apartment, in one violent gesture—“this is nothing. You think I’m suffering because I’m lonely. Hell, all Mars is lonely. Much worse than this.

We can’t know what she means by this, or if it is even true, and she’s not just trying to manipulate John. She is the same model as Rachael, although we don’t know how much personality is programmed in. Rachel Rosen ruthlessly manipulates and seduces Rick – this whole section gave me whiplash! – and when her plan to stop him from retiring the final three androids fails, she abruptly confesses to what she’s done, and then later she murders his new goat in an apparent act of revenge.

The three androids that John meets are disturbingly dismissive of him. Once they realise he is of no threat to them, they immediately switch to either completely ignoring him or effectively using him as a slave, with him being so willing to help his new friends. They have no regard for his safety or happiness. The Pris android is the same exact model as Rachael Rosen. We can observe her switch from acting as a vulnerable girl to cold and mostly ignoring him once she realises he is a chickenhead and she doesn’t need to work so hard. Arguably, this behaviour models the master-slave relationship they’d presumably escaped on Mars, and the way it is written, it does not engender sympathy for the fugitives. The androids are certainly no better than humans; they have the worst qualities without the moderating positive quality of empathy.

And remember, the humans have already destroyed their home planet with nuclear war. In creating the androids, have they engineered the final nail in their coffin? The only major limiting factor on androids currently is the 4-year life span, and it seems the Rosen Corporate might be working on that.

Given that we never get any more information than what Rick has, we do not have the wider context of the colonies or really even what the Rosen Corporate thinks it’s doing by making these. I think ultimately having empathy is a worthy human quality; it helps us relate to each other, but it is important to be cautious in situations that threaten our survival, where it could be an exploited weakness. While there is too much we do not know, the androids Rick meets are dangerous, and even more so because of the human tendency to anthropomorphise machines.

For Law of Fives, this is my first of 5 planned Philip K. Dick novels this year! I’ll also count it as a Dystopian Sci-Fi for my genre exploration square.