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Off-world: The Blade Runner Wiki
1,262
pages
Explore
Main Page
Discuss
All Pages
Community
Interactive Maps
Recent Blog Posts
Books
Fiction
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Blade Runner: A Story of the Future
Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human
Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night
Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon
Non-fiction
Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner
The Art and Soul of Blade Runner 2049
Blade Runner 2049: Interlinked - The Art
Blade Runner 2049: The Storyboards
The Art of Blade Runner: Black Lotus
Film/TV
Blade Runner
Blade Runner 2049
Short films
2036: Nexus Dawn
2048: Nowhere To Run
Blade Runner Black Out 2022
Television
Blade Runner: Black Lotus
Blade Runner 2099
Comics
Marvel
BOOM! Studios
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dust to Dust
Titan Comics
Aahna Ashina trilogy
Blade Runner 2019
Blade Runner 2029
Blade Runner 2039
Blade Runner Origins
Blade Runner: Black Lotus
Blade Runner: Tokyo Nexus
Games
Tabletop games
Blade Runner (canceled board game)
Blade Runner 2049: Nexus Protocol
Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game
Video games
Blade Runner (1985 video game)
Blade Runner (1997 video game)
Blade Runner 2049: Memory Lab
Blade Runner: Revelations
Blade Runner: Rogue
Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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==Plot synopsis== ===Concepts and back story=== ''Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' takes place in [[1992/2021|1992]] (2021 in more recent editions of the novel), several years after the fallout resulting from [[World War Terminus]] decimated much of [[Earth]]. In the aftermath, the [[United Nations]] encourages people to [[Colonization program|emigrate from the planet]] to preserve the human race from the effects of the radioactive [[dust]]. One incentive is that each emigrating family will receive a custom-built [[android]] servant (derogatorily referred to as an "andy"). <sup>[[#Footnote|1]]</sup> The people who remain on Earth live in cluttered cities where radiation poisoning causes significant illness and gene damage. All animals are endangered. Owning and caring for an [[animal]] is considered a civic virtue and a status symbol, depending on the rarity of the species. Animals are bought and sold according to the price of the latest ''[[Sidney's Animal & Fowl Catalogue]]'', extinct animals are listed at the price of the last example sold. Some people who cannot afford an animal choose to buy an artificial, robotic animal to maintain social standing. The protagonist [[Rick Deckard/DADOES|Rick Deckard]] owned a sheep, which died of tetanus and was replaced by an electric replica to maintain the illusion of animal ownership. [[Image:Voigt-Kampff test.jpg|left|thumb|270px|The Voigt-Kampff test, as portrayed in the comic book version of the novel]] Androids are only used on the colony planet of [[Mars/DADOES|Mars]], but many escape to Earth to escape the isolation and to be free of slavery to humans. They are made entirely of organic components and are physically indistinguishable from humans. Bounty hunters, such as Deckard, track down and "[[retire]]" fugitive androids posing as humans. A bone marrow test is performed on the body of each retired android to confirm that it is not a human who has been killed. Due to differences in the [[vagus]] nerve, an android can commit suicide by holding its breath. Bounty hunters are required to apply tests such as the [[Voigt-Kampff test|Voigt-Kampff empathy test]] to differentiate humans from androids. The test measures brain activity and eye movement in response to emotional triggers, most of which involve harm to animals. Because androids are said to not feel empathy, their response is categorically different from those of human beings. The simpler [[Boneli test]] measures the speed of the reflex-arc response which takes place in the upper ganglia of the spinal column. [[Mercerism]] is a prominent religious/philosophical movement on Earth, which previously appeared in Dick's short story "[[The Little Black Box]]." The movement is based on the fable of [[Wilbur Mercer]], a man who lived before the war. Adherents of Mercerism grip the handles of an electrically powered [[empathy box]], while viewing a monitor which displays patterns that are meaningless until the handles are gripped. After a short interval the user's senses are transported to the world of Wilbur Mercer, where they inhabit his mind in an experience shared with any other people using an empathy box at that moment. Mercerism blends the concept of a life-death-rebirth deity with the values of unity and empathy. According to legend, Mercer had the power to revive dead animals, but local officials used radioactive cobalt to nullify the part of his brain where the ability originated. This forced Mercer into the "tomb world." He strives to reverse the decay of the tomb world and ascend back to Earth by climbing an enormous hill. His adversaries throw rocks at him along the way, until Mercer reaches the top, when the cycle starts again. Another device from the novel is the "[[Penfield Mood Organ]]," named for neurologist [[Wikipedia:Wilder Penfield|Wilder Penfield]], which induces emotions in its users. The user can dial a setting to obtain a mood. Examples include "awareness of the manifold possibilities of the future," "desire to watch television, no matter what's on it," "pleased acknowledgement of husband's superior wisdom in all matters," and "desire to dial." Many users have a daily schedule of moods. The most significant cultural icon on Earth is [[Buster Friendly]], a jovial talk show host whose simultaneous radio and television programs air 23 hours a day. This implies that Buster is an android. Buster is seen as competing ideologically with Mercerism, frequently attacking it in his programs. ===Storyline=== Rick Deckard, an inactive [[bounty hunter]] for the [[San Francisco Police Department]], prepares for a typical workday. He feeds his electric sheep as per usual to prevent his [[Bill Barbour|neighbour]] from suspecting its true nature. Meanwhile, his wife spends her days at home under the influence of the empathy box and mood organ. At the police station, Deckard learns that the active senior hunter [[Dave Holden]] has been incapacitated by a [[Nexus-6/DADOES|Nexus-6]], the most advanced and humanistic type of android created to date. Deckard is chosen to find the six remaining Nexus-6 models in the [[San Francisco/DADOES|San Francisco]] area. His superior asks him to travel to the [[Seattle]] of the [[Rosen Association/DADOES|Rosen Association]], the makers of the Nexus-6, to confirm that the Voigt-Kampff test will work on the new model. There he meets [[Rachael Rosen|Rachael]], a sharp-tongued, dark-haired woman who claims to be the company heiress. Rachael is selected as the first test subject, which reveals she is an android. The Rosens inform Deckard that Rachael is, in fact, a schizoid human which would invalidate the Voigt-Kampff test, requiring a new test to be developed. He administers a last question, testing Rachael's reaction to a fabric supposedly made from baby hide. Her reaction (or rather, her ''delayed'' reaction) proves conclusively that she is an android. Deckard leaves to begin his work, but his faith in the disparity between humans and androids has been thrown into doubt. After searching the apartment of the first Nexus-6 on his list, [[Max Polokov]], Rachael phones Deckard offering to help with the Nexus-6s, but he dismisses the offer. Deckard meets with W.P.O. agent [[Sandor Kadalyi]] from Russia, who turns out to be Polokov. Deckard struggles with Polokov in the cabin of his car, but manages to fire his .38 Magnum while still in its shoulder holster. He moves on to the android opera singer [[Luba Luft]]. After an attempt to administer the Voigt-Kampff test, she calls a police department, and an officer takes Deckard to a police headquarters he had never known existed. At the headquarters, Deckard is passed along to officer [[Garland]], who is discovered to be Deckard's next target. Deckard is introduced to the department's own bounty hunter, [[Phil Resch]], who, in light of Polokov's confirmation as an android, comes into conflict with Garland about administering the Boneli test to station personnel. Resch leaves the office to retrieve the testing gear, and Garland produces a laser tube, hesitating to fire until Resch re-enters. Resch shoots Garland in anticipation of his reaction and the pair escape the station to retire Luba Luft. After Luft is retired at an art gallery, Deckard administers the Voigt-Kampff to Resch, who fearfully suspects himself to be an android after unwittingly working under androids for two years. Given the apparent eagerness by which Resch retires androids, Deckard is convinced he is not a human, but to Resch's relief, he passes the test. Deckard is even more concerned with his increasing tendency to empathise with androids. Depressed, he uses his bounty money to buy a genuine goat in an attempt to reassure himself of his own morality. The final three Nexus-6 models are holed up in an abandoned suburban apartment building with [[John R. Isidore]], a "[[special|chickenhead]]" (a person whose intelligence is too far deteriorated from radiation to emigrate from Earth). Isidore is kind towards the three, although they are indifferent towards him, and exemplify androids’ lack of empathy. After discovering a live spider, they clip off its legs one by one to see how many legs it requires to move without a second thought. At his apartment, Deckard uses an empathy box; when he does, Mercer tells him that doing the wrong thing is sometimes necessary. Deckard's superior phones to insist that he retire the remaining three andys in the same day in order to catch them by surprise. Deckard decides that he will need Rachael Rosen's help and accepts her offer, arranging to meet at a San Francisco hotel room. At the hotel room they drink antique bourbon, and after going over the remaining assignments, end up having sex. Afterward, while travelling in the [[hovercar]], Rosen reveals that she had done the same with nine other bounty hunters in order to stop them from bounty hunting, and that the only one to maintain his profession after a liaison with her was Phil Resch. Deckard threatens to retire her but wavers. Rosen has scored a minor victory, but Deckard continues with the assignment. Deckard shows up at Isidore's apartment building to retire the last three androids. Mercer appears and saves him from being shot in the back by [[Pris Stratton]], an identical model to Rachael. He efficiently retires the remaining two androids. Back at the apartment, he learns that Rachael has pushed the goat off the roof of his building. Deckard heads out for one last trip, flying north in his hovercar to the Oregon desert. He walks up a hill in the manner of Mercer and is struck by a rock, whereupon he quickly returns to his car and finds a live toad (presumed extinct) buried in the sand. Back at the apartment, his wife [[Iran Deckard|Iran]] finds a control panel on the toad's underside, revealing that it is synthetic. Surprisingly, Deckard does not seem to mind. After he has gone to sleep, Iran orders a batch of synthetic flies for the synthetic toad.
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