Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
I became aware of Phillip K Dick's work long before I knew enough to
associate it with him. That's probably the mark of a great artist or
influential person or something: someone whose work transcends their
person and starts influencing culture on its own merits. This is
something I see a lot in science fiction and new technology, but I'm
sure it happens in other areas of society, too. In this case, it's
easier for me to see because I came to see his influence after I'd
reached adulthood (by legal standards anyway).
Back in college, music visualizers were a big part of my life. My friends and I would often put on an album or playlist and spend minutes (or hours...) watching the abstract images that came up. At this point, these visualizers were starting to get pretty advanced. WinAmp and iTunes seemed to be in a constant race, each pulling ahead of the other with each new update. We tracked this and talked about it and it was generally a much bigger part of our lives than it probably should have been.
Then someone discovered Electric Sheep. This was a screensaver rather than a music visualizer, but there was so much variety and so many patterns that it quickly became our favorite thing to watch. The name was a reference to the title of this book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. The program ran various genetic algorithms in the background while computers slept, creating stunning "dreams". I learned enough to understand the reference, but I was mostly interested in how well these patterns tended to match whatever music was playing, simply because of the human brain's penchant for pattern matching. This fascination led me to consider getting into neuroscience after college, and it's what eventually sent me down my current career path. Though I've migrated away from questions like that in recent years.
In college, I also watched movies like A Scanner Darkly and Minority Report, though I didn't know that either was based on his work. After college I began to hear his name pop up with more frequency, partly becaue The Minority Report is as much of a cultural touchstone for some of the work I did as Ender's Game. Additionally, favorite stories of mine were said to have been written in his style. Technological advances were traced back to ideas in his books. But it still took years for any of his books to make their way onto my reading list.
I'm almost a little glad that I didn't get around to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? until now. Though that's mostly because of another technological advancement. In the book, the main bad guys are a group of androids from the Nexus-6 line. I was a little excited that the entire time I was reading this book I had a Nexus 7 in my bag. One of my favorite parts about living in today's world is the way current technology references and reflects classic science-fiction. The geeks really have inherited the earth.
The story itself was a pretty quick read, though I forced myself to slow down so I'd be able to digest some of the ideas. It deals with the blurring line between machine and man and what really constitutes life - a topic I actually took a class on back in college. As computers get more and more advanced, and especially as we build them to mimic human capabilities, the question becomes how much do they become like us? Could a robot begin to feel empathy? Could one aspire to a life beyond it's specifications? Might one ever desire to own a pet for companionship (the titular electric sheep)?
There's a lot of philosophy in here to unpack, and some pretty interesting questions about the trajectory of artificial intelligence. Although I don't think we'll necessarily find ourselves with sentient machines on our hands (The Emperor's New Mind makes a really extended argument about why such a thing would be impossible, if you're interested and have a month or two to spare), the way we interact with technology does skirt some of these issues.
Of course, the book also takes a few random detours that I couldn't quite figure. The character of John R Isidore and his relationship with dead animals was something I found particularly strange. And there were a few passages that I more or less ignored (mostly the bits about Mercerism), which probably means I missed some of the book. But even without that, it gave me plenty to mull over.
And now I need to go watch Blade Runner (which I kind of can't believe I haven't seen yet). I hear it cuts out a lot of the philosophy in favor of more action scenes. It'll be fun to compare the two and see how much of the book made it on the screen.
Back in college, music visualizers were a big part of my life. My friends and I would often put on an album or playlist and spend minutes (or hours...) watching the abstract images that came up. At this point, these visualizers were starting to get pretty advanced. WinAmp and iTunes seemed to be in a constant race, each pulling ahead of the other with each new update. We tracked this and talked about it and it was generally a much bigger part of our lives than it probably should have been.
Then someone discovered Electric Sheep. This was a screensaver rather than a music visualizer, but there was so much variety and so many patterns that it quickly became our favorite thing to watch. The name was a reference to the title of this book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. The program ran various genetic algorithms in the background while computers slept, creating stunning "dreams". I learned enough to understand the reference, but I was mostly interested in how well these patterns tended to match whatever music was playing, simply because of the human brain's penchant for pattern matching. This fascination led me to consider getting into neuroscience after college, and it's what eventually sent me down my current career path. Though I've migrated away from questions like that in recent years.
In college, I also watched movies like A Scanner Darkly and Minority Report, though I didn't know that either was based on his work. After college I began to hear his name pop up with more frequency, partly becaue The Minority Report is as much of a cultural touchstone for some of the work I did as Ender's Game. Additionally, favorite stories of mine were said to have been written in his style. Technological advances were traced back to ideas in his books. But it still took years for any of his books to make their way onto my reading list.
I'm almost a little glad that I didn't get around to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? until now. Though that's mostly because of another technological advancement. In the book, the main bad guys are a group of androids from the Nexus-6 line. I was a little excited that the entire time I was reading this book I had a Nexus 7 in my bag. One of my favorite parts about living in today's world is the way current technology references and reflects classic science-fiction. The geeks really have inherited the earth.
The story itself was a pretty quick read, though I forced myself to slow down so I'd be able to digest some of the ideas. It deals with the blurring line between machine and man and what really constitutes life - a topic I actually took a class on back in college. As computers get more and more advanced, and especially as we build them to mimic human capabilities, the question becomes how much do they become like us? Could a robot begin to feel empathy? Could one aspire to a life beyond it's specifications? Might one ever desire to own a pet for companionship (the titular electric sheep)?
There's a lot of philosophy in here to unpack, and some pretty interesting questions about the trajectory of artificial intelligence. Although I don't think we'll necessarily find ourselves with sentient machines on our hands (The Emperor's New Mind makes a really extended argument about why such a thing would be impossible, if you're interested and have a month or two to spare), the way we interact with technology does skirt some of these issues.
Of course, the book also takes a few random detours that I couldn't quite figure. The character of John R Isidore and his relationship with dead animals was something I found particularly strange. And there were a few passages that I more or less ignored (mostly the bits about Mercerism), which probably means I missed some of the book. But even without that, it gave me plenty to mull over.
And now I need to go watch Blade Runner (which I kind of can't believe I haven't seen yet). I hear it cuts out a lot of the philosophy in favor of more action scenes. It'll be fun to compare the two and see how much of the book made it on the screen.
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