History Literature / DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep

** On the one hand, Creator/RogerEbert compared Deckard to [[GodwinsLaw "A Nazi measuring noses"]], and AI advocates compare the story to ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation|1915}}'' for AI: Should "friendly" AI ever come to be, the story's premise could be seen as insulting or paranoia-inducing to said synthetic beings- thus potentially triggering a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk Roko's Basilisk]] scenario.

** On the one hand, Creator/RogerEbert compared Deckard to [[GodwinsLaw "A Nazi measuring noses"]], and AI advocates compare the story to ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation|1915}}'' for AI: Should "friendly" AI ever come to be, the story's premise could be seen as insulting or paranoia-inducing to said synthetic beings- thus potentially triggering a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LessWrong#Roko.27s_basilisk Roko's Basilisk]] scenario.

* ApocalypseHow: Class 1. World War Terminus killed a huge chunk of humanity, caused a mass extinction of fauna, and ruined Earth's ecosystem.

Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter working for the San Francisco police department. He's assigned to hunt down and "retire" six Nexus-6 androids who have escaped from Mars, after the previous man on the case was left critically injured. His task is complicated when Deckard meets Rachael Rosen, a beautiful young woman associated with the leading android manufacturing company, and he begins to question the morality of his job. Deckard's life isn't going quite the way he wanted: he's stuck on earth, his wife has discarded artificial moods in favor of actual depression, and his sheep is electric.

* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Zigzagged. Lasers are the WeaponOfChoice when dealing with androids. However, when Deckard is divested of his laser tube, his backup sidearm, a good old fashioned slugthrower, is able to do the job just as effectively.

!!Provides Examples Of:
* AdaptationExpansion: From his novella, "The Little Black Box," which introduced Mercerism and empathy boxes.

* NotSoDifferent: Humanity believes androids incapable of empathy, but at the same time, Deckard himself notes that bounty hunters have to 'switch off' their empathy in order to 'retire' androids, and humanity's dehumanisation of androids demonstrates LackOfEmpathy in itself.

* TheSociopath: Humanity believes all androids to be this; it's supposedly the primary thing that separates androids from humans. As mentioned above under LackOfEmpathy, humanity's own lack of concern for androids (particularly given their deep veneration of less sentient life forms) is one of many ways that the two groups are painted as NotSoDifferent. What's more, the humans don't act so empathetic, either - Deckard despises "the chickenhead", at least until he's met John Isidore in person, and the owner of that poor cat didn't get close to it, allegedly for fear of the cat dying. Deckard and Iran trade some pretty insensitive barbs, too, and they spend very little time with the goat.

* UnreliableNarrator: Despite Deckard's lengthy ranting about androids being incapable of empathy, [[spoiler:Irmgard Baty clearly shows an emotional response to Isidore freaking out over the dead spider]]. Then again, [[spoiler: this response could be more of fear (Isidore is acting different, thus becoming unpredictable, and this is scary) than empathy. She has no idea why he's suddenly acting like this; she just wants him to stop. Because we do not see her internal monologue, her reaction can be interpreted in multiple ways, but regardless of her motives, she genuinely attempts to comfort him, thus raising the question of whether an artificial gesture of empathy from an android can be distinguished from genuine empathy and, if so, how. In any case, the human characters routinely suggest that androids "don't exactly cover for each other in times of stress", as Deckard puts it, let alone for humans; but it's clear that this is wrong, given that Rachael explicitly states that her purpose in sleeping with Deckard was to get him to retire from bounty hunting - not that she's successful in doing so - and the androids do genuinely attempt to assist one another at several points in the novel.]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: Subverted. Phil Resch almost becomes convinced he's a robot, and has to take an empathy test to find out.
** Almost, almost done with Deckard when he's captured by Garland's department.
* TwoLinesNoWaiting: The book has two protagonists -- Rick Deckard and J.R. Isidore.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The book answers -- it's Weltanschauung, the cultural framework each side exists in. Humans believe androids don't feel empathy, while androids believe empathy is the opiate of the masses. Dick stated he was inspired by reading the journals of Gestapo officers while researching ''Literature/TheManInTheHighCastle'' and couldn't believe they were human because of the dehumanizing atrocities they carried out. Many of Deckard's rants deliberately echo Nazi paranoia about the supposed Jewish-Bolshevik menace, such as their callous atheism and lack of empathy, their desire to supplant the "authentic" human, and their inability to be part of the Aryan racial soul (Mercerism). But despite that, the book itself shows he's clearly full of it, as evidenced by [[spoiler:Irmgard Baty empathizing with Isidore]] at the conclusion.

* OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap: Animals are a luxury, as many died out or became extinct due to fallout from World War Terminus. This results in owning an animal being a sign of wealth or status, which in turn means people buy fake, robotic animals to make themselves look more important. In the beginning of the book, Deckard owns an [[TitleDrop electric sheep]].