The Testing of Racheal in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"

 

To me, there is one reason why the Viogt-Kampff test that was administered to Rachael in chapter five is particularly interesting.

What makes it It is that many contemporary readers would likely fail it. The reason I say this is because most of the scenarios that are presented to us are, in one way or another, practices of animal cruelty that are commonplace in today’s world. Because these acts of cruelty are so commonplace we are not likely to feel epithetic when represented with them. The Viogt-Kampff test is a test that was designed to detect androids. It does so by looking for the one thing that androids supposedly do not have: empathy. If one fails to respond empathetically to the scenarios in this test one is declared an android. Because of lack of empathy for animals, we would then be classified as androids. Because of this, this book makes particularly interesting statements about the human perception of animals. In this essay, I will particularly look at how Philip K. Dick portrays the relationship between humans and animals and how this relates to the android and the lack of empathy towards animals.

                                                                                                                                                                                                  

One Viogt-Kampff scenarios that is particularly interesting, is the scenario with the girl and the bearskin rug:

    “In a magazine you come across a full-page color picture of a nude girl.” He paused.

    “Is this testing whether I’m an android,” Rachael asked tartly, “or whether I’m a homosexual?” the     gauges did not register.

    He continued, “Your Husband likes the picture.” Still the gauge failed to indicate a reaction. “The        girl is. “The girl,” he added, “is lying face down on a large and beautiful bearskin rug.” The                gauges remained inert, and he said to himself, An android response. Failing to detect the major            element, the dead animal pelt. Her-its-mind is concentrating on other factors. “Your husband hangs     the picture up the wall of his study,” he finished and this time the needles moved.

    “I certainly wouldn’t let him,” Racheal said. (Philip K. Dick, 1999)

This scenario also is particularly interesting seeing as here we see an android respond to the question in a way that would not only be preserved as normal but also would be expected. We would expect that a wife would not like it if their husband took an interest in other women. We would therefore expect her first response to be that she would not allow it. Although in the context of the book, this is utterly ghastly. Most humans would have responded exactly like Racheal in this particular situation. We see Deckard thinking that Rachael has failed to detect the major element. Although for most people the naked girl would be the major element and not the bear skin rug. Because we failed to detect this major element we too are lacking in empathy. This scenario shows us how human-centered, we humans are. We are more worried about our own problems than the lives of animals. In this scenario, Rachael is diagnosed as an android she is focusing on “other factors” than what is socially expected of her. This is the trend that all the scenarios in this test follow. Racheal fails to understand the ethical code of society and thus she is branded as having a lack of empathy. It is because of this otherness that she is diagnosed as something inferior and thus is not fit to be part of society.

                                                                                                                                                                                   

The first scenario that is presented to us is related to bugs. In the first scenario, we see an example of a boy killing and collecting butterflies. The first scenario is:

    “You have a little boy and he shows you his butterfly collection, including his killing jar.” (Philip K.        Dick, 1999)

In our world, this is perfectly acceptable behavior. Many people collect butterflies. Killing butterflies would thus not necessarily be something that would cause people to feel empathetic. The killing of bugs is extremely common in today’s world. We even have products (such as poisons) that are manufactured for the specific purpose of killing bugs. How then can we then be expected to pass an empathy test for a question like this?

                                                                                                                                                                                   

But what, then, is this scenario doing in this test? Why are the people of Philip K. Dick’s world expected to feel empathetic towards bugs? The clue lies in Racheal’s response to this question:

    “I’d take him to the doctor.” (Philip K. Dick, 1999)

In this world, butterflies are so rare and valuable that it is utterly socially unacceptable for someone to kill them. It would be thought that only someone who is mentally ill would kill them. It therefore would be expected that Rachael would take someone who would do such a thing to the doctor. In our world bugs are extremely plentiful, we therefore cannot see any harm in killing them, but the same cannot be said for the world that Phillip K. Dick describes. Nearly all the animals are extinct, even small things like bugs. A perfect example of what animals (even insects that are thought of as disgusting and beneath our contempt) mean to the people of Philip K. Dicks world can be found in chapter eight: the example is of Isidore’s discovery of the spider. The spider is significant because of its rarity:

    The spider he thought. Maybe it had been the last spider on Earth. (Philip K. Dick, 1999)

One can hardly imagine that something as common as a spider would go extinct. When one thinks of animals going extinct, one normally does not think about small things such as bugs. Because they are so numerous. But in Philip K. Dick’ presents us with a world where man has even caused spiders to go extinct. On the step ahead of him something small moved in the dust. Instantly he dropped the suitcase; he whipped out a plastic medicine bottle, which, like everyone else, he carried just for just this. A spider, undistinguished but alive. (Philip K. Dick, 1999) Everyone in this world carries a bottle with them for the purpose of catching and conserving any animal they might find. In our world, we have exactly the opposite. Nearly everyone has one or another form of poison in their home for the purpose of killing. There is an antithesis in the attitude towards animals in our world and the one created by Philip K. Dick the reader. Because of this, the reader might start to question his own attitude towards animals. Both the rarity and the way people treasure them in ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’ makes one realize just how fragile earth ecology is and it conveys a message that if we are not careful, we too one day might live in a world where nearly all animals have gone extinct.

                                                                                                                                                                                   

But Racheal’s response to the scenario with the wasp contrasts completely with that of the next scenario.

“You’re sitting watching TV,” he continued, “and suddenly you discover a wasp crawling on your wrist.” Rachael said, “I’d kill it.” (Philip K. Dick, 1999)

Here Racheal says that she would do exactly what she would have taken the boy to the doctor for in the previous question. In our world, this would have been a perfectly acceptable as well as the expected response, but in the context of the book, this would have been absolutely deplorable. Because Racheal responds correctly to one question, but incorrectly to another we can see that she is beginning to understand the social norms of her world, but that she does not yet fully understand them. We can see something similar occurring with Pris and the spider. She cuts four of the spider’s legs off to see if it could function with only four. When Isidore pleads that she should not mutilate it she responds with: “Is it worth something.” (Philip K. Dick, 1999)

Pris does not understand that the spider is worth something because of its rarity. All she is concerned about is the amount of money that it’s worth. This means that what makes androids stand out is not necessarily their lack of empathy, but their lack of cultural understanding. In our world spiders and wasps (and most other bugs) are viewed as disgusting and beneath our contempt and it is considered a normal human response to kill them even without a particularly good reason. Androids have a similar view towards bugs than we do.

                                                                                                                                                                                   

This cutting of the spider’s legs to see if it could still function without four legs is something one would expect a child to do. Androids are children in a certain sense: they do not understand the social norms of their world because they have never been thought to feel empathy. The fact of the matter is that children can sometimes be quite selfish and even sadistic and destructive at times before they are told to feel empathy for others. We can see Pris’s childlike joy when she discovers the spider:

    “Let’s see it… I’ve never seen a spider… All those legs. Why’s it need so many legs J.R.?” (Philip K.     Dick, 1999)

It is clear that she is quite interested in the spider. We can see this in the way that she immediately diverts her attention to the spider. She even neglects to watch The Buster Friendly Show when he makes his big announcement about Mercerism, in which it is declared that Mercer is a fraud. This announcement is very important to the androids, but she is so infatuated with the spider that she neglects to watch it. This quote shows us the childlike joy she finds in the spider. We would not expect an adult to act in this way and we can also see that Pris clearly does not understand that she has done something wrong. When Isidore drowns the spider, she understands that he is upset, but she cannot understand why. She thinks that Isidore’s reaction is not evidence of a serious problem. She says: He’ll get over it.” Indicating that she considers this whole affair to be a somewhat trivial matter. While in reality Isidore’s whole world has been shattered. She does not understand complex human emotions. This is similar to a child struggling to understand the pain of others. Simply because children like Androids do not have much experience with these emotions seeing as both have only been alive for a comparatively short amount of time. Seeing as androids were made as adults, they never had undergone the normal education a child receives, and they therefore never learned the social and cultural norms other people have and therefore they behave like children. This may also be related to their lack of empathy: they may not be able to empathize with others because they were never taught to do so and because they die so young, they do not have sufficient time in which to learn the cultural norms as well as empathy. According to Racheal androids have a lifespan of only four years.

                                                                                                                                                                                   

In some ways, androids therefore are us the readers: like androids, we do not understand the dynamics with which this world operates. Like androids, we are thrust into the world of Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep without being born into it. We are mere visitors and we never fully understand the culture with which the world operates. We therefore find this obsession completely alien and strange and possibly even comprehensible, just like Racheal. Before we read the book we are in exactly the same position as the androids: we are not necessarily aware of just how fragile the earth’s ecology is. We can hardly imagine a world wherein there are no animals and yet we have a lack of empathy towards them.

                                                                                                                                                                                   

In the testing of Racheal, we learn that people who kill animals are viewed as being mentally ill in this world. But if the readers are like androids because they would likely fail the test does this make them mentally ill as well? Because this book links the reader with androids (beings that are incapable of empathy and there), the reader must feel that there is something wrong with him: his lack of empathy towards animals. Because of this, the reader is encouraged to rethink his own perception of animals and consider. The reader is encouraged to think that animals are in fact deserving of our empathy.

 

Bibliography

Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Great Briton,1999)

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