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So I just finished re-reading this book. I used to say that I really liked Philip K. Dick's ideas, but I didn't think he could write. I take that back - some parts of the novel are rambling, but overall I liked it and I liked the way it was written.
A bunch of it reminded me of BSG, actually. Androids are beginning to escape from their human creators, and Rick Deckard is the bounty hunter who hunts them down and "retires" them, aka murder. I found the "empathy" test used to determine whether the person was android or human fascinating, especially since today I read this story about how U.S. soldiers played golf and drank whiskey right before raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. They would have scored as androids who ought to be "retired".
I always have trouble with the androids/cyborgs/intelligent machines have feelings plotlines - I think it's a mental block for me, because I always think of machines as being programmed - someone has to put those orders in, so if they have feelings, they're not "real".
Ok, so here's my theory - I know it makes no sense - but the androids that Rick Deckard hunts down are the beginning of the Cylon rebellion against humanity. There are more Nexus-6 rebellions waiting to happen, and at first, the ones who look like machines have more power, because they're harder to kill. Eventually, though, they become subservient to the androids who look like humans, because there's an intense desire to mimic humanity, and it's the closest they'll come to being human, and also, that's why they refer to themselves as "humanity's children".
A bunch of it reminded me of BSG, actually. Androids are beginning to escape from their human creators, and Rick Deckard is the bounty hunter who hunts them down and "retires" them, aka murder. I found the "empathy" test used to determine whether the person was android or human fascinating, especially since today I read this story about how U.S. soldiers played golf and drank whiskey right before raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl. They would have scored as androids who ought to be "retired".
I always have trouble with the androids/cyborgs/intelligent machines have feelings plotlines - I think it's a mental block for me, because I always think of machines as being programmed - someone has to put those orders in, so if they have feelings, they're not "real".
Ok, so here's my theory - I know it makes no sense - but the androids that Rick Deckard hunts down are the beginning of the Cylon rebellion against humanity. There are more Nexus-6 rebellions waiting to happen, and at first, the ones who look like machines have more power, because they're harder to kill. Eventually, though, they become subservient to the androids who look like humans, because there's an intense desire to mimic humanity, and it's the closest they'll come to being human, and also, that's why they refer to themselves as "humanity's children".
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