Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Empathy
What's the deal with empathy in the novel? What is meant by empathy and what is empathy’s function throughout the book? According to Dick (yeah, ha ha, now we’re over it, right?), what makes empathy unique? Consider the reason that empathy might be prized in this society and what it tells us about the society in general.
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Empathy in the novel is used for the detection of androids. Android are unable to feel emotion that humans can and will therefore hesitate or weirdly answer any questions that would normally evoke emotion. The fact the empathy is so prized in this futuristic world has to do with the lack of reality. So many electronic animals and humans have been created that empathy a human trait is coveted. In our world empathy holds the place of a dying religion in which we are constantly desensitized to violence and hardship. It simply isn't cool to care about things and because of this emo people come about. Dick is clearly making a statement about people in society becoming inhuman through numerous attempts in media to rob them of their humanity.
ReplyDeleteEmpathy is a unique trait to living things, such as humans, as my peer above me wrote. It is the ability to react and understand ones mindset and to "put yourself in someone else's shoes." In the book, everything is becoming manufactured, from people to animals to even emotions, but one thing that cannot be replicated is the ability to be empathic or even have empathy, and i believe that Dick, (hilarious name), is trying to convey the message that in order to be human, or to keep our humanity, we must still have empathy because we will be just like the androids if we did not;(yes semi colon miss =P) and it is also a problem in the book that people are losing their humanity by becoming machines themselves with dials and all that nonsense.
ReplyDeleteAlso in the movie, like Damien said, empathy is used to detect androids, and they monitor the pupil's dialation of the subject to know whether or not someone is an "andy".....a little heads up in the text to movie connection. =P
I don't think its plain irony that both Brave New World,and Dicks novel: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep use manufacturing (massive production) to symbolize the FUTURE. And, that that both authors made societies in which the characters are taught to rely on "something" to control the charcters emotions, "Soma" in Bave New World and "Dials" in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow to answer your question Ms. Goldberg empathy is like non existent in this novel, because the characters of the novel "dial" for their emotions, rather than deliberately catchn emotions/feelings. An example from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was when Ricks wife found a setting for despair. But because Rick has been accostumed to always dial for his emotions he didn't understnd why she wanted to be in despair her response was the first sign of empathy inthis novel "I think that's a reasonable amount of time to feel hopeless about everything, about staying here on earth after everybody who's smart has emigrated..." (pg6) .
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ReplyDelete*Marlina*
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous commenter’s on this subject. Empathy is the ability to identify with and understand somebody else's feelings or difficulties. Empathy is used in a way to weed out who the androids actually are. Today humans have emotions which includes an assortment of feelings and actions, unlike androids who can not produce these feelings. If placed in a predicament or situation where emotion would normally be produced by a human an android like Damien mentioned would not respond in the “normal” manner.
Empathy tells us a lot about this society and how they function.
Empathy, like everyone said, is just these andy's wanting to feel a certain way and can do that by just turning a dial. Dick most likely added this in so the androids could be somewhat human but to a greater level. Also, to be able to point out, whose human and who isn't. Everything in the society is prepared more on knowledge then emotion, which is a good and bad thing.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Wakeelur. I do not feel that in order to be human we must have empathy because most of the time people do not understand each other. So not identifying with ones emotions and situations does not make them human. I think the level of empathy that a person has makes us different. In the novel the only time that a person in the New earth has empathy for another person or robot(still confused on what they are) is when the person does not own a animal. They all understand the void that not having a animal can have on a person
ReplyDeleteEmpathy in this novel is used in identifying androids from humans. They believe that empathy is a trait that only humans have and that androids should react differently compare to humans when asked a series of questions. Empathy means to be able to feel someone else’s feelings or emotions which they believe are something androids aren’t capable of. I think the reason why empathy is so prized in their society is because of the reason why everyone takes care of an animal, it shows that there able to consider another living thing feelings and take care of it.
ReplyDeleteEmpathy is the ability to react appropriately to certain situations, that most humans have. In the novel, empathy is something only humans have and it is a way of detection like my peers had proposed above. In this society empathy is a tool used to pluck out androids that the human eye can't differentiate. Empathy is like the only things that people have left, because they are becoming more and more like androids themselves, especially using their mood organs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous writer, empathy is the only thing that can differentiate humans from andriods. The Nexus-6 makes it extremly hard for the bounty hunter to be able to identify andriods from the naked eye and their use of their mood organs is pretty efficient.
ReplyDeleteSo far, i find the novel pretty interesting. I think that the overall theme is pretty cool and i expect great things from this novel.
The deal with empathy in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is that it is a binding force that ties the citizens together. By citizens I mean organic beings, humans, of the post-nuclear war state. The humans rely largely on the use of technology beecause it is superimposed on their culture. The only difference between humans and humanoid robots-androids, is that what the humans feel are real. Sure, they can make all the advancements in human behavoir replication for androids but algorithims only go so far.
ReplyDeleteTheir is also a very important role that the animals play in the novel as well. Dick makes a clear juxtaposition of organic animals to electric animals and humans to humanoinds.
There are very little animals left in the world. Most are extinct and those that are left are a dwindiling species. The same goes for humans. Many have died from the war and are still dying off due to the dust of a nuclear war.
The difference between the animals is whether they are organic. The difference between humans and their ersatz counterpart is the ability to actually FEEL.
As humans die, so does empathy.
That was me, Chad.
ReplyDeleteempathy is unique is this society because the humans are dying off on the planet earth. soon earth would be filled with andriods that don't care and if they don't care they would destroy the earth.
ReplyDeletenice use of "ersatz," Chad. I also like the notion that technology is "superimposed" on their culture. This suggests that it is not organically there, not something that has grown with the society itself (as one might argue technology has in our own society), but rather something foisted upon the citizens of this post-apocalyptic Earth against their will. Maybe this ties in with the role of Buster Friendly, since as a prominent TV persona in the New World he represents technology?
ReplyDelete