My SF glut has sadly just come to an end, as I have finished reading Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Yes, it’s the book which Bladerunner was based on. It’s a wonderful read, simply written but full of philosophical paradoxes created by a dystopian world in which humanity has regressed and android technology has advanced to such a degree that the two overlap. Turing would have loved this book. Alan Turing gave his name to a test designed to establish when artificial intelligence and human intelligence might no longer be distinguishable. Dick takes this simple concept and builds upon it; what if some androids are so advanced in their evolution as to be indistinguishable from humans and some humans so regressed as to be mistaken for androids? And what if the human bounty hunter, out to ‘retire’ rogue androids, begins to feel empathy for his prey? Or androids to feel alien human feelings such as love? Brilliant stuff. Just brilliant.
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