Cyberpunk, Week of Nov. 6


In Light of Blade Runner 2029, I read that movies grandfather. Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep? By Phillip K. Dick and also Ubik by Phillip K. Dick. Because I read the whole book in three days.
I really enjoyed Phillip K. Dick’s writing so much. I enjoyed his writing style as much as I enjoyed Neil Gaiman and Roald Dahl. He has a way of making his characters seem real enough. There are tropes that he leans into. The Washed Up Man lead and the Passive Leading Lady. I think it’s the way that he has his characters interact with their world.
They are worn in and tired. The way that he writes these characters does not make them seem to be humbler. They don’t think that they are more important than anyone else and they are not.
            Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep is a cyberpunk story. It’s combining the problems we have today with high tech but, not solving them. In the world of the novel, People order emotions and have electronic animals that are so realistic that in death, they even look real. The Android in the story are interesting. The companies want to make the androids more human like but, have not interest in making them citizens. The test for androids could be failed by a human and some humans are much more dangerous than any android.
            At the end of the day, does it matter that than tech is in the universe if social issues are not being addressed? Is a change in culture more important than technology? To be honest, I think so. I think that a true change in era will have to be addressing social bias. That may have not been true in the past but, time has become much different and I think Philip K. Dick knew that.

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