Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick Review

I need help with a Philosophy question. All explanations and answers will be used to help me learn.

 

Choose one of the following prompts to write on:

• In the novel, animals are so rare because most are extinct, and they are tended very carefully, but not out of compassion or love–only as status symbols prized for their ability to confer an aura of success on their owners. What does the novel have to say about Western consumerism? About Western values in general? How current are these ideas? Can you apply any theories or ideas found in any of our other texts in this class about consumerism to any of the issues that you see raised in the novel?

• One important question is “what is it to be human?” What is Dick’s answer to this question? How are androids and humans contrasted in this novel, and to what purpose? Is his view of human nature inherently negative, positive, mixed, or ambiguous? Can you apply any theories or ideas about human nature found in any of our other texts in this class to any of the issues that you see raised in the novel?

• One of the goals of the novel is to show that so long as humans are anxious about their own tools, those tools will be seen as having some innate power over mankind. In other words, regardless of technology’s fallibility, if humans regard themselves as less smart or less able than their tools, then they will be at the mercy of their tools. Technology will advance, regardless of what the majority of humanity feels about that technology. Any struggle to remain the ruler or owner of new technology will surely fail. Is this a reasonable viewpoint? What does the novel say about the relationship between humans and technology? About inevitable technological progress? Can you apply any theories or ideas about the relationship between humans and technology found in any of our other texts I this class to any of the issues that you see raised in the novel?

*Be sure to include at least three quotes total, one of which should be from a different text we’ve read apart from the novel*

For citation from the novel, use this format: (Dick, 110)

Composition, Spelling, and Grammar: Is your language clear and precise college-level writing? Are you using correct terminology? Did you proofread your essay carefully? Are the ideas in your essay logically ordered?

Mechanics: Did you draw upon ideas from at least one other author from the class? Did you use parenthetical citation and cite your sources? Did you employ at least three quotes total? Is your essay in 12 point Times New Roman Font with 1-inch margins?