Science Fiction Literature: Philip K. Dick, Part Two - 2002-10-10

Greetings to our esteemed listeners, especially to those of this series whose name or theme combines the two words science and imagination. If we define imagination as the free journey of the mind to worlds beyond the borders of reality and science as a dimension of reality, we arrive at a question that has been a concern of philosophers and philosophy since the beginning of history. In the postmodern world, the concept of reality or our perception of reality is one of the preoccupations of the thinking human. In the previous program, we discussed Philip Dick, the American author of science fiction novels, and noted that he addressed the issues of his time, such as the danger of nuclear war, the danger of capitalism, the danger of technology, and the danger of the media, in about 40 novels and numerous short stories. However, a broader theme that recurs in all his works is the analysis of two questions that are considered Dick's most significant contribution to science fiction literature: the analysis of reality and humanity. Dick repeatedly addresses these two fundamental issues in his stories: What is reality and what is humanity? The novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" which the film Blade Runner is based on, is, in fact, an attempt to answer these two questions, which particularly find a close relationship with each other in this novel. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" published in 1968, owes at least part of its popularity to the film based on this story, which was released in 1982, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford. In this work, as in Minority Report, which was examined last week, the future that Philip Dick depicts is not far off. The events take place in 2019, a time when millions have been killed due to a world war and biological species of all kinds have become scarce. Factories, after creating very realistic models of horses, cows, sheep, dogs, cats, and birds, also create humans. Some of these androids are so similar to real humans that distinguishing them is difficult. The androids, produced for slavery, rise against this inhumane system and become a threat to real humans. An old police officer is called to hunt the androids, and here Dick delves into the issue of humanity or what makes us human. Dick's method examines the ways in which humans, as a group or society, reinforce their realities. At the beginning of the story or film, we correctly lean towards the work of the police officer hunting androids. We think this police officer's work is legal and therefore right and ethical. However, gradually we feel that not only his work but also the society he lives in is inhumane. We gradually realize that the androids are, in fact, human, but enslaved; they are human except that they have no history and no childhood. Therefore, they may not feel emotions; perhaps like real humans, they cannot put themselves in the place of their kind and understand their feelings. And this is the answer that Dick arrives at: What makes us human is the feeling we have towards other living beings.