Empathy: Our Barrier from Savagery
A crucial element to spotting the difference between a Nexus-6 android and a human is the emotion of empathy that only humans are able to . However, what happens when you come across a human who doesn't have the ability to experience empathy for other living beings. Does that automatically make that person a being that needs to be immediately “retired” because he lacks empathy?
Phil Resch, another bounty hunter that saves Rick from Garland’s trap and assists him in apprehending and retiring Luba Luft, is a character I believe Philip K. Dick created in order to challenge the idea that empathy is an identifying factor in a human being. Although in the novel it stresses that all humans and specials should express the feeling of empathy in a similar manner, it seems as though Phil lacks this emotion. Rick picks up on Phil’s lack of empathy because he sees first hand how cold-heartedly Phil “retires” the androids without a moments hesitation and seems to not pay any notice to how human the androids are. In contrast, Rick is able to feel empathy for the struggle of the androids as he notices how they can contribute to society such as Luba’s singing.
This lack of empathy that Rick sees in Phil when he eliminates his targets makes Rick wish he turns out to be an android. However, I see more going on here than I think is evident in the novel. I don’t think it is only the fact that Rick sees the lack of empathy in Phil that he wishes for him to be an android. I believe it is the fear that if he turns out to be a human, then he will have to come to terms with the fact that humans do have the capability to lack empathy for other living beings. That we do have the power to separate ourselves from our own humanity and take away someones life without any feeling of remorse afterward.
William, I cannot empathize with this font size.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree; I believe Phil is an example used to challenge the notion that empathy defines humans. Rick's boss admits that "a small class of human beings could not pass the Voigt-Kampff scale" when discussing specials and people with mental disorders (38). Ironically, Rick concedes that his job requires a lack of empathy, yet he's disturbed by the lack of empathy Phil shows when he kills the android.
Furthermore, Rick reflects that the inability to feel "grief at [another life form's] defeat...epitomized The Killers" in Mercerism Theology (32). To him, androids "constitute a solitary predator" (31). This is yet another contradiction. Being a bounty hunter requires a lack of empathy or grief at another's death, and Rick, refusing Rachael's help, has been working alone. He is a solitary predator. Thus, Rick's job seems to match his description of "The Killers" and the androids.
Altogether, Dick distinguishes the difficult distinction between human and android. Even if a human could mercilessly execute anyone who failed the empathy test and still be classified as "human," at least in our eyes, that person would have lost a degree of their humanity.
John, I can’t help but agree with you on the point of the bounty hunters appearing to be the true killers, despite the ideology present in Mercerism. At first, it seems like all signs in the novel pointing to bounty hunters such as Deckard being the true emotionless killing machines, but the gradual transition apparent in this latest reading might indicate a drastic change soon to come.
ReplyDeleteIn order to emphasize this change, I think it’s important to note Dick’s treatment of other characters engaged in dialogue with Deckard. When Deckard discusses the matter of loving an android with Resch, the bounty hunter from Mission declares that all love, whether “toward a woman or an android imitation, it’s sex”, and solely that. Not only does Phil Resch displays an apathy, and even active disdain for androids, expressed through his enjoyment of killing them as observed by Deckard, but for his fellow humans as well. Deckard is visibly appalled by this, going so far as to think Resch’s classification as android “[wouldn’t] matter to him”. He cares less, feels less empathy, for this human, than he did for Luba Luft, for whom he felt a reluctance to see retired, being it that despite her android status she seemed good. For this apparently morally bankrupt human/potential android, he wants nothing less than the judgment he saw fit to hand Luft. Perhaps something else to consider, Resch’s concern more for his squirrel than the androids or his fellow man, a creature that couldn’t possibly convey or even simulate understandable empathy or emotion towards him.
Still contemplating the results of the test on himself, Deckard reveals to Iran, “I’ve begun to empathize with androids…you said it this morning yourself. ‘Those poor andy’s’.” While she might have seemed repulsed by her husband’s killing androids at the novel’s start, she now states “What about your job? What are the monthly payments on the goat?” in response to his desire to quit. Again, faced with the upkeep and possession of an animal, a human discards feeling for an acknowledged superior intelligence, and in this case, retracting emotions previously felt for them. It speaks clearly to the egocentricity and actual lack of empathy in the human characters of the novel, and Deckard’s reluctance to hunt down the remaining three is a sign he’s making a change, seeming less like his peers and growing in sympathy for the robotic.
John, I find it interesting that you write, "Dick distinguishes the difficult distinction between human and android. Even if a human could mercilessly execute anyone who failed the empathy test and still be classified as "human," at least in our eyes, that person would have lost a degree of their humanity." I certainly agree with the latter part of that statement. Characters like Phil Resch or Rick who can execute those who fail the test without a thought are painted in a negative light for us. Yet, at the same time, Dick portrays the androids in a very human light at times.
ReplyDeleteTake, for example, the androids who hide with Isidore. They experience real fear, fighting for their lives as they are hunted down. Rachael Rosen experiences lust for Rick Deckard. Luba Luft is appalled by some of the situations described when Rick.administers the V-K test to her, thereby displaying 'appropriate' empathy.
I would therefore suggest that just as someone humans depart from their humanity, the androids go on to co-opt it. They are integrating as some humans are separating. Ultimately, I feel that Dick suggests that the androids are, in fact, becoming more and more indistinguishable from humans.
While reading Will's post and all the above comments with regards to Rick Deckard and Phil Resch’s humanness, I thought that John Dallag’s question provoked by “Evidence” a couple weeks ago, would be worthwhile looking at in the context of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It seems that the general consensus is Deckard and Resch, by “retiring” the androids, lack empathy. If empathy alone distinguishes human from android, than how do these men, humans according to the Voigt-Kampff Test, lack it? This is one of the many problems that Dick calls our attention to. If the bounty hunters are indeed human, what is unique about us and humankind? Are there any traits which distinguish us from a robot? As time goes on and robots become eerily similar to humans in real life, this fear can be justified.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think we can take solace in our fear. We, as a society, fear a lot of things but most importantly fear losing dominance. Like animals, fear is naturally programmed in us. Nobody likes to be afraid, but we all have been scared at one point of another. A major cause for fear is failure – or in other words – imperfection. Although this element may not distinguish us from other animals, it can distinguish us from robots. Robots are programmed to be a perfect representation of us. Thus, we program them without fear. The androids in the story may work together in order to live, a survival tactic, but they do not fear human supremacy. The Batys believe that they are overall better than humans so what do they have to fear? Deckard and Resch fear a robot takeover and the end of humanity and thus prove that we can separate ourselves from our perfect representations through our imperfection.
The thing I would like ask and continue exploring myself is, “what makes us uniquely human – different from all other species, not just androids?”