Are we all Androids?

 “Reflex circuits in the corpse made it twitch and flutter, but it had died”. 

What do you think of this quotation? 

For those of you that haven’t read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?What impression do you get of the character here? 

We previously spoke about how Film could be considered a developed Literary form of the digital age, and I want to loosely make the comparison today to a concept called posthumanism. 

Has the digital age not only changed literature, but humanity as a whole?

Philip K. Dick explores in the novel a dystopian reality in which Androids and humans have become almost indistinguishable from each other as a result of technological advancements.  So much so that Bounty Hunters are employed to “retire” the Androids so they won’t pose a danger to humanity. 

Within Literature, there’s a critical study known as posthumanism. The idea that we have already advanced past the natural human state as a result of the creations we have made to make our life easier. The simplest example is a mobile phone. They have almost become extensions of ourselves, therefore evolving us from solely organic beings. 

Though the text explores ideas of technology versus biology in a fantastical manner, are we really that far away from being Androids ourselves? The quote I gave even shows a juxtaposition and relation between organic objects “corpse” and tech “circuits”. How far is this from reality? 

I’ll leave you to ponder.