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"One can see the free software movement as a precusor for a "free hardware" or "free wetware" movement--one that will provide free libraries of designs for biological or nanotechnological products that replicators can be programmed to churn out."
- Charles Stross
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| Andy | ||
| A slang term for "android" - an artificially created humanoid being. |
The key difference between human beings and artificial human beings in Philip K. Dick's world is not intelligence - machine intelligence equal to (or surpassing) human intelligence is assumed. The most important difference is empathy, having feelings for other beings.
The most advanced androids, with the Nexus-6 brain unit, can select within a field of two trillion consitituents, or ten million separate neural pathways.
In the novel, androids are offered to people who will leave the ruined Earth to live elsewhere in the solar system. Androids are, as a rule, not allowed on Earth. In the novel, groups of androids escape their masters and go to Earth, where they try to blend in with the remaining population.
Part of bounty hunter Rick Deckard job is to test suspected escaped androids prior to "retiring" (killing) them.
| Presently he had the pencil of light trained on her right eye and the adhesive patch again in contact with her cheek... "My briefcase," Rick said as he rummaged for the Voight-Kampff forms. "Nice, isn't it... One hundred percent genuine human babyhide." He saw the two dial indicators gyrate frantically. But only after a pause. The reaction had come, but too late. |
| Technovelgy from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Doubleday in 1968 Additional resources -
|
Here's a brief quote showing how the word is used in the novel:
In this remarkable novel, your idea of what it is to be human (and your perception of other human beings) is systematically thrown off-kilter. One of the best sequences from the book, in which Rick Deckard is taken into custody and accused of being an unfeeling killer by a group of very convincing androids, is not seen in the movie.
If you are interested in this theme of being fooled by machine intelligence, you might also consider reading the chilling (really!) short story "Almost a Wife" from the collection The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury.
Also, andreide can be found in L’ève future - Villiers de l’Isle Adam - 1886 (thanks to @Pierre Metivier).
“Are you going to retire the six remaining Nexus-6 andys?”
(Comparison of Future Eves)
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Tech news articles related to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Andy-related
news articles:
- EveR2-Muse Robot's Many Faces
- Toshiba's Lifelike Communication Android
| Light Society: Simulates Earth-Scale Society With A Billion AI Agents |
| Collective Superintelligence Is At Hand! |
| AI Operates An Excavator |
| Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish |
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'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
