Books are the closest things to time machines that we have right at this moment. They allow one to look through the lens of an author of a time period and experience their thoughts and their criticisms of the environment that would eventually change and be lost. Recently, I decided to pick up a book by Phillip K. Dick called "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", which inspired the 1982 movie "Blade Runner." This book is a forgotten gem in the world of science fiction literature. Usually, big names in the genre like "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells, "Dune" by Frank Herbert, or something like "1984" by George Orwell steals the day. When I finished "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?," however, I couldn't help but just be so thrilled by the layered criticisms in this awesome little book.

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" is a book published in 1968 by Phillip K. Dick that takes place in 2021 post-apocalyptic California. The Earth is hanging on by a thread after an ominous cataclysmic nuclear war takes place, and most of the population has emigrated to Mars (considering our world today, this was pretty foreboding). The story focuses on a bounty hunter working for the local police department, whose name is Rick Deckard. His job is to hunt androids, which are organic people just like you or I with the exception of an artificial brain, who kill their owners and escape from Mars to come to Earth. The book is encompassed by Rick's long day after the department's lead bounty hunter, Dave Holden, is injured by a gaggle of escaped androids, and it falls upon Deckard to finish the job.

Phillip K. Dick does a wonderful job of narrowing into the specific theme of this book through his storytelling. He makes it clear that we as humans consider the measure of humanity to be empathy, and throughout his work, he introduces so many great devices to aid the reader in the irony of that theme. The title actually derives from one of these devices. In this book, it is considered a human responsibility to care for an animal in this post-apocalyptic world because many species aren't able to thrive on their own in the wild. The complication is that live animals are expensive, and this correlates with how large and rare the animal is as well. Because of this, some people deviously have electric animals built to look like real animals so that they won't be judged by their neighbors. Deckard is one of these people since you learn from the beginning that he owns an electric sheep. This plays out really interestingly because what is supposed to be a measure of empathy among humans have become a symbol of status instead in this weird world. It's a jarring irony that can draw a lot of parallels with society today when you consider things like philanthropy and patronage.

The biggest irony of all, however, is the treatment of androids throughout this book. Phillip K. Dick really takes his time elaborating on the interactions between Rick Deckard and the androids and people he meets. Rick tests people to see if their androids by measuring their empathetic responses to questions using a portable testing rig. He slowly finds that though these androids may not care about animals or humans, they do care about one another, which prompts a difficult question: just how should androids be treated if they fail his regulated test for humanity yet show a different form of empathy? This is a difficult question to answer. Each of these escaped androids has killed to come to Earth, yet it makes you wonder if you'd do any different if you were born a slave and dreamed of a better life, and this makes the title of the book make so much more sense.

All-in-all, it was a phenomenal book. I had never been more shook in my entire life. It was like having my world-view turned upside down with every single turn of the page because Dick does a marvelous job of lacing each of his chapters with new opportunities to make revelations about society. If you ever wanted a book that helped you peer into the nitty-gritty ironies of human nature, look no further. This 250-page book is the right place to start. Go to your library and give it a read-through. See if you arrive at the same questions and conclusions that I do, and decide for yourself whether or not androids really do dream of electric sheep.