#20 "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

How many people remember watching "Back to the Future Part 2"? Marty McFly travels to the future of 2015 with his friend Doc Brown. While there he is served a Pepsi by a computerized Michael Jackson resembling Max Headroom-like qualities (cheap labor), rode a hover board and flew in car. Maybe "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" or "to boldly go where no man has gone before" is more your style. Both movies show a future of intergalactic space travel, other planets with an assortment of extraterrestrial life mingling together, and of course flying space ships that have their fair share of dog fights.

Mo Technological Advancements, Mo Problems! I want to own an Ewok. Maybe I will just dress Layla up in a Ewok costume and give her big hugs. She has been working on that battle cry.

The movie that was inspired by "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", "Blade Runner", takes place in the distant future of the 1990s. Earth is slowly being taken over by a toxic dust which came about during the last war, many animals have become extinct, androids (humanoid robots) are working on Mars, and flying around in hover cars. Too bad they didn't spend all their time making gas masks. We were obsessed with the flying vehicles dominating our future, weren't we? I would prefer to see the invention of teleportation. We could work in Tokyo and live in Wyoming. Talk about global economy. To see our families all we would have to do is step in a booth and Presto! at their front door. No screaming kids in a car, plane, train, taxi, or bus. I would probably be out of a job. Oh well. I would just get a job making booths to travel in. You want Italian for dinner. No more settling for Fazoli's. You get the idea.

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" is another quick, a lot easier to understand, science fiction novel. Rick Deckard (70s Harrison Ford), a bounty hunter, is hired to kill retire androids who break the law by escaping to Earth. These androids resemble humans in almost every way besides their inability to feel empathy which supposedly makes them a danger to humans. The book never specifies why they are not allowed on Earth but I am guessing it has something to do with that. To differentiate one from the other Deckard subjects them to an empathy test. Since our planet is going to be uninhabitable eventually, androids work on the planet Mars(New America) to make it more habitable for the uninfected, superior minded humans who've escaped the fate of those living on Earth.

An important aspect of life on Earth is the desire to own a living animal so much so that people who can't afford the real deal purchase the electric counterpart. Deckard, wait for it, owns an electric sheep. Poor guy. Neighbor over there with his real animal and I'm over here fake feeding a programmed sheep that responds to the appearance of oats. As he continues to retire more escaped androids he accidently encounters another bounty hunter who changed his life. Watching this other man's hostility towards the androids especially this particular female opera singer, Deckard started to feel empathy for them. Unfortunate since his job is to retire them.

Again not going to tell you the whole story. Next, to read is "Watchmen", the only graphic novel on "The List" and "Choke" by Chuck Palanuik which is graphic in another way. Yikes!!

BTW. Government, if you're reading this: Teleportation. The next wave of the future. Matt, you're smart, make this happen. I will give a few thousand for the cause. Ha!