Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

What do the following movies Blade Runner, Wall.E, Bicentennial Man, A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) all have in common?

They all deal with Robots/Androids/Replicants  that have acquired to some degree or another human like characteristics.




The Wall.E trailer sums it up wonderfully

These glitches or flaws are the main topic in reality of the films.  At what point does a robot or android quit being a machine and become human?  Is it even possible?  Can a person go in the opposite direction?

Philip K Dick, the Sci-Fi writer, brings this topic up in a very complex way in his book entitled - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?




Humanity and it's true definition is the main issue in the book.  The Bounty Hunter begins to question the necessity of terminating replicants that have come to earth from Mars.  They have become so complex that a sophisticated test has to administered in person to figure out the true identify of a person.  Though a built in fail safe helps to keep the problem to a minimum- androids only last 4 years or so.  The lead replicant spends the whole movie trying to track down his maker to fix the problem.

He brings up the topic of how human can an android be?  For that matter in much of his material he bring up the point of what defines humanity.  At what point can one be called human even though they may not be totally human?

These same topics are brought up in the movie Bicentennial Man based on material by Issac Asimov

They do take the movie to a whole new level.  At the time highly unrealistic.  Today not so much though still far fetched.  Upgrades that make him more and more real and human as time goes on.  The question becomes - Is this even possible?
Can we take a machine, a mechanical device and give it a protocol or programming that can make it appear human?  To be able to copy humans, in not just words or action but, deeds as well. 
In Blade Runner the have to put a set of memories into the replicants to make them appear  or function more human.  To repress some basic issue of aggression (not totally clear on that part).  Because of these planted memories it makes it much harder to tell them apart from a real human.  They do have a few tell tale signs - lack of emotion, and difficulty caring for an animal; especially animals that need daily care and emotional feedback.

Can we ever get to the point that our voice recognition applications on our smart phones begin to act like a true human, something along the lines of our wife, brother, cousins, or close friend?  Can it acquire the level of intelligence, emotion, empathy and other human characteristics that we can't tell the difference between how it is responding to that of our Room Mate?

For that matter is it possible to replicate human emotions, memories [nostalgia], and other reactions?
Can you really recreate the feels that come from a wonderful day at Disneyland as a child say in a robot?  Can you plant the memory there and have the same effect as one that lived through the event?  In Blade Runner one replicant  almost can feel or act human with her planted memories.  Eventually things break down a bit and she starts to have her doubts.

Now we can care this over into other things and not just humans.  Is it possible to replicate say a honey bee that would function, act and produce just like the real thing?  All those against GMO may cringe more then the typical person but, we may have the need to bring a "fake" bee to a field near you soon if Colony Collapse Disorder gets any worse.

Blade Runner Trailer

A.I. (artificial Intelligence) Trailer

Do we have the ability to replicate living organisms that though robotic carry out their function just as well as the real thing?  Do we even have the right?  That I think is the scary subject SCI-FI has been bringing up for some time.  The elephant in the room no one wants to deal with!

So as you sleep tonight will your sheep be the real things or just some electric version you acquired because the real thing is way to expensive?  Or maybe you really don't need to go to sleep........


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