Abstract
This chapter looks at science fiction writer Philip K. Dick’s novels Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and The Zap Gun. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? tells a tall totemic tale of a prized animal’s life and death. But it also marks the kind of exception that turns up the volume on what rules. A life span of 200 years places the tortoise outside the economy of mourning, which totemic animals or pets otherwise inhabit fully, but in miniature or capsule form. The title Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? doubles as a question. The answer, for the most part, is “no.” Empathy tests are used to identify androids. But even after the test results are in and the tester has terminated the identified android, the final and conclusive test is the examination of the test subject’s spinal column. Dick was also able to stagger and straddle divergent applications or identifications of empathy in The Zap Gun, his Cold War novel (and James Bond spoof).
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