A Study On The Technological Themes In Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? From Posthuman Perspective

Philip K.Dick(1928-1982)has been called the“Shakespeare of Science Fiction"and his masterpiece,Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?(hereinafter referred to as Do Androids?)was one of the first works of science fiction to be included in The Library of America.Throughout Dick’s career,questions of truth and falsity,real and fake,people and things are his emphases,meanwhile,those questions have also been at the forefront of the posthuman era brought about by technological developments.Science fiction is a fusion of science and literature,and posthuman thought is distinctly interdisciplinary,thus the technology in Do Androids?points to the humanities via a science fiction narrative.This thesis takes Do Androids?as the study subject,borrows related theories of posthuman thinkers Haraway and Hayles,the former’s cybernetic ideas are the culmination of literature and Cybernetics,and the latter’s notion of Pattern/Randomness further realizes the practice of Cybernetics and Information Theory in literature,to construct Dick’s imaginary posthuman world,explore the theme of technology in his writing,analyze the humanistic connotations of technology in science fiction,and explore the self-positioning of human beings in the posthuman era.This thesis consists of six chapters.Chapter one introduces the subject of the study,namely Dick and Do Androids?,reviews the current research status at home and abroad and clarifies the significance of the study.Chapter two explains the Cyborg Theory and the idea of Pattern/Randomness,and introduces the main research methods used in this thesis.Chapter three focuses on the technological presentation of the text in order to construct a unique posthuman landscape,which is divided into the themes of bionic technology,human-machine synthesis technology,virtual reality technology and medium technology.Chapter four draws on posthuman theory to gradually integrate science and humanity by exploring the relationship between humans and androids,humans and animals,body and mind,and reality and virtual reality.Chapter five discusses the call for a return to the goodness and humanity of technology when the posthuman predictions of science fiction become a reality,and calls for humans to find their own identity and abide by the "three laws" of technological ethics.Chapter six concludes the thesis by pointing out the inspiration of Dick’s novel for human life today.Dick places humans in a posthuman realm,explores the multiple connections between technology and people,and predicts a future world that is both real and fantastical.He gives imaginative wings to technology,urging humans to remain conscious of themselves in a science fiction narrative that soars between reality and fantasy.To a certain extent,the technological evolution in science fiction works foretells the direction of the progress of human society and civilization,promoting the further rational use of technology and the co-creation and sharing of the fruits of civilization.