ABSTRACT
The theosophical and scientifi c concepts in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) converge, on one hand, on the ancient Greek and Christian understanding of life as existence controlled and determined by forces larger than the individual, understood as destiny, or the power of god. On the other hand, the novel incorporates a modern scientifi c view, particularly cybernetics, which does not privilege one kind of being, but suggests the parallels between humans and machines, especially human and artifi cial intelligence, a notion central in the work of mathematician and philosopher Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) whose ideas about cybernetics notably infl uenced Dick. The characters of Do Androids hover on the borderlines that distinguish “the machine”—or, in Dick’s case, “android”—and “ the human,” struggling to make sense of the existence of artifi cial life in a world plagued by death and entropy.
