Gwaltney outlines the issues of humanity, personhood, and the ideological problems technology creates in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Both the movie Blade Runner and the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are centrally concerned about the definition of humanness in the context of modern technology. The irony present in both works is that through its technology, humanity has diminished its own capacity to survive, necessitating the invention and mass production of a new life form (the android) which is capable of challenging humanity. This situation gives rise to the central dilemma of both movie and book if the creature is virtually identical in kind to the creator, should not the creature have virtually all the same rights and privileges as the creator? (The theological theme here is obvious, but I leave others to deal with it.)

Thinking about the moral status of androids gives...