Nix the Nexus-6 and Panpsychism
Owls are extinct in the post-apocalyptic world of Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?
You guys. 🙌 I feel like I hit the nail on the head with my thesis, “Nix the Nexus-6, Killer Androids on the Loose”. In my Religious Studies class, Bioethics, Medicine & Culture, we were assigned to respond to Philip K Dick’s sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and defend whether or not the protagonist bounty hunter was justified in killing androids. I was not familiar with Dick’s work prior to this assignment.
My professor was pleased with my paper, I made a 100 😁! However, he said he couldn’t agree with the idea of natural law as self. Initially, I felt somewhat rejected. I felt perhaps I had not conveyed my understanding of Dick’s intent, but after reading Frank Bertrand’s interview from 1980 (Dick died in 1982 at the age of 53), I feel as if Dick and I were on the same wavelength.
“Like the early Greeks I am a believer in panpsychism. Of all the metaphysical systems in philosophy I feel the greatest affinity for that of Spinoza, with his dictum, "Deus sive substantia sive natura;" to me this sums up everything (Viz: "God i.e. reality i.e. nature.")”
Philip K. Dick
I’m excited to share my thesis with you here. If you are at all interested in the concepts of morality, ethics, and religion, then I believe you will enjoy it. But, be warned!! I give away the plot entirely. If you’re into sci-fi, it’s a definite must read! I sent my dad my thesis, and he thinks that I write “pretty well” so that must say something 🤣. (That’s me laughing [and crying😭] at any hint of need for approval from my father, oy vey!). Now on to the next philosophical venture, Chance & Necessity by Jacques Monad, recommended to me by my dad. Let’s see what mind-blowing concepts I encounter!