In Philip K. Dick's “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'' (Blade Runner), the Voigt-Kampf test serves as a crucial tool for distinguishing between humans and replicants. The test is designed to measure empathetic responses, and replicants are deemed incapable of exhibiting a normal response. This raises the question of whether the inability to show empathy is a necessary or sufficient criterion for distinguishing between replicant and human identity, and in this discussion, I argue that it is not. In the novel, Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter who “retires” or kills androids or andys who have escaped from a colony planet. Rick regards androids as “solitary predator[s]”, and as such, feels that he is not violating Mercer’s rule of life. When distinguishing humans from androids, the Voigt Kampf test, which includes a series of questions, is used to test empathy, thereby identifying it as the defining characteristic used to distinguish between humans and replicants. Empathy, as Rick wondered, must be limited to omnivores, “because, ultimately, the emphatic gift blurred the boundaries between hunter and victim” (pg 14), making it a quality unpossessed by replicants, and therefore, justified killing them.
First, I argue that empathy can not be a sufficient enough criterion, because of the fact that replicants can be programmed to simulate human-like emotional responses, and on the contrary, not all humans possess empathy. In the novel, the Voigt-Kampf Test’s validity is questioned consistently, and as police inspector Harry Bryant informs Rick, a “small class of human beings could not pass the Voigt-Kampff scale” (pg. 18). Furthermore, the concept of an empathy box in the novel also lends itself to the suggestion that androids may be able to learn empathy, and while some might argue that learned empathy may not be the same as truly feeling it, I would rebut that if technology, and in particular androids learn empathy, even if they are unable to truly feel in the same sense that humans do, their actions would correspond to the learned empathy, thereby fulfilling the same function as it does in humans. In such a case, I pose the question, would the feeling of empathy in the way humans understand it matter if the net result is the same?
Second, I argued that Frankenstein’s monster in Mary Shelley’s novel is presented as human, not only because of its ability to feel emotions – in particular, empathy, and form complex thoughts, but because of its ability to understand morality and abide by a moral system, and much like Frankenstein’s monster, the androids in Blade Runner display varying degrees of morality. For example, Rachel, as she learns that her memories are not real, grapples with the nature of her own existence and questions her sense of identity. This can be interpreted as her developing her sense of morality. As such, the replicants are capable of both good and bad actions, and their motivations and actions are shaped by a variety of factors, including their programming, their environment, and their own personal experiences and desires.