The Study Of Human-machine Community In Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Philip K.Dick（1928-82）is one of the most important Science Fiction writers in20^th America.Dick explores human existence problems in his works,which are prospective and universal.Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?is one of Dick’s most significant novels.Do Androids?tells a story about the protagonist Rick who chases androids in one day,and has changed from a cold-blood bounty hunter to an empathizer for androids.Based on Miller and Nancy’s theory of community,this thesis explores the problems of the human-machine empathy deficits,symbiotic relationship and possibilities of harmonious human-machine community.This thesis will discuss the exclusion of androids in the novel,which is a kind of interruption to the previous organic community;under the immune mechanism of the community,the family community realizes the transient harmonious coexistence,and then explores the possibility of this new model under the immune mechanism.Facing the coming era of artificial intelligence,the fiction puts forward an idea of how human coexist with machine,which provides possible answers for building a harmonious co-existence human-machine community.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter one briefly introduces Dick and his work Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,reviews the research status of the work at home and abroad,illustrates Miller and Nancy’s theory of community,and proposes the thesis statement.The second,third and fourth chapters are the main body of this thesis.Chapter two discusses that after nuclear war,human beings strictly divide the boundary between self and other due to emotional loss,trying to expel the androids from the community;meanwhile,the androids try hard to mimic capacity of empathy which humans are proud of,but are still excluded,showing that the tendency of the organic community to integrate the alterity will eventually fail.Chapter three focuses on human-machine communities in two scopes:Mars colony and Earth human society,the latter finds a new mode of coexistence under the exclusion of auto-immunity and the acceptance of immunity.Chapter four discusses whether a robot can have its own self and personality,as well as the redemption of humanity in the era of science and technology,providing an imaginary possibility of constructing a human-machine community.Chapter five is the conclusion,indicates the practical significance of this thesis,and discusses that an era of human-machine coexistence is inevitable,whether human can be tolerant of others and seek a way of harmonious coexistence with machines.Through the in-depth study of the human-machine in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,this thesis points out that in a man-machine co-existence space,human and machine should not be a master-servant relationship;on the contrary,they are constructive alterity.Human beings should try to break through the boundaries between self and others,to envision an open and pluralistic community.