The Metaphysics of Blade Runner

The Metaphysics of Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)

Phillip K. Dick’s Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 1968) is a novel set in the near future. In this sci-fi novel, the dividing-line between humans and androids grows ever closer in this religious-based society. All of the relationships in Blade Runner are centered around technology. However, the most surprising is the characters’ dependence on technology for their spirituality. This reliance on technology is seated in their desire to play God, thus presenting the characters in the novel as biologically human, but who behave in inhumane ways (legislated by their own morality).

Mercerism is the name of their society-wide religion. One of the major tenants of this religion is fusion with their medium named Mercer (by means of an empathy box they hold in hand) as well as with the other humans who are in a state of fusion at precisely the same time. These individuals in fusion are changed into some sort of transcendent state of being, but at the same time experience physical pain because of this fusion (oftentimes they are bleeding after their spiritual encounter). This technological tool—the empathy box—is the most valuable things humans own: “‘But an empathy box’, he said, stammering in his excitement, ‘is the most personal possession you have! It’s an extension of your body; it’s the way you touch other humans, it’s the way you stop being alone’” (Dick 64). Clearly, they not only apply moral predicts to a technological object but make it a compulsory part of human discourse and empathy. As a result, they place technology in the metaphysical realm.

Moreover, this makes Mercerites in complete control of determining the value of a life based solely on their metaphysical experience whilst attached to their empathy boxes:
You shall kill only the killers, Mercer had told them the year empathy boxes first appeared on earth. And in Mercerism, as it evolved into a full theology, the concept of The Killers had grown insidiously . . . [I]t was never clear who or what this evil presence was. A Mercerite sensed evil without understanding it. (Dick 29) This doctrine allows the individuals of Mercerism the function of determining evil, a quality usually preserved for the godlike; they subjectively decide who or what is worthy to go on living.

In turn, this fusion with the empathy box distorts ethics in the everyday life of this society. They are biologically human, but the Mercerites’ practical workings of humanity are dubious. In reality, Mercerites value materialism above human empathy. The goal of every human in this society is to own a real animal, but they are a scarce resource, and, to compensate, a whole industry is created to manufacture technologically simulated animals. These artificial animals help the people to maintain social standing with their neighbors. The Mercerites do not have true empathy for these animals but use them as a means to prove their human superiority in empathy above other humans, the androids, and other nescient entities. This is a life of cultural relativism—morality is determined by its fusion with others using the empathy box.

It is problematic to have a morally relative society as seen in the novel Blade Runner. Moral relativism causes a distorted view of humanity. By postulating that any act is good, so long as it is directed toward a god, is a dangerous premise to live by because it removes responsibility from an individual. This ideology is troublesome as fleshed-out by Mercerism. It is always dangerous to transcend moral values.

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Dick, P. K. Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), 1968. New York: Ballantine Books, 2007.