Does chatGPT Dream of Electric Sheep?
“Empathy, evidently, existed only within the human community, whereas intelligence to some degree could be found throughout every phylum and order"
Introduction
“Science Fiction, is an art form that paints a picture of the future.”
Anthony Merrydew
Classic Science Fiction has always enamored technologists and futurists alike. Through captive storytelling, creative world building, imaginative future technologies, and prescient writings of the future, science fiction novels have inspired us all. Certain classics have had even more impact, so accurately pinpointing the future that it would seem almost prophetic. Whether the future is just deterministic, or history always repeats itself, these authors opined on subject matters, and technologies, that we are living today.
Noah Smith recently wrote on this very subject, defending the importance, and relevance, of science fiction classics. Centering in on how these classics have inspired modern technologies, and societies, and are not just prescient warnings for future societies, but imaginative prophesies of future technologies.
One of these classics is Phillip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” which was later reimagined in film as the cult classic Blade Runner. It would be pertinent to first set the stage here by giving a brief synopsis of this masterpiece. The book takes place in 1992 after World War Terminus decimated what was then the near future Earth. A post nuclear global war has destroyed the atmosphere and environment, and leads the United Nations to encourage more mass emigrations to off-world colonies to preserve humanity's genetic integrity. In order to encourage more emigration, humans are given the incentive of free personal androids if they move to a colony. The Rosen Association manufactures these androids on a colony on Mars, but some androids rebel and escape to Earth, where they hope to remain undetected given their human like appearance. American and Soviet police departments remain vigilant, and enlist android bounty-hunting officers to hunt these Androids down. On post apocalyptic Earth, owning real animals has become a fashionable status symbol, both because mass extinctions have made authentic animals rare and because of the accompanying cultural push for greater empathy. The less fortunate, however, can only afford realistic-looking robot imitations of live animals. For example, Rick Deckard, the novel's protagonist, owns a robotic black-faced sheep. The popular trend for increased empathy coincidentally motivated a new technology-based religion called Mercerism, which uses "Empathy Boxes" to link users simultaneously to a virtual reality of collective suffering, centered on a martyr-like character, Wilbur Mercer, who eternally climbs up a hill while being hit with crashing stones. Mercerism’s ultimate goal is to make humans more “human” through building a collective conscience of empathy and compassion while doing good in the community. Acquiring high-status animal pets and linking in to empathy boxes appear to be the only two ways followers of Mercerism strive for existential fulfillment.
The parallels between dystopian San Francisco, and modern day San Francisco (as well as broader 21st century American society) are astounding. It seems society today has maybe avoided nuclear war, and we haven’t yet nailed fully functioning autonomous humanoid robots, but we have gone down two other foretold dystopian paths. We are on the path of worshipping Mercerism - while losing it altogether - as well as pursuing a false technology of Empathy Boxes - while rejecting a useful one of Androids. One worldview is guilty of driving the push down these dangerous two paths, and I argue that just as Mercerism created a dystopian future, so too will Effective Altruism, Doomerism, and Wokeism do the same. Ultimately, the choice to worship a false empathy will ultimately make AGI an Empathy Box, which will lead us down a false humanity, and toward a dystopian future.
“An android…doesn’t care what happens to another android. That’s one of the indications we look for."
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Mercy
In ways, Mercerism was a prelude to where the internet has gone today. We use social media as an Empathy Box to shame society into feeling the same guilt as not just one Wilbur Mercer, but all oppressed peoples throughout history.
In fact, Woke-ism of today is eerily similar of the Mercerism of the alternate future. At one point in the novel it is stated that someone’s “schedule for today lists a six-hour self-accusatory depression”. Implying that is is righteous to accuse not just others, but one’s own self. Mercerists even believe that “empathy…must be limited to herbivores or anyhow omnivores who could depart from a meat diet. Because, ultimately, the empathic gift blurred the boundaries between hunter and victim, between the successful and the defeated.” This reads like something I’d read on X from a Gen Z activist who has decided that being vegan is the best way to fight oppression. We need to look no further than the recent version of Google Gemini that spits out images of a black George Washington, which more so seems to be the dreams of an ultra-left former citizen of CHAZ than a hallucination of a finely tuned foundation model
With all that said, just as the humans in the novel continually pursued mercy, compassion, and empathy through technology - they continually lacked it. Our society is becoming no different. Our society is becoming a place where one is guilty and punished upon accusation. Where being human and making mistakes is not tolerable. Where a race, or an idea, is tantamount to unforgivable and original sin. Where more and more of the human experience is influenced by an authoritarian rule in both the virtual and natural realities. Where polarization has led to a loss of empathy. Where disunity is either stalling, or all out replacing unity. Ultimately, we live in a society where second chances and true mercy is seen as a form of oppression, not liberation. We must reject this notion, and not let such leanings creep into our views on technology. We must also reject this notion to not let these views creep into the very technology itself, which could be even more dangerous than where we are today.
In the grandest irony of all, the greatest benefit of an everyday, utilitarian AI will not be increased productivity or an economics of abundance or a new way of doing science—although all those will happen. The greatest benefit of the arrival of artificial intelligence is that AI’s will help define humanity. We need AI’s to tell us who we are.”
Kevin Kelly
AI: Empathy Box or Android?
No technology is being discussed more today than AGI. And it would seem the same question is being asked again. Is AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) our next Empathy Box, or is it our Android?
Within the book, we see two forms of technology, each with respective purposes. I am over generalizing here, but Androids are technology used to augment our lives as humans, and Empathy Boxes are technology used to make us find purpose in our lives as humans. There is a lesson here for us.
The Android framing is one where technology is a tool to enhance and augment human productivity and ingenuity; rapidly accelerating advancements across education, science, and more. This leads to a better society for all, continuing the arc of all technology. A more utilitarian mindset where technology, and in this case AGI, vastly augment our lives as humans. Improving humanity, not defining it. Marc Andreessen famously has his own version of Martin Luther’s 95 thesis on this very topic.
The Empathy Box framing is one where AI helps us find purpose in our lives as humans. Plugging us into a collective conscience and understanding in order to improve humanity. In the novels, the empathy boxes were simply virtual reality tech that plugged humans into a collective experience, and thus conscience. It was a technology that could be controlled and that signaled progress, that was deemed good by the masses. Androids, on the other hand, were technology that was to be feared because it could not be controlled. It was deemed bad, and hunted, not pursued. What is interesting is that for those people who view AI as the ultimate threat, they also view it as the key to finally understanding what it means to be human. A dichotomy in ways of both savior, and anti-christ. This dynamic was no more prevalent than the recent OpenAI dilemma, or the current AI Regulation Forums in DC.
“The old man said, ‘You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe.”
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Conclusion
So where does this end?
For one, we have yet to see what AI will ultimately become because inherent in all these discussions are assumptions around capabilities. Most of the debates stem from either assuming unlimited capabilities, or limited, and assuming we have a role in deciding such. Either way, I think we should never view technology as something to be feared. Like all things, however, I believe technology has trended towards bettering society. AI will be no different. But I leave the debate open as to whether it has made, or will make us, more human. This leads me to my next point.
It would also seem that in the pursuit of more humanity - empathy and mercy - we are slowly losing it.
Theologians have defined biblical mercy as "not getting what you deserve”, and Scripture speaks of how “God’s kindness leads to repentance”. Our modern day Mercerists have the right idea, but the wrong application. True human empathy, seeks justice for the oppressed, and forgiveness for the oppressor. A one sided approach leads to a new religion altogether, with no transformation of the heart, and no transformation of society.
All of us would do well to remember that the same futuristic novels that predicted many of the technologies we now live in, also predicted various downfalls of societal structures, institutions, and morality. We would do well to heed the warnings of our past, and create a brighter, not bleaker, tomorrow. Let us remember what true Mercy is to attain more humanity, and let us not rely on technology like AGI as an Empathy Box, but build technology as an Android to build a better society.
“So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
James 2:12-13
Special thanks to Trae Stephens, Everett Randle, Phil Clark, Joel Yarmon, and Alex Immerman for feedback on this post.