Philip Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

A merry little surge of electricity piped by automatic alarm from the mood organ beside his bed awakened Rick Deckard. Surprisedit always surprised him to find himself awake without prior noticehe rose from the bed, stood up in his multicolored pajamas, and stretched. Now, in her bed, his wife Iran opened her gray, unmerry eyes, blinked, then groaned and shut her eyes again.

You set your Penfield too weak, he said to her. Ill reset it and youll be awake and

Keep your hand off my settings. Her voice held bitter sharpness. I dont want to be awake.

He seated himself beside her, bent over her, and explained softly. If you set the surge up high enough, youll be glad youre awake; thats the whole point. At setting C it overcomes the threshold barring consciousness, as it does for me. Friendlily, because he felt well-disposed toward the world his setting had been at Dhe patted her bare, pale shoulder.

Get your crude cops hand away, Iran said.

Im not a cop He felt irritable, now, although he hadnt dialed for it.

Youre worse, his wife said, her eyes still shut. Youre a murderer hired by the cops.

Ive never killed a human being in my life. His irritability had risen, now; had become outright hostility.

Iran said, Just those poor andys.

I notice youve never had any hesitation as to spending the bounty money I bring home on whatever momentarily attracts your attention. He rose, strode to the console of his mood organ. Instead of saving, he said, so we could buy a real sheep, to replace that fake electric one upstairs. A mere electric animal, and me earning all that Ive worked my way up to through the years. At his console he hesitated between dialing for a thalamic suppressant (which would abolish his mood of rage) or a thalamic stimulant (which would make him irked enough to win the argument).

If you dial, Iran said, eyes open and watching, for greater venom, then Ill dial the same. Ill dial the maximum and youll see a fight that makes every argument weve had up to now seem like nothing. Dial and see; just try me. She rose swiftly, loped to the console of her own mood organ, stood glaring at him, waiting.

He sighed, defeated by her threat. Ill dial whats on my schedule for today. Examining the schedule for January 3, 1992, he saw that a businesslike professional attitude was called for. If I dial by schedule, he said warily, will you agree to also? He waited, canny enough not to commit himself until his wife had agreed to follow suit.

My schedule for today lists a six-hour self-accusatory depression, Iran said.

What? Why did you schedule that? It defeated the whole purpose of the mood organ. I didnt even know you could set it for that, he said gloomily.

I was sitting here one afternoon, Iran said, and naturally I had turned on Buster Friendly and His Friendly Friends and he was talking about a big news item hes about to break and then that awful commercial came on, the one I hate; you know, for Mountibank Lead Codpieces. And so for a minute I shut off the sound. And I heard the building, this building; I heard the She gestured.

Empty apartments, Rick said. Sometimes he heard them at night when he was supposed to be asleep. And yet, for this day and age a one-half occupied conapt building rated high in the scheme of population density; out in what had been before the war the suburbs one could find buildings entirely empty or so he had heard. He had let the information remain secondhand; like most people he did not care to experience it directly.

At that moment, Iran said, when I had the TV sound off, I was in a 382 mood; I had just dialed it. So although I heard the emptiness intellectually, I didnt feel it. My first reaction consisted of being grateful that we could afford a Penfield mood organ. But then I read how unhealthy it was, sensing the absence of life, not just in this building but everywhere, and not reactingdo you see? I guess you dont. But that used to be considered a sign of mental illness; they called it absence of appropriate affect. So I left the TV sound off and I sat down at my mood organ and I experimented. And I finally found a setting for despair. Her dark, pert face showed satisfaction, as if she had achieved something of worth. So I put it on my schedule for twice a month; I think thats a reasonable amount of time to feel hopeless about everything, about staying here on Earth after everybody whos small has emigrated, dont you think?

But a mood like that, Rick said, youre apt to stay in it, not dial your way out. Despair like that, about total reality, is self-perpetuating.

I program an automatic resetting for three hours later, his wife said sleekly. A 481. Awareness of the manifold possibilities open to me in the future; new hope that

I know 481, he interrupted. He had dialed out the combination many times; he relied on it greatly. Listen, he said, seating himself on his bed and taking hold of her hands to draw her down beside him, even with an automatic cutoff its dangerous to undergo a depression, any kind. Forget what youve scheduled and Ill forget what Ive scheduled; well dial a 104 together and both experience it, and then you stay in it while I reset mine for my usual businesslike attitude. That way Ill want to hop up to the roof and check out the sheep and then head for the office; meanwhile Ill know youre not sitting here brooding with no TV. He released her slim, long fingers, passed through the spacious apartment to the living room, which smelled faintly of last nights cigarettes. There he bent to turn on the TV.

From the bedroom Irans voice came. I cant stand TV before breakfast.

Dial 888, Rick said as the set warmed. The desire to watch TV, no matter whats on it.

I dont feel like dialing anything at all now, Iran said.

Then dial 3, he said.

I cant dial a setting that stimulates my cerebral cortex into wanting to dial! If I dont want to dial, I dont want to dial that most of all, because then I will want to dial, and wanting to dial is right now the most alien drive I can imagine; I just want to sit here on the bed and stare at the floor. Her voice had become sharp with overtones of bleakness as her soul congealed and she ceased to move, as the instinctive, omnipresent film of great weight, of an almost absolute inertia, settled over her.

He turned up the TV sound, and the voice of Buster Friendly boomed out and filled the room. ho ho, folks. Time now for a brief note on todays weather. The Mongoose satellite reports that fallout will be especially pronounced toward noon and will then taper off, so all you folks wholl be venturing out

Appearing beside him, her long nightgown trailing wispily, Iran shut off the TV set. Okay, I give up; Ill dial. Anything you want me to be; ecstatic sexual blissI feel so bad Ill even endure that. What the hell. What difference does it make?

Ill dial for both of us, Rick said, and led her back into the bedroom. There, at her console, he dialed 594: pleased acknowledgment of husbands superior wisdom in all matters. On his own console he dialed for a creative and fresh attitude toward his job, although this he hardly needed; such was his habitual, innate approach without recourse to Penfield artificial brain stimulation.