Empathy is the main theme of the novel and is the crux on which Dick's metaphysical reflection on the meaning of life hangs. Each character in the novel must deal with what it means to be empathetic and whether that allows someone to be valued as a living thing. Rick hates his electric sheep precisely because he believes it cannot feel any love for him, even though he cares for it. This feeling allows Rick to perform his work as a bounty hunter because he believes that androids, like his sheep, are incapable of true human emotion and therefore not worthy of life in a society in which life is the highest ideal. Rick notes early on that herbivores or omnivores are the only creatures with the empathetic impulse and that empathy is what allows humanity to survive.
Yet, Rick soon learns that androids may be capable of empathy and humans may be able to be devoid of empathy; this in turn causes a extreme shift in Rick's understanding of himself. Suddenly, Rick finds that the lines between what one can call living or what one can call not-living are blurred. Androids find their empathetic abilities with each other just as humans find the ability to be empathetic in a collective group. Humans, also, are capable of a loss of empathy. This is demonstrated through the character of Phil Resch who, Rick finds, enjoys killing simply for killing's sake.
Maybe famous more for its movie title, "Blade Runner", "Do Androids Dream of Electric Ship?" is one of the most well-known works of Philip K. Dickson. The novel takes place in the bleak landscape of San Francisco in 2021, severely damaged by a radioactive dust. Most of the Earth's residents relocate to a new colony on Mars. The dust killed many forms of living creatures, and thus life had become extremely important and valuable.
There are two kinds of life in the world of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Ship?". One is the "real" life of real humans and animals, and the other is the "fake" life of androids. Rick Deckard, the protagonist of the novel, is a bounty hunter of the San Francisco police department who "retire" androids who have escaped to earth from Mars. To distinguish the two types of life, Deckard uses a test called the Voigt-Kampff Test which assesses for empathy by asking a serious of questions that are supposed to illicit emphathetic responses. Only humans can pass this test, the developer claimed.
Throughout the story, Rick finds out that androids may be capable of empathy and humans may be devoid of empathy. Phil Resch, for example, is a "human ... who enjoys killing just for the sake of killing". Pris, Roy and Irmgaard are the representative androids who feel emotions toward each other, emphathizing their own fear of being hunted by bounty hunters, their wish to escape from their discriminatory life on Mars, etc.
Therefore, Rick finds out that the lines between the "real" life and the "fake" life are blurred. His enlightenment is represented via his treatment of toad -- when he finds out that the toad he discovered is an android, he does not disappoint, but instead, feel with his true sense of empathy that he could maybe love the toad just as if it were real.
In today's world, where computers, artificial intelligence, and robots start to take more important stance, the question of whether the "fake", human-made, artificial creatures can feel emotion continues arising. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" is one of the most prominent science-fictions that answers to this question; for sure, androids can also feel empathy, and humans can sometimes lack empathy -- the distinguishment between androids and humans just get harder and harder.
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