Chapter 5

I thought that chapter 4 was really boring, but this one, although had pretty much no action, was very interesting.

The chapter starts with rick giving Rachel the empathy test. i predicted pretty early on that she was an android. her responses seemed more like she was told to say these things than truly believing them herself. she takes the test, and rick determines, after almost being proven wrong, that she is in fact android. he learns how the Nexus-6 androids work, and they must have been programmed with some sort of artificial empathy of some sort. this worries me, because once man somehow magically finds a way to program empathy, robots will truly be human.

soon, in the setting of the novel, the only thing that will differentiate a human from an android is a bone marrow test. if robots have empathy, there will be absolutely nothing separating them from humans. humans simulate responses just as androids do. for instance, if someone has an opinion that conflicts with the general consensus of the population, and do not want to be looked down upon by the rest of society, this person will often lie about how they feel to fit in. or, if someone has done something wrong, they will simulate a response to keep themselves out of trouble, just as rachel did.

having several vegetarian and vegan family members, i am well educated on the beliefs of PETA. in my opinion, PETA, like all political groups, lies to the public to a certain degree to get followers. although i do not agree with the views of vegetarians, i respect them. i do not respect how PETA does their work. they conduct the promotion of non-cruelty to animals by acting cruel to humans. they take it too far, i think.