> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://theparnassian.com/en/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Philip K. Dick's novel about androids, a mood modulator and an empathy test
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/esli-kto-pomnit-odin-iz-samykh-populiarnykh-romanov-filipa-dika-po-kotoromu-sniat-begushchii-po-lezviiu/
- Published: 2022-03-23T08:22:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:05:17.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Cinema, Books, Observations

If anyone remembers one of Philip K. Dick's most popular novels, the one on which "Blade Runner" is based. The action is set in 2021, after a world war that has wrecked the whole earth; part of humanity has emigrated into space, while the rest have stayed behind to suffer the consequences of radiation. Here a device has been invented that lets one choose any mood one likes, the Penfield mood organ, into which one enters a code denoting the owner's disposition for the day: businesslike, or suited to watching television, professional or a sense of superiority. As helpers, a species of android has been created, almost indistinguishable from living people, save for the ability of cells to divide. When the androids begin to flee the off-world colonies in order to win rights on earth, they are tracked down and killed. But how is one to tell an android from a human being? In the USSR a test for empathy is being developed, based on a feeling that is beyond the reach of artificially bred people. A good book. True to life