David Huebert on living in the future described by Do Androids of Dream Electric Sheep?
David Huebert is the author of Peninsula Sinking, a collection of short stories imagining life in a time of environmental crisis. His preference for post-apocalyptic tales also inform his reading choices. The dystopic world of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? has given him much to reflect upon. The classic book famously inspired the 1982 film Blade Runner and the 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049.
A prophet
"One of the books I keep coming back to is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. It was written in 1968 and Dick was obsessed with cybernetics. He was an extreme prophet — he really predicted a lot of things that were going to happen in our world."
The face of reality
"I love the idea of what is illusory and what is real; the androids in the novel are exactly like humans, yet they are essentially different. What makes us who we are? What makes us real? What is the real? Can artificial life be created? These are all questions Dick was asking long before anyone else in an incredibly compelling story that is always worth returning to."
David Huebert's comments have been edited and condensed.