Who wrote the 1968 science fiction novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'

Philip K. Dick wrote the 1968 science-fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The book is set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco after a devastating nuclear war has damaged Earth's environment and driven many animals to extinction.

Its protagonist, Rick Deckard, works as a bounty hunter who tracks escaped Nexus-6 androids. Because real animals have become rare, owning an electric replica can serve as a status symbol, creating the novel's central tension between artificial life and genuine empathy. The story repeatedly asks whether biological origin alone determines what counts as human.

The novel later became the basis for Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner, though the film changes names, events, tone, and several major ideas. Dick was also known for The Man in the High Castle, Ubik, and A Scanner Darkly. His fiction frequently examined unstable reality, identity, technology, and authoritarian power.