美國作家飛利普．狄克的科幻小說作品《機器人會夢見電子羊嗎？》（於1968年出版）將其世界觀立足在人類經歷了一個受輻射塵影響而生物面臨退化滅絕、同時日常社會充斥著高科技複製物與假象的核戰後世界。從兩位主角利克．狄卡與約翰．埃西鐸如何回應這末世後的世界，狄克揭露的是物質上「偽造物」與「非偽造物」界限的破碎與混亂所造成判斷價值的不穩定性。本文的討論從受到熵力退化的自然界衝擊而促使人類更高度發展科技為起點、到發展成充斥著符號與假象的超現實社群社會。從真/假生物在物質界限的模糊、到最重要的—仿生人與人的界限捉摸不定更使形而上學之中「人」的界限更難以定義。因此，人類的同理（或譯作神入、同理心）一方面作為重新定義倫理以突破人類武斷制下僵化界限的重要元素，另一方面並成為人類尋找自我與「他者們」之間倫理關係更多可能性的關鍵。同理心原作為認識以及維繫人類倫理關係並區分自我與他者界限的重要因素。然而人對於同理的自我覺醒，不僅是人類欲打破倫理關係中與他者僵化之界限的關鍵，亦是指引人類尋回身分多樣性以及其不可避之責任的必經之路。因此，從他者(非人類生物)所引發的同理可說是倫理關係的核心，更是建立倫理的基礎，幫助人類再度發現存活意義以及作為「人」之重要價值。

Philip K. Dick’s science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) imagines a near future post-nuclear-war world where human beings suffer from the degeneration of organic living beings and are simultaneously limited by the overflow of simulacra in their daily lives. Through the response of protagonists Rick Deckard and John R. Isidore to the post-apocalyptic world, Dick lays bare the instability resulting from the confusion and the collapse of the obvious physical distinctions between fakes and genuine creatures. The entropic environment drives human beings to develop advanced technology until the hyperreal society is overwhelmed with simulacra. The blurred physical boundaries between (in)authentic animals and most importantly androids and human beings question the metaphysical boundaries of humanity. Human empathy becomes as the basis on which to redefine the rigid boundaries against artificial beings arbitrarily settled by human beings on the one hand but on the other hand, the source of possibilities for ethical relations between human beings and different kinds of “the other.” Empathy is originally the significant capability to acknowledge and to maintain the boundaries lying across the ethical relations between “I” and “Others.” Yet the self-realization of such a capability is exactly the key to humans’ desire to break through such boundaries in the ethical relation with others, and also the means to help people to figure out their own identities and inevitable responsibilities. Empathy evoked from the other (non-human creatures), therefore, serves as the core element—or to say a foundation of ethics—to help people rediscover the value of living and of humanity.

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