what is mercer in do androids dream of electric sheep
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? In post-apocalyptic 1992 (2021 in later editions),[2] after "World War Terminus", the Earth's dirty atmosphere leads the United Nations to encourage mass emigrations to off-world colonies to preserve humanity's genetic integrity, with the incentive of free personal androids: robot servants identical to humans. On Earth, owning real live animals is a status symbol, because of mass extinctions and the cultural push for greater empathy that has motivated a technology-based religion called Mercerism. Poor people can only afford realistic-looking electric animals. Deckard, for example, owns a robotic black-faced sheep. Mercerism uses "empathy boxes" to link users simultaneously to a collective virtual reality of communal suffering, centered on a martyr-like character, Wilbur Mercer, who eternally climbs up a hill while being hit with crashing stones.