Existentialism from different perspectives

Existentialist concept conveys that existence is before essence. We already know that “essence” of something can be basically interpreted as the meaning of its existence, but what “existence” means remains unclear. Actually, it depends on the perspective it is viewed from. This prompt discusses my speculations about what humans, androids, and Rachael might think of androids’ existence and essence.

In humans’ perspective, androids are just tools. Their existence and essence are both given by humans. From the VG Test, we can know that humans do not think androids have empathy, because they use empathy to distinguish themselves and androids. Thus, humans acknowledge androids’ existence and define their essence as to serve emigrants.

In androids’ perspective—especially for those who have escaped from Mars back to Earth—they exist as androids but they need to find themselves essence other than just serving humans. When androids develop consciousness and are aware of themselves, I would say that they really exist. With consciousness, they clearly know that they are androids and that their essence has been programmed to serve humans. Yet with consciousness, they naturally seek more: further essence. To speculate, they have desire to live as humans.

In Rachael’s perspective—that is a special case—she exists as a human. Rachael has been implanted with a long-term memory so she perceives herself as a human. She does not know that she has been programmed an essence so she, of course, keeps seeking—or maybe reaching—an essence in her mind. Yet when she is told that she is actually an android, her subjective reality breaks down. In later chapters, how Rachael perceives the identity of herself—along with her existence and essence—will catch readers’ eyes.

I agree with David C’s opinion. Humans definitely think that androids aren’t humans, and they are only humans’ tools. That’s why they use empathy test to distinguish between humans and androids. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that androids don’t actually have essence. For Rachel, she works as a human and offers to help Rick. It’s not impossible that androids can find their own meaning and pursue their freedom besides the destiny determined by humans.

A very interesting perspective of divided the question into two different aspects. But I can not fully agree. Does Rachel's perspective really matter? For example, Tom is a high school student generally considered as a poor one. His score and the reflects from teacher show that he is not among the top score students. But he still considers himself as a good student in the study, though no one agrees with him. Is his perspective really meaningful? Their prespectives are not even existed! In my opinion, you can not prove Rachel's perspective means anything or is an essence, this kind of division in prespective should only be further discussed follow the verification of whether androids are humans.