Pkdandroid.org is the Official Site of the Philip K Dick Android
Additional Information
The official site of the Philip K. Dick android. The android was built as a collaborative project in 2005 between several organisations including the University of Memphis, the FedEx Institute of Technology, and Hanson Robotics. The android (or "humanoid robot") was made in the likeness of the cult scifi author Philip K Dick, who explored the question of the boundary between human and machine, and what it means to be human.
Who was Philip K Dick
Philip K Dick was a prolific science fiction writer who published from the mid-fifties through to the end of the seventies. He is perhaps best known for his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which was made into the movie Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford. In that novel - and in the subsequent film - one of the characters is an android but does not realise it as she has been programmed to believe she is a human. The novel and film are also notable for portraying androids as indistinguishable from humans. The makers of the Philip K Dick android believed that it would be a homage to this visionary writer to create a robot in his likeness. more about why Philip K Dick was chosen as the subject of the android.
Disappearance
The robot went missing in January 2006 in transit to Mountain View, California where it was scheduled to be exhibited at Google headquarters. It has never been recovered.
Contact
Level 4,
Fedex Institute of Technology,
University of Memphis,
Memphis, TN, 38152
site admin: 
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