
How to Build an Android
The True Story of Philip K. Dick’s Robotic Resurrection
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.97
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Bronson Pinchot
-
By:
-
David F. Dufty
About this listen
The stranger-than-fiction story of the ingenious creation and loss of an artificially intelligent android of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.
In December 2005, a young robotocist on his way to Google headquarters lost an overnight bag on a flight somewhere between Dallas and Las Vegas. In it was the fully functional head of an android replica of Philip K. Dick, cult science fiction writer and counterculture guru. It has never been recovered.
In a story that echoes some of the most paranoid fantasies of a Dick novel, listeners will get a fascinating inside look at the scientists and technology that made this amazing android possible. The author, who was a fellow researcher at the University of Memphis Institute for Intelligent Systems while the android was being built, introduces listeners to the cutting-edge technology in robotics, artificial intelligence, and sculpture that came together in this remarkable machine and captured the imagination of scientists, artists, and science fiction fans alike.
There are also great stories about Dick himself - his inspired yet deeply pessimistic worldview, his bizarre lifestyle, and his enduring creative legacy. In the tradition of popular science classics such as Packing for Mars and The Disappearing Spoon, How to Build an Android is entertaining and informative - popular science at its best.
David F. Dufty is a senior research officer at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Memphis at the time the android was being developed and worked closely with the team of scientists who created it. He completed a psychology degree with honors at the University of Newcastle and has a PhD in psychology from Macquarie University.
©2012 David F. Dufty (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Culture Code
- The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups
- By: Daniel Coyle
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world's most successful organizations - including Pixar, the San Antonio Spurs, and the US Navy's SEAL Team Six - and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind.
-
-
Anyone in a leadership position should read this
- By Kimberly on 03-04-18
By: Daniel Coyle
-
Steve Jobs
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Dylan Baker
- Length: 25 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
-
-
Good Biography, Fine narrator
- By Chris on 10-27-11
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Moonwalking with Einstein
- The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
- By: Joshua Foer
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An instant best seller that is poised to become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes". He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.
-
-
Got the Ball Rolling
- By Christopher on 03-17-11
By: Joshua Foer
-
The Innovators
- How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson’s revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail?
-
-
A History of the Ancient Geeks
- By Mark on 10-21-14
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Masters of Doom
- How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
- By: David Kushner
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce the most notoriously successful game franchises in history - Doom and Quake - until the games they made tore them apart. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry.
-
-
How it was
- By Ryan on 08-27-13
By: David Kushner
-
The Friendly Orange Glow
- The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture
- By: Brian Dear
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 21 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn't even born, a group of visionary engineers and designers - some of them only high school students - in the late 1960s and 1970s created a computer system called PLATO, which was not only years but light-years ahead in experimenting with how people would learn, engage, communicate, and play through connected computers.
-
-
Memory lane for the cyberist.
- By Robert C. Hickcox on 08-08-18
By: Brian Dear
-
The Culture Code
- The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups
- By: Daniel Coyle
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world's most successful organizations - including Pixar, the San Antonio Spurs, and the US Navy's SEAL Team Six - and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind.
-
-
Anyone in a leadership position should read this
- By Kimberly on 03-04-18
By: Daniel Coyle
-
Steve Jobs
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Dylan Baker
- Length: 25 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
-
-
Good Biography, Fine narrator
- By Chris on 10-27-11
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Moonwalking with Einstein
- The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
- By: Joshua Foer
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An instant best seller that is poised to become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes". He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.
-
-
Got the Ball Rolling
- By Christopher on 03-17-11
By: Joshua Foer
-
The Innovators
- How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson’s revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail?
-
-
A History of the Ancient Geeks
- By Mark on 10-21-14
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Masters of Doom
- How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
- By: David Kushner
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce the most notoriously successful game franchises in history - Doom and Quake - until the games they made tore them apart. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry.
-
-
How it was
- By Ryan on 08-27-13
By: David Kushner
-
The Friendly Orange Glow
- The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture
- By: Brian Dear
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 21 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn't even born, a group of visionary engineers and designers - some of them only high school students - in the late 1960s and 1970s created a computer system called PLATO, which was not only years but light-years ahead in experimenting with how people would learn, engage, communicate, and play through connected computers.
-
-
Memory lane for the cyberist.
- By Robert C. Hickcox on 08-08-18
By: Brian Dear
-
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Steven Levy
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steven Levy's classic book traces the exploits of the computer revolution's original hackers - those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early '80s who took risks, bent the rules, and pushed the world in a radical new direction. With updated material from noteworthy hackers such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Stallman, and Steve Wozniak, Hackers is a fascinating story that begins in early computer research labs and leads to the first home computers.
-
-
Remember Why You Got Into Computing
- By Dan Collins on 07-01-16
By: Steven Levy
-
The Pixar Touch
- The Making of a Company
- By: David A. Price
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pixar Touch is a lively chronicle of Pixar Animation Studios' history and evolution, and the "fraternity of geeks" who shaped it. With the help of visionary businessman Steve Jobs and animating genius John Lasseter, Pixar has become the gold standard of animated filmmaking, beginning with a short special effects shot made at Lucasfilm in 1982 all the way up through the landmark films Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and others.
-
-
If you like Disney, Pixar, or Apple...
- By Cameron on 12-16-08
By: David A. Price
-
Life in Code
- A Personal History of Technology
- By: Ellen Ullman
- Narrated by: Ellen Ullman
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The last 20 years have brought us the rise of the Internet, the development of artificial intelligence, the ubiquity of once unimaginably powerful computers, and the thorough transformation of our economy and society. Through it all, Ellen Ullman lived and worked inside that rising culture of technology, and in Life in Code she tells the continuing story of the changes it wrought with a unique, expert perspective.
-
-
Nostalgia, but no revelation
- By Edwin Slonim on 10-17-18
By: Ellen Ullman
-
The Dream Machine
- By: M. Mitchell Waldrop
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell
- Length: 27 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behind every great revolution is a vision, and behind perhaps the greatest revolution of our time, personal computing, is the vision of J.C.R. Licklider. In a simultaneously compelling personal narrative and comprehensive historical exposition, Waldrop tells the story of the man who not only instigated the work that led to the internet, but also shifted our understanding of what computers were and could be.
-
-
Biographies, not technical
- By D. Garber on 01-16-20
-
The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices
- How the Digital Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies That Will Transform Our Lives
- By: Frank Moss
- Narrated by: Bruce Turk
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you've ever read a book on an e-reader, unleashed your inner rock star playing Guitar Hero, built a robot with LEGO Mindstorms, or ridden in a vehicle with child-safe air bags, then you've experienced first hand just a few of the astounding innovations that have come out of the Media Lab over the past 25 years. But that’s old hat for today’s researchers, who are creating technologies that will have a much deeper impact on the quality of people’s lives over the next quarter century.
-
-
Like a promotional press release...
- By Michael on 10-22-11
By: Frank Moss
-
Where Wizards Stay Up Late
- The Origins of the Internet
- By: Katie Hafner, Matthew Lyon
- Narrated by: Mark Douglas Nelson
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-five years ago, it didn't exist. Today, 20 million people worldwide are surfing the Net. Where Wizards Stay Up Late is the exciting story of the pioneers responsible for creating the most talked about, most influential, and most far-reaching communications breakthrough since the invention of the telephone. In the 1960s, when computers where regarded as mere giant calculators, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT saw them as the ultimate communications devices.
-
-
Absolutely fascinating and we'll researched
- By Elsa Braun on 10-01-16
By: Katie Hafner, and others
-
Dealers of Lightning
- Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age
- By: Michael Hiltzik
- Narrated by: Forrest Sawyer
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The riveting story of the legendary Xerox PARC, a collection of eccentric young inventors brought together by Xerox Corporation at a facility in Palo Alto, California, during the mind-blowing intellectual ferment of the '70s and '80s.
-
-
Audio quality is bad, story is awe inducing
- By David Phillips on 01-14-15
By: Michael Hiltzik
-
Tales from Both Sides of the Brain
- A Life in Neuroscience
- By: Michael S. Gazzaniga
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the mid-20th century, Michael S. Gazzaniga made one of the great discoveries in the history of neuroscience: split-brain theory, the notion that the right and left hemispheres of the brain can act independently from each other and have different strengths.
-
-
The brain science was all that was interesting
- By 964a5 on 03-25-15
-
The Genome War
- How Craig Venter Tried to Capture the Code of Life and Save the World
- By: James Shreeve
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On May 10, 1998, biologist Craig Venter, director of the Institute for Genomic Research, announced that he was forming a private company that within three years would unravel the complete genetic code of human life, seven years before the projected finish of the U.S. government's Human Genome Project. Venter hoped that by decoding the genome ahead of schedule, he would speed up the pace of biomedical research and save the lives of thousands of people. He also hoped to become very famous and very rich.
-
-
DNA/Microbiology 101
- By Neil on 02-24-04
By: James Shreeve
-
Future Presence
- How Virtual Reality Is Changing Human Connection, Intimacy, and the Limits of Ordinary Life
- By: Peter Rubin
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heralded as the most significant technological innovation since the smartphone, virtual reality is poised to transform our very notions of life and humanity. Though this tech is still in its infancy, to those on the inside, it is the future. VR will change how we work, how we experience entertainment, how we feel pleasure and other emotions, how we see ourselves, and most importantly, how we relate to each other in the real world. And we will never be the same. Peter Rubin, senior culture editor for Wired and the industry's go-to authority on the subject, calls it an "intimacy engine".
-
-
Lacked Depth and Range; Some New Content
- By wbiro on 05-11-18
By: Peter Rubin
-
The Soul of a New Machine
- By: Tracy Kidder
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder memorably recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one company's efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations.
-
-
Reading this book changed my life
- By Timothy Knox on 08-12-16
By: Tracy Kidder
-
Dawn of the New Everything
- Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality
- By: Jaron Lanier
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bridging the gap between tech mania and the experience of being inside the human body, Dawn of the New Everything is a look at what it means to be human at a moment of unprecedented technological possibility. Through a fascinating look back over his life in technology, Jaron Lanier, an interdisciplinary scientist and father of the term virtual reality, exposes VR's ability to illuminate and amplify our understanding of our species and gives listeners a new perspective on how the brain and body connect to the world.
-
-
Extremely impactful, rewarding audio journey
- By Breaks on 09-17-20
By: Jaron Lanier
Critic reviews
What listeners say about How to Build an Android
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jbedrava
- 08-26-15
A very interesting tale.
Am interesting story with a great narrator. I'd like to have seen a deeper dive into the technologies employed in building the android, but it was overall a decent balance.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DCLWolf
- 07-14-14
Snappy and Engrossing
Any additional comments?
Wonderful book with a fascinating theme, bring me the head of Philip K. Dick! Yes, it is still out there, somewhere, dreaming of electric Pinchots. The star of the tale, of course, is the android, but the thought of what PKD would think of the android is just as mesmerizing a concept, and much PKD history (as well as android history) is introduced herein, as well. Dufty produced a great book that succeeds in many, many ways, telling the story of the android's creation, talented performance, and mysterious escape. But not to be neglected is the amazingly smoothed reading of Bronson Pinchot, whose wonderful inflection, musical meter, and rich tones should be the target for all android voices (and that achievement is probably more impossible than true AI itself); Pinchot is one of the best voice talents around. "How to Build an Android" is a credit-worthy Audible choice. Art et Amour Toujours
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful