This book was just incredible, and it feels like it was way ahead of its time. He had mapped out very well how he saw the effect that the introduction of advanced humanoid AI's would have on how society would operate at large.

One way he did this is that the characters and the culture of the book saw anything of organic origin as sacred. That having a false animal was embarrassing, and the highest pride someone could have was a rare live animal. I saw this as making the implication that as synthetic life forms started to take up a more prominent position in people's lives, as well as being able to self-identify, that this organic vs. non-organic outlook is how people in this society could keep the belief that androids are inherently less than human.

The argument for androids being less than human also hinged immensely on the ability to empathize (or in their case their inability). This is shown in the strongest fashion in how their whole new-wave religion (Mercerism) being wholly based on empathy, and it is that empathy which humans have and androids do not that separates the two groups. The high value of one's ability to empathize was also on display through how the tests that the bounty hunter's administered gave them pretty much complete authority to kill someone if it indicated a lack of empathy.

This posed the complicated ethical issues of self-aware artificial intelligence in the simplest most poignant way possible. It was mind bending in lots of places, especially with characters' internal struggles with being unsure on whether or not they themselves might be androids. It brings up a lot of fascinating things to think about and sets the stage for a handful of moral arguments.