The Philip K. Dick Walking Tour of San Francisco

The Android's Guide to San Francisco

(Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep)

Android Hall of Justice. Mission Street. Visit one of San Francisco's most enduring curiosities: A parallel police station staffed by androids who think they're human.

Happy Dog Pet Shop. Sutter Street. Here on Animal Row, put a down payment on an ostrich or other rare animal. Interest rates as low as 6% a month. (Ostriches: $1,000/ea.)

Fisherman's Wharf. You're reading a novel written in the old days before World War Terminus. The characters are visiting Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. They become hungry and enter a seafood restaurant. One of them orders lobster, and the chef drops the lobster into the tub of boiling water while the characters watch. Express your reaction as quickly as possible.

J.R. Isidore's Conapt. Daly City. The Peninsula south of San Francisco was heavily impacted by fallout from the war, making for a renter's housing market. Synthetic animal repairman J.R. Isidore lives here.

Van Ness Pet Hospital. Van Ness Street. Electric cat broken? Get it fixed. Director of the facility: Hannibal Sloat.

Hall of Justice. Lombard Street. San Francisco's Hall of Justice changes locations every few decades. First there was the one at 750 Kearny Street...then the postmodern one on Bryant Street. Now, visitors can visit Police Inspector Harry Bryant on Lombard, where he appreciates chipper visitors who can distract him from the hard work of hunting androids resembling humans.

Bay Area Scavengers Company. Geary Street, Daly City. Lots of hovercar-flattening going on here, at a large and modern building employing Polokov, an android who thinks he is human, and who lives in the Tenderloin with a broken synth-chicken.

War Memorial Opera House. Having opened its doors in 1932, performers at this arts center -- a whale-belly of steel and stone -- have included Luba Luft and her performance of The Magic Flute.

Mt. Zion Hospital. 1600 Divisadero Street. Perfect place to convalesce after being shot while administering the Voight-Kamff test.

The St. Francis. 335 Powell Street. Built in 1904, this hotel is where Rachael, an android, is staying.

San Francisco after the U.S.A. loses World War II

(The Man in the High Castle)

American Artistic Handicrafts, Inc. Montgomery Street. Shop for really excellent pieces dating back to before the Japanese occupation of the Pacific States, at shops like American Artistic Handcrafts, Inc., where proprietor Robert Childan is always happy to find visitors the latest in Americana. Then grab a cup of coffee across the street at Starbucks.

Ray Calvin Associates. Van Ness. Site of Ray Calvin Associates, which manufactures replica 19th century weaponry.

Japanese Trade Mission to the United States. Sutter Street. Visit the Honorable Baron L.B. Kaelemakule.

Frank Frink's apartment. Hayes Street. Journeyman craftsman Frank Frank lives here.

Nippon Times building. Taylor Street. The tallest in the City, this tower overlooks the Bay. On the 20th floor, stop by the offices of Mr. Nobusuke Tagomi, trade representative from the Home Islands. Or stroll the surrounding gardens of dwarf evergreens. (Take a pedicab.)

Golden Poppy Stadium. Candlestick Point. Take in a traditional game of American baseball, or just admire the avant garde architecture of the recently built ballpark.

Portsmouth Square. This little open park on the slope above Kearny Street overlooks the police station, and is a marvelous place to catch your breath and meditate on alternate universes where the Embarcadero Freeway exists.