Kipple drives out nonkipple

Kipple drives out nonkipple is the First Law of Kipple, a universal principle articulated by John Isidore in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It describes the tendency of useless objects to proliferate and displace functional ones, mirroring the entropic decay of Earth after World War Terminus.

Definition and Origin

John Isidore, a "chickenhead" living alone in a decaying apartment building, explains the concept to his new neighbor, Pris Stratton. He defines kipple as "useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday's homeopape." The First Law states that "kipple drives out nonkipple," a process Isidore compares to Gresham's law about bad money driving out good. He claims that when nobody is around, kipple reproduces itself: "if you go to bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up the next morning there's twice as much of it." This law is presented as an inescapable force of nature, not merely a domestic nuisance.

The Kipple-ized World

Isidore's building, a thousand-unit structure in the virtually abandoned suburbs of San Francisco, is described as "completely kipple-ized." The apartments are full of possessions left behind by those who died or emigrated, and the kipple has taken over. Isidore has managed to create a temporary "stasis between the pressure of kipple and nonkipple" in his own apartment, but he knows it is a losing battle. He tells Pris that "no one can win against kipple, except temporarily and maybe in one spot." The building itself is settling into shapelessness, "buried under the ubiquity of the dust." The kipple is not just clutter; it is the physical manifestation of the world's decay, a process accelerated by the radioactive fallout of World War Terminus.

Connection to Entropy and the Tomb World

Isidore explicitly links kipple to a cosmic principle: "It's a universal principle operating throughout the universe; the entire universe is moving toward a final state of total, absolute kippleization." This mirrors the entropic decay of Earth itself, where the dust has contaminated the planet and driven most species to extinction. The only exception Isidore can think of is "the upward climb of Wilbur Mercer," the central figure of Mercerism, who ascends a barren hill and is struck by rocks. The kipple principle thus stands in opposition to the hopeful, if painful, fusion of Mercerism. When Pris and the other androids mutilate a spider Isidore finds, he experiences a vision of the tomb world, a realm of bones and decay where "the corpse of the spider has taken over." This is the ultimate kipple-ization, the point where even decay ceases and time itself seems to stop.

Significance

The First Law of Kipple is a key thematic expression of the novel's concern with entropy, decay, and the loss of life and meaning. It provides a concrete, everyday metaphor for the larger forces of destruction that have shaped the world of the novel. The kipple is the physical residue of a dying planet, and the inability to fight it reflects the characters' broader helplessness against the radioactive dust, the extinction of animals, and the moral compromises of bounty hunting. Isidore's understanding of kipple, despite his diminished mental faculties, shows a kind of wisdom about the nature of his world that more "regular" humans often lack.