Many of Philip K. Dick's works have been adapted for film and television with varying degrees of popularity, but the one that receives the most acclaim is Blade Runner (1982), based on his Nebula Award-nominated novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" The film did not receive immediate critical or financial success, but thanks to the power of the emerging VHS market it found a cult following. Both the novel and its film adaptation would influence many other science fiction films, including the 2017 sequel film Blade Runner 2049 directed by Denis Villeneuve. This article will examine what the narrative of the Blade Runner saga tells us about humanity's potential challenges in our relationship with technology. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Although only mentioned in “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” Blade Runner opens as the Earth suffers the consequences of the end of the World War. It is a war so catastrophic that the planet will never recover. The details hardly matter compared to its consequences. Philip K. Dick writes that “no one today remembered why the war had started or who, if anyone, had won. The dust that had contaminated much of the planet's surface had not originated in any country and no one, not even the wartime enemy, had planned it." Instead, the war devastated plant and animal life, accelerating the colonization of space by people who wanted and could afford to leave the wounded Earth. Indeed, plants and animals have become something that is only conserved by the ultra-rich. Blade Runner is set in 2019, and although that year has passed since the film was made in 1982, most of the technology in Blade Runner is vastly beyond technological achievements achieved today such as flying cars and space colonization . The most important of these futuristic technologies and the centerpiece of Blade Runner's message about class, racism, slavery, and our relationship with technology are Replicants. Replicants are genetically engineered synthetic beings with implanted memories created by Eldon Tyrell, played by Joe Turkel, and the Tyrell Corporation to provide cheap, expendable labor for jobs including menial labor on protein farms, the dangerous work of preparing planets for colonization and sex work distributed by “pleasure models”. Tyrell's self-described greatest creation is the Replicant Nexus-6 model. They are almost indistinguishable from a human, plus they can have enhanced strength, speed, stamina, and intelligence. The problem is that they are scheduled to last only four years. To make them appear and behave more human-like, they are programmed with memories of their non-existent childhoods, and, in fact, some Replicants do not know they are Replicants. These Replicants and their role in society draw an obvious parallel to slavery in America. until 1863. Indeed, technology exists to make life easier, but it raises the question of where that line should be drawn since Blade Runner “shows us the future of humanity in which, paradoxically, technological advances lead to of the past." The justification for using Replicants as a slave workforce is eerily familiar: they are not human. In the bigger picture, this is a minor difference between the African slaves who were brought here with the justification that they were subhuman. Whether they are subhuman in America's past or nonhuman in the world of Blade Runner, the law fails to provide them with rights or protection, andboth are considered property. The obvious similarities between replicants and African slaves are so direct that replicants are called the pejorative "skinjob" just as blacks were and are sometimes still called the n-word. As Blade Runner opens, a group of four Nexus-6 Replicants led by Roy Batty, played by RutgerHauer, rebel against their masters, kill 23 people, and return to Earth in search of Eldon Tyrell in hopes of forcing him to give them the The only thing they want more, an extended lifespan. The viewer might infer that this part of the narrative is inspired by the newspaper headlines of 1831, when Nat Turner led a group of up to 70 slaves at any given time on a bloody rampage through Virginia demanding their freedom in what it would become known as Nat Turner's Rebellion. The slaves wanted freedom, the Replicants want the freedom to live. The audience is introduced to the protagonist Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford. Deckard is a Blade Runner, a law enforcement officer whose sole job is to hunt down and "retire" replicants. It is important to note that this future society does not say that they kill the replicants, but instead simply "retire" them. In the American past it was not considered murder if property was involved, in fact Adalberto Aguirre estimates that 1,161 slaves were executed between 1790 and 1850 despite civil codes being in place to protect them. The codes were there, but people simply didn't bother to enforce them. In Blade Runner, the same rules seem to apply when the Blade Runners nonchalantly execute the Replicants as soon as it is established that they are not human. What distinguishes a real human being from something that merely seems human? In the world of Blade Runner the answer is one: human beings feel more empathy. Deckard uses a Voight-Kampff test to distinguish between humans and replicants. By monitoring bodily functions, particularly eye reactions, they measure an individual's empathic response by asking provocative questions. The theory is that a Replicant has lower levels of empathy because the quality of its implanted memories cannot match that of a human being because genuine, high levels of empathy require a lifetime of real, high-definition experiences that simply cannot be programmed into something. In stark contrast, the real humans in the film are distant, short, downright mean, and show very little empathy for their fellow human beings. Meanwhile, the Nexus-6 replicants consistently display more empathy and emotion than any other character in the film. The compassion of the Nexus-6 replicants is most evident in the climax. When Pris, one of the Nexus-6 replicants, is killed by Deckard, Roy Batty breaks down in tears, displaying levels of feeling not approached by any human character in the film. He is enraged and begins to hunt Deckard in a game of cat and mouse that he takes to the rooftops, but as Deckard slips and is on the precipice of falling to his death, he displays more powerful and empathetic emotions not shown by any human in the movie. : compassion and mercy. Ray takes Deckard back to the roof, accepts his fate, and delivers his now famous monologue from Tears in the Rain: “I've seen things you wouldn't believe. Attack the burning ships off Orion. I saw the C-beams glowing in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. It's time to die." Yes, Ray was the antagonist, but his motivation wasn't rooted in evil. All he had ever wanted was a chance to live. Previously, Tyrell, creator of the replicants, defends giving the replicants their brief but remarkable lifeexistence quoting Lao Tzu. “Light that shines twice as brightly burns twice as fast.” Contradictory, Roy, for all his four years of incredible experiences, will die and be forgotten when all he wants is more life and, therefore, a chance to make his mark on existence. his little mark on Deckard's existence. Perhaps part of the message is that replicants may be more human than human, and that real-world technology will one day enable the same. A true deus ex machina. Some thought it would never be made, but the Blade Runner saga continued with Blade Runner 2049. Ridley Scott returned to directThe role of producer and Denis Villeneuve stepped into the director's chair to tell a new story written by Hampton Fancher that adds new levels to the themes presented in the original film. Blade Runner 2049 tells us the story of a new Blade Runner. During a routine mission to retire a farmer named Sapper Morton, played by Dave Bautista, he is revealed to be a combat-enhanced replicant, and as soon as Blade Runner makes his intention to retire Morton, Morton repeatedly smashes him the head. in a wall. The Blade Runner remains largely unharmed revealing that he himself is a replicant because he can take the beating. This Blade Runner is Agent KD6-3.7, played by Ryan Gosling, a replicant whose name slowly becomes the more natural K as he is revealed to have more emotional and human characteristics over the course of the film. K seems to have some moral dilemmas about retiring his species, but continues to carry on with his work anyway. After the brawl, Sapper Morton is defeated. On the verge of retiring, he defiantly shouts out K for retiring his kind, but also foreshadows what's to come. “You new models are happy to scrape the shit…because you ain't never seen a miracle” (Blade Runner 2049). K's suspicions are aroused by Sapper Morton's last words, and upon further investigation into the worm protein farm, he finds a box buried under a dead tree that requires further investigation. The box is revealed to contain the remains of a replicant who has scars from a cesarean section. A replicant had a son! Maybe there was a miracle! This revelation catches the attention of Niander Wallace, played by Jared Leto, who purchased the defunct Tyrell Corporation and is now in charge of Replicant Manufacturing. He is furious because he cannot solve the scientific riddle of replicant reproduction, "Eldon Tyrell's Last Trick!" (Blade Runner 2049). Wallace wants to unlock the secret of replicant procreation because it would be the key to overcoming the bottlenecks in its production that are critical to colonizing the deepest parts of space. On the other hand, the discovery that a replicant has given birth to a child threatens to send shockwaves across the solar planet. system. Some already saw them as “more human than human,” but most see a force of robot slaves who might suddenly be able to have children. John Orquiola lays out the potential consequences by writing “if Replicants could conceive children as humans do, it would be a revolutionary step toward granting Replicants human rights.” and “It raises the question of whether born, uncreated replicants have souls like humans believe they have” (Orquiola 'Blade Runner 2049: What Happened to Rachael and Deckard'). Some fear that the consequences could even include an all-out war between humans and replicants. Neither Blade Runner nor Blade Runner 2049 can leave the viewer with the definitive answer as to whether replicants have souls or qualify as humans, but just as the question thatAmerica have gone through slavery, send a message of compassion and even grant them basic rights. Blade Runner 2049 pushes the boundaries of "What is human?" even more in-depth question with K's holographic companion, Joi. Joi is programmed to act as a companion to its owner, including the ability to be a lover. As it records data and creates memories, it can evolve over time. Whether she is preparing a virtual dinner for K and helping him light a dessert cigarette or showing a desire for a deeper connection by hiring a prostitute so she can synchronize and have sex with K, she seems to have a loving relationship with him as minimum. a happily married couple. There isn't much argument that Joi might have a soul, she is strictly computer code after all, but much like the Replicants in Blade Runner she is shown to have more empathy than most of the humans around her. Despite K's protests and knowing that she was risking her permanent deletion, she is shown claiming that her wish is to download herself into a portable emulator so she can accompany him to Las Vegas in search of Deckard from the original film. Ultimately, that decision ends with her displaying some of the most empathetic human qualities in Blade Runner 2049 when Joi tells K that she loves him right before her emanator is ruthlessly crushed under the antagonist's boot – an act that borders on self-sacrifice for someone he loves. Perhaps the question of whether artificial life can be human or have a soul is not the point. It is well established that Replicants have emotions and memories, but they deserve protections. After all, in modern society there are laws that protect animals from abuse, poaching and other cruel acts. Science fiction has addressed this topic time and time again. Eric Schwitzgebel, professor of philosophy at the University of California, sums it up this way: The consensus is clear: If we can one day create robots with mental lives similar to our own, with human-like plans, desires, and a sense of self, including capacity for joy and suffering, then these robots deserve moral consideration similar to that accorded natural human beings. Philosophers and AI researchers who have written on this topic generally agree. He also goes on to describe that they may be owed even more consideration, as humans would be their creators. If humans are to act like their literal God, then humanity owes benevolence to their creations (Schwitzgebel). These themes are addressed by other great science fiction films. Like Joi's story in Blade Runner 2049, Ghost in the Shell (1995), directed by Mamoru Oshii, makes the viewer reflect on the implications of a purely artificial intelligence that can become sentient and be deserving of basic rights. The current HBO series Westworld also wears its Blade Runner influence is evident as viewers are presented with a theme park full of robots whose collective experiences ultimately lead them to want to lead a real life instead of being a attraction that can be killed, beaten or had sex with only to be cleaned up. and sent to do it again the next day. Audiences will also find influence from Blade Runner and its message about our relationship with technology in The Iron Giant (1999), The Fifth Element (1997), The Matrix (1999), Total Recall (1990) and Minority Report (2002) , the latter two of which are also adaptations of Philip K. Dick's science fiction. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Customize essayThe message of the Blade Runner saga is. 2019.