Blade runner – Future / Human / Emotions
Future
Blade Runner goes “way beyond” the question of artificial intelligence, using the metaphor of technology to explore why society decides certain groups of people are acceptable and others not.
Getting intelligent robots to conform to moral rules is a live area of debate and research.
At the moment work is under way on developing a control system for military robots “to make sure they abide by the rules of combat”, and creating robots for use in the care of elderly people .
BBC News. 2021. Blade Runner: Which predictions have come true?. [online] Available at: <https://www.google.co.kr/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/magazine-18026277> [Accessed 17 March 2021].
Human
Only true humans, not replicants, feel that emotion.
As scholar Nigel Wheale writes, “In all periods, ‘human-Things’ have been imagined as entities which test or define the contemporary sense of human value.”
“If there were machines bearing images of our bodies, and capable of imitating our actions as far as it is morally possible, there would still remain two most certain tests whereby to know that they were not therefore really men,” Descartes wrote.
@boissolm, F., 2021. Are Blade Runner’s Replicants “Human”? Descartes and Locke Have Some Thoughts. [online] Smithsonian Magazine. Available at: <https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/are-blade-runners-replicants-human-descartes-and-locke-have-some-thoughts-180965097/> [Accessed 17 March 2021].
Emotion
Blade Runner is a movie that explores the idea of what it means to be human be juxtaposing the world of human being and androids.
Androids are similar to human beings in every possible way except their ability for empathy.
It is at the moment of his death, developing empathy, as a Christ-like figure that Roy truly is “more human than human.”
Paulpeter, E. and Paulpeter, E., 2021. Theology of Blade Runner (original) – A Question of Empathy — TheoView. [online] TheoView. Available at: <http://theoview.org/blogposts/2017/11/6/theology-of-blade-runner-original-a-question-of-empathy> [Accessed 17 March 2021].
Blade Runner Review
“More human than human”. This Tyrell’s slogan from “Blade Runner” is a phrase from director Ridley Scott’s 1982 film. To briefly explain the plot of this movie, The background is Los Angeles in 2019, which was devastated after the nuclear war. In order to escape the radioactive earth, humans are enslaving the “replicant” to pioneer the space planet. However, the replicant who has self- conscious infiltrates the Earth after revolting and goes to meet the producers, and special police “Blade Runner” will search for them. After watching this movie, there are three words that I dealt with this movie. In this essay, I will tell what I felt with these three words. The first word is the ‘future’, the second word is ‘human,’ and the third word is ‘emotion’.
At first, about the word ‘future’, How will artificial intelligence be implemented in the future compared to the past? Because it is a movie about uncertain future. When quoting a phrase from BBC magazine about this topic, “At the moment work is under way on developing a control system for military robots “to make sure they abide by the rules of combat”, and creating robots for use in the care of elderly people”. My thought on reading this phrase, when I look inside the movie, it deals with the problem of discrimination. This is because the replicant in Blade Runner is designed for special missions such as space colonial development, war, assassination, and sex. Would it be morally justified to create a human-like existence, use it for this mission, and then discard it after four years? So that phrase raises the question of how the dignity of artificial intelligence will be dealt with in the future.
Secondly, about the word ‘human’, ‘More human than human’ can be translated as “more like human than human” but can also be translated as “more human than being like human.” What does being truly human mean? Afraid of his own death? Obsessed with life expectancy? Revenge the Creator? Saddened by the death of a friend? The answer to this question is given at the end of the movie. In the last scene of the movie, Roy saves Detective Deckard, who killed his friends, from the brink of death. Then he dies, sharing memories of the amazing experiences he has had in his short life. This memory is mostly related to terrible battles. These memories made themselves who they are and disappear with death. Roy sees the same fate as he does in Detective Deckard, who is about to die. This is the same for all humans. Recognizing this, Roy dies with dignity as a ‘human’.
Lastly, the third one is word about ‘emotion’, The replicants in the movie are indistinguishable from humans in appearance. Special Police Blade Runners, who find and execute trouble replicants, use a ‘boite-kamp machine’ which was purpose built to distinguish humans from replicants. Although no detailed explanation is given in the film, This machine observes the fluctuations of emotions appearing in the eyes of replicants while asking various questions, focusing on the eyes under test. This test helps understand the movie by focusing on emotions as they ask questions and find emotional rift from the shaking of replicant’s eyes.
I understood the movie from the perspective of these three main words, and of these three words, I think the word “human” is the largest frame that can represent the other two words. Because the Blade Runner dealing with asks what humanity is through the tension between humans and the replicant in general movie content. Also, the movie contains philosophical content, including Descartes’ philosophy, “If there were machines bearing images of our bodies, and capable of imitating our actions as far as it is morally possible, there would still remain two most certain tests whereby to know that they were not therefore really men,”. This Descartes wrote helps reminded of the meaning of human beings and artificial intelligence.