Blade Runner

Blog Assignment #7-

The movie Blade Runner had a very similar story line to Rossum’s Universal Robots. Both involved the creation of robots to benefit production and humanity as a whole. The robots in Blade Runner were referred to as Replicants and were hard to distinguish from humans. Once the Replicants started to revolt and kill off humans, officers were assigned to kill all of the Replicants. This story line is similar to RUR because the robots in the book also revolted against the humans for the way they were treated. In connection to my essay topic of technophobia changing to technophilia, the creators of the Replicants were initially obsessed with their creations. Every time they accomplished a new improvement to them, they started creating a new addition to them. This obsession of always creating a bigger and better Replicant resulted in their downturn. Their creations questioned whether or not their work imitated or replaced the work of God. This raises the question that if because humans are creating their own creatures, this resulted in the flaws of their creations. This is also shown in Frankenstein as well because his monster goes against humans. Can this be because Victor Frankenstein takes up the role of God? The change between technophilia and technophobia in Blade Runner occurs before the time of the movie. However, the movie shows the continuation of the fear of the Replicants. The creators of the Replicants regret their creations once they revolt against the humans. As they created them, they only thought about how they can benefit the society, and failed to think about what kind of hazard they may bring to humans.

I think that Roy Baty’s decision to spare Deckard’s life showed a more sensitive of the Replicants and how they can be more caring towards humans rather than the portrayed fight against humans. When Roy tells Deckard about living in fear and being a slave, I believe he is trying to explain to Deckard reasoning towards the actions of the Replicants. As the last surviving Replicant, he hopes to give reason for their actions regarding how they were treated and seen by other humans. After seeing Roy spare Deckard’s life, I felt a little more compassion towards the Replicants and saw that maybe their involvement in society was not easy and resulted in their revolt. However, it did not completely change my apprehension about the Replicants and their abilities to hurt humans and the society.