Humans And Blade Runner: A Comparative Analysis

Draft Portfolio Piece 1: Connections

The integration of technology into our everyday lives is a growing trend which without limits, could become the downfall of human society. Within the investigation of the two texts: ‘Humans’ by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley and finally, ‘Blade Runner’ by Ridley Scott, connections became clear as technological advances created an alternate society from today’s world. In Humans and Blade Runner, synthetic technology is able to mimic the thoughts and actions of humans, which connected these texts through the idea that technology has the capability to violently backlash on people. These connections throughout all four texts raised the overall question of how far should technology be permitted to go? As

in the future, our current society, and even our species, may become obsolete.

In ‘Humans’ by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley, synthetic technology clearly shows it’s capable of violent backlash on humans. Set in a near utopian future, synthetic technology has become advanced to the point where a number of synthetics have consciousness, making them psychologically similar to humans. With consciousness, synthetics no longer want to serve as slaves to humans, but instead, wish to live freely among them. This becomes a concern as the violent backlash of synthetics on humans starts to be seen due to our lack of empathy. This is shown by the conscious synthetic Niska, who entered an underground street fight event where synthetics are beaten up, and once it was her turn, instead of hurting the synths, she began to hit the innocent bystanders with a baseball bat. This was due to her anger that synthetics are mistreated by humans, which caused her to violently hurt the people that brought her into existence. The mistreatment of synthetics by humans resulted in a retaliation of the conscious synths such as Niska, due to their wish to be treated equally, and the empathy they felt for their counterparts. This forces the idea that synthetics believe that they should be treated humanely and not be taken advantage of by humans. Although they aren’t human, they are willing to fight to be treated as if they were. To humans, synthetics were nothing more than machines, but to conscious synthetics, they saw themselves members of society and saw other synthetics the way we see other people. This makes synthetic technology a threat to humanity, as conscious synths have the ability to object to how we treat their counterparts, and perform actions that code itself cannot command, meaning in a sense, they have the ability to become a human, stuck in a machine.

In Blade Runner by Ridley Scott, the fail-safe lifespan of four years of the Nexus 6 replicants (synthetics) wasn’t necessarily a protection for humanity, but instead a reasoning for replicants to violently backlash against humans. Within the film, the nexus 6 are conscious replicants that serve as expert military personnel, created by Dr Eldon Tyrell to fulfil off-world missions often incapable for normal man. “More human than human” was Tyrell’s motto for the company’s goal, which is a scary concept to base technology by. This motto was significant as it creates the idea that most humans can be outclassed by artificial beings, making them behave more human than an actual human can. These replicants looked just like a normal person, yet are physically superior to humans, but the inability to empathise was the factor that distinguished them from a normal person, in which resulted in them failing the Voight-Kampff test. The four year life-span was implemented to stop these replicants to form the ability to empathise, and therefore to blend in as humans, but what resulted of this short lifespan was the violent backlash of replicants as they wanted to live longer lives, in which they believed was their right. This was seen in the film with Roy, a replicant who confronted creator Dr. Tyrell and demanded a longer life span. Once Dr Tyrell denied Roy his wish, Roy, enraged, kills Tyrell by breaking his skull, followed by the killing of Sebastian, a witness to the event. This violent backlash showed replicants are capable of murder to even their creators, which signals they are a danger to humanity as if their creator can’t control them, no-one can. The trend that is clear throughout the film was the denial to submit to slavery by the replicants, in which they wanted to live freely among society like everybody else. This led to the backlash against humans, as conscious replicants want nothing more than to live a normal life, with it’s longevity and freedom, which humans will not allow.

Both the texts Humans and Blade Runner bring up many issues that are concerning for the future of technology as it advances over time.

In both texts, the violent backlash of synthetic technology was the result of the desire for freedom, and the lack of respect given to synthetics despite their superiority. Already in today’s society, we are beginning to see people’s jobs being overtaken by machinery, but in the future, these machines may not be the large scraps of metal we see today, but fully functional synthetics that look and behave just like us. In Humans, people are replaced by synthetics in many labour and communication jobs, while in Blade Runner, replicants take the place of advanced military personnel. This replacement of people with synths raises the philosophical question: without a job or productive activity, what real use do we serve in the universe? This is because without a daily routine or duty, we often find ourselves out of place and useless, as jobs give us a meaning and a purpose in society. With synthetic technology however, we slowly become displaced and irrelevant as we are overtaken. From a human’s point of view, synthetics are nothing more than machines and generated code, but for a conscious synthetic, synths are like any other member of society to a human being. This challenges our current society’s values on what is considered a human, and what rights a human should have. In a future of conscious synthetics, despite their biology, what makes them different to us if they look, feel and think the same way we do? - often at a higher level. This raises implications on whether they should be treated equally, or due to their biology, can they be considered inanimate objects that we can treat as we please? If synthetic technology becomes self aware, and has the ability to empathise and have complex morales of their own, they should have rights similar to humans. This is because they make the transition from the technology we know today, which

are just tools used for our own exploitation to technology with awareness of the world around it. Synthetics of this capability should be treated equally, as if they are as emotionally responsive as we are, they do not deserve to be treated differently, as although they aren’t human, they respond the same way we do in difficult situations, such as in death or cruelty. These rights would be similar to the animal rights we have today, as although animals aren’t humans, they do not deserve to be mistreated by humans, despite their inferiority to our species. However, this reevaluation of our values and rights that emerge with the creation of conscious synthetics should never come of concern, as we shouldn’t let technology come this far in the first place. Conscious synthetics overstep the boundary between human and machine, and cause too many issues for our society and so they should not be welcomed into existence. Although synthetics address the flaws of humans by advancing physical and mental capability, it seems strange to believe humans could be surpassed by their own creation, as in reality, no matter how human a synthetic can seem, they will never be superior to humans in creativity, and therefore be a human themselves. Synthetics don’t have the luxury of individuality and the natural ability to produce their own thoughts and opinions - conscious or not. At the end of the day, no matter how advanced a synthetic may seem, they are nothing more than code. Code that has come from the work of a programmer which suggests synthetics are just expressions of their creator themselves. This indicates that humans will forever be superior to their creations as due to us having the knowledge and ability to create such advanced technology, we are the true advanced beings. The two texts changed my ideas on technology, and how far we should allow it to go, as before watching both Humans and Blade Runner, I was looking forward to a future full of advanced technology that can assist us. But now, I realise synthetic technology should not be created as not only do they destroy the reason for our purpose and disrupt our routines, but due to consciousness, they could turn on us violently, and make us the slaves, instead of themselves. This is a scary reality that today we associate with SCI-FI movies, but as we progress into the future, this type of technology is not as far away as we imagine. Vincent, Brackley and Scott are successful in convincing us a future with advanced synthetic technology can end our purpose of existence, as due to synthetics being more efficient than us in most ways, jobs were better suited to be worked by synthetics. This was seen in ‘Humans’ especially, as Matilda describes her world as meaningless as synthetics did everything humans could do, but more effectively, making excelling in school pointless - “What about a doctor? that’ll take me seven years. But by then you’ll be able to turn any old synth into a brain surgeon in 7 seconds”. If synthetics do everything for us, we will become lazy and have no goals to strive for, which is key to living a happy and successful life in our current society. A future of synthetic technology may make the determination of a human from a machine near impossible, which removes the uniqueness of our species and questions our morales. Overall, the development of advanced technology is on the basis to help us, not change us, but as showcased in Humans and Blade Runner, technology begins to overtake us, almost in an attempt to evolutionize our species technologically.

Overall, these texts show the perils of technology and how, if not controlled, they would end society the way we know it today. Synthetic technology may take the place of humans, where our jobs are done for us and many humans may form unhealthy relationships with them. However, for conscious synthetics, slavery is not so easily accepted, as living freely among humans is a wish that they might be willing to fight for. The connection regarding the violent backlash from synthetics was the most concerning in regards to our future, as it shows technology can outclass our own species. The implementation of synthetics may replace us both mentally and physically, and in the future, technology may no longer serve us, but instead, we may serve them. We could become slaves to our own creation. All texts convince us that a future of technology is not a future we should welcome, as the fundamental core of humanity - such as communication, relationships and morality - will be tested and changed through synthetics. We need to limit how far technology can go, before humanity is changed beyond return. The texts warn us about the implications that arise with a future fuelled by technology, and that we should make sure humans remain human, and machines remain machines. This future, which lies closer to us than most of us think, can make our very existence obsolete. What is seen in SCI-FI movies today, could be the reality we live in tomorrow.