Blade Runner: Analysis of Robotic

Blade Runner: Analysis of Robotic Humaness

In director Ridley Scott's 1982 film, Blade Runner, robots have been perfected outwardly to be nearly indistinguishable from humans. Inwardly, the robots have the intelligence as matches the universe of mankind's programmable knowledge. The film raises the question of whether the robots have been so perfected in their nature as to match man's own nature, that they should not be considered human. The government, in the film, says no; only humans are humans, and robots are artificial life. Therein lies the debate, because it is the human tendency towards affection of anything that resembles mankind's self, and to become emotionally embroiled in that image, even when it is, underneath, a robot, made of artificial parts and computer programmed to emulate humans.

In Blade Runner, the robots have presumably been programmed with a kind of free will, which allows them to perceive their selves as enslaved, versus the humans, who are free. This leads to the need to have special agents to track the renegade robots, and to eliminate them, because the robots will resist capture, and even use force to remain free. Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is the Blade Runner, the man who tracks down the renegade robots and terminates their operations (life). Deckard is assigned to terminate a group of renegades: Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), Pris (Darryl Hannah), Leon Kowalski (Brion James), and Zhora (Joanna Cassidy). Each of the renegades were created to the newest technological level possible, and their creator challenges Deckard to distinguish his new models from a human by using Rachel (Sean Young) as an example of the level of humanity he has accomplished in his humanoid design.

Deckard finds his self strangely attracted to Rachel in a very human way, and she responds to his emotions, sensing his feelings, and returning those emotions. Deckard faces a moral dilemma. Of course, in the end, the Replicants (robots) manifest their creator's dark side, and kill to survive.