Introduction to Philosophy Donna Chapman
Final Paper January 3, 2000
BLADERUNNER: A Philosophical Discussion
Life begins at the moment of conception. By conception, I mean
the conception of the idea in the creators mind...whether it be a musical
piece, a film script, or a life form. The deciding factor in the life born is
the motive of the creator. What if the motive of the creator was to give something
to the world. What if the motive was to add to the Greater Good? To give instead
of get, for you instead of me. To fill emptiness in the human spirit, not out
of greed or novelty, but out of compassion?
In this paper I will use the framework of the movie BLADERUNNER
to illustrate points of light and points of darkness. Points of tremendous promise,
and opportunities lost. What could have been a wondrous excursion into creativity
and the mystery of live itself. Is turned into a sad abuse of power. I will
illuminate points in the film where, in my opinion there cannot be a shadow
of doubt that the replicants are in fact alive. But they are fatally flawed.
And although they have the tools built into them to overcome these flaws and
grow into more balanced life forms, they will not be given the opportunity to
do so. These teminal flaws were built into them by their creators – man.
BLADERUNNER takes place in the early 21st century. There has
been some sort of cataclysm which has all but destroyed the planet. The healthy
humans have been allowed (and encouraged by the government) to emigrate to other
planets which have been designated as habitable. The unhealthy humans are required
to stay on earth, along with the few who choose not to emigrate. The year is
2019. Technology has evolved things called “replicants” they are biological
constructs. Human in appearance, they are used for a variety of jobs designated
as dangerous or undesirable to real humans. Such jobs as: hazardous materials
handling, military duty, colonization surveys and even companions for the emigrant
are relegated to the replicants. Pleasure models are utilized by human soldiers
stationed in the outer quadrants of space.
It is interesting to note that the flavor of the movie is distinctly
Asian, but is completely staged in America. Even the language is Pigeon –
English with Japanese or Chinese and Spanish blended. The movie was released
in 1982, and perhaps this Asian influence is related to the feared techno-dominance
of Japan at the time. Women’s faces on billboards are distinctly made up
as geisha. But that would be a sociology paper, not a philosophy paper.
The company (the Tyrell Corp.) which produces the “virtually
human” replicants is in the business of developing them to be “more
human than human.” Tyrell has evolved the Nexus 6.
“Nexus 6, superior in strength and agility, and at least equal
in intelligence, to the genetic engineers that created them”1
After a bloody mutiny, initially by 6 replicants, (2 are lost in the conflict),
4 replicants manage to make it to earth. Roy Batty is the leader, his incept
date is 2016. His mental rating and physical rating are exceptional. Priss is
a pleasure model. Her physical rating matches Roy's, but her mental capabilities
do not quite match his. Her incept date is also 2016. Zhora is an assassin,
her physical capabilities are superior, but her mental capabilities match Priss.
Her incept date is 2016. Roy, Priss, and Zhora are dying. Leon is a hazardous
materials type. His physical capabilities are the same as the others, but his
mental capabilities are considerably less. His incept date is 2017.
After the mutiny, Nexus replicants are prohibited from earth.
Having one or helping one is punishable by death.
An elite group of police known as BLADERUNNERS hunt renegade
replicants and exterminate them. This is called “retirement”. The
principal character – Deckard – is a Bladerunner.
There is only one legal Nexus 6 on earth, her name is Rachel.
The loophole by which Tyrell gets to keep her on earth is that she is their
demo-model. As long as she stays within the company walls, she will not be hunted.
(from the book) The movie also heavily implies that Deckard himself is a replicant
but doesn’t know it. If true, this would indicate that the people have
decided that “retiring” replicants is now too distasteful for a human
to handle....or..maybe...that it takes one to know one. Maybe the replicants
are too intelligent for a human to catch and only a replicant can catch a replicant.
If a replicant knew that he was a replicant, would he be able to kill another
replicant? The answer is yes. Later in the film, Rachel will kill a replicant
to save Deckard’s life. She will put his life over the life of another
of her kind.
I take care to use the words replicant and virtual human here
because these as I said are “biological constructs” they are not androids.
Androids are machines which resemble humans. If you open one up, you would find
servos and hydraulics and electronics. There would be no blood, or tissue, or
pain at the cutting. Replicants are assemblies of genetically engineered parts:
eyes, brain, body, nervous system. They are organic processes. They feel pain,
both emotional and physical. They are aware of their own existence and nonexistence,
and they are aware of what the world is like with them and without them.
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack
ships
on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-Beams...glitter
in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments
will be lost...in time.. like tears...in the rain” 2
The replicant’s emotional structure is primitive, but they learn and grow
quickly. The emotional responses of replicants are a lot like the uncontrolled
ID – very animal – survival oriented. Their responses to threatening
situations, or situations they believe are threatening, can be overly
brutal. The “fight or flight” reflex is strong with replicants. They
are closer to being clones than they are to being machines, but without the
genetic connection to human dna. The cells of a clone were part of a whole living
organism...once. Replicants are entirely created living organics. They are sentient.
The Tyrell Corp. found that the replicants were easier to control
if they had a past – so they are given a name and a personal history. The
reinforcement of the implanted memories is accomplished by giving the replicants
photos, lots of them. Leon has them, Rachel has them and...Deckard has them.
This would seem to me to indicate that life needs purpose. Life gains security
from knowing what it’s roots are. This helps it face the insecurity of
not knowing what the future holds, or where death leads. Because the replicants
are so much more advanced physically and intellectually than most humans, the
Tyrell Corp. has built in a safety net for control of the replicants: They have
“accelerated decrepitude”.3 They
have a four year life span, then they stop. They don’t “break down”.
They DIE. Replicants live their entire life in fear – with full knowledge
that death is coming – soon – absolute and unmerciful. They live every
day of their lives in pain just like any human who has ever been told that they
have a terminal disease and only have years left to them. The replicants even
know the date of their death..their 4th birthday. What human could live with
this knowledge? I don’t know if I could... Even Leon, in spite of his diminished
mental capacity is keenly aware of his impending death, even though he has a
couple of years on his friends.
“It’s painful to live in fear, isn’t it? Nothing’s worse
than
having an itch you can’t scratch...”4
The goal of the replicants is to find their maker: Eldon Tyrell, and make him
alter their genetic structure so that they can live on. They want to survive.
The story concerns Deckard, a bladerunner assigned to the “retirement”
of the 4 replicants. A challenge for a bladerunner is the accurate detection
of the replicants. There is one test which will reveal whether or not a suspect
is a replicant. It is called the “Voight-Kamph” It is a physiological
test of empathy. Why this test works is not explained very well in the movie,
but the book does a nice job. I will elaborate:
After whatever war has caused the world to be the way it is,
animal populations have been decimated. Humans have focused on the spiritual
parts of themselves. There is a religious movement called “Mercerism”
where in human’s empathically connect and experience a corporate vision.
The religion values natural life. Living creatures are sacred, and to damage
one is a criminal offense. Caring for an animal (real or electric) is a sacred
calling. People compete for ownership of real animals much like people compete
for the biggest SUV or fastest computer today. People who can’t afford
real live animals get electric ones, oddly from the same genetic designer types
that create the replicants. Hence the book title: “Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep”. You need to be taking care of an animal to experience
spiritual wholeness. It is considered rude to ask your neighbor if his
animal is real or electric. The illusion is as complete as it can be to protect
the social standing of an individual, because it is considered “less than”
to have an electronic animal...The animal repair people are disguised as veterinarians,
and their repair vans are painted to be animal hospital ambulances. Even tending
a lowly spider counts toward your spiritual stature. The book doesn’t come
out and say it, but people at this time are most certainly NOT omnivores, but
are either vegan or eating some sort of mass produced, non animal food source.
The idea of eating an animal or using skin (leather) for clothing
or wallets is abhorrent to people, not to mention, a crime (see above). Herein
might also be the answer of sending a replicant to retire replicants (Deckard):
the killing of a living creature, any living creature, even in the name of the
law, is now so offensive to humans, that perhaps humans don’t want to do
it at all anymore. So since they think replicants are not alive, they don’t
count. Have a replicant do it. I don’t know if I agree with this, but it
is a notion to think about with respect to interpreting the movie.
The Voight-Kamph test measures physiological responses of a
subject...(capillary dilation – the “blush” response, fluctuation
of the pupil, involuntary dilation of the iris). These responses are stimulated
by asking the subject questions that trigger them. Questions such as: “if
you are in a desert, and you see a tortoise on his back, with his belly baking
in the hot sun, what do you do?”, or , “what would you do if you received
a cat skin wallet for your birthday?”, or “if you are at a play, and
there is a dinner scene in the play, and the dinner is boiled dog, how would
you feel, what would you do?” The subject, if a normal healthy human, would
react strongly with compassion at the tortoise predicament, and would right
the poor thing if they could, mortification and anger at the notion of a cat
skin wallet (they may even call the police on the giver of such an item) and
although they wouldn’t like it and may get up and leave, they would know
the nuance of difference between a real dinner of boiled dog,
and a play-acted dinner of boiled dog. The physiological reactions
would be to flush with anger, pupils open in surprise, heart rate increases,
eyes roll, et cetera. Because the replicants have very primitive emotional structure,
they cannot grasp the abstract concepts of compassion and empathy, so, they
have no physiological reaction to the questions. They will try to feign the
proper responses, but that doesn’t register on the machine used to administer
the test. The only problem that I see with the test is that a psychopath or
a sociopath would also fail the test. Someone with a fractured ego (as Freud
would say), with an ID in control, would probably end up retired for being a
replicant.
When Deckard meets Rachel, at the Tyrell Corp. offices, she
does not know that she is a replicant. She thinks she is human. At this moment
in the film it is not known whether or not the V/K test will work on a Nexus
model. Tyrell has implanted in her the memories of his niece, and really believes
that she will pass the Voight-Kamph test as human.
“Demonstrate it. {the Voight-Kamph test} ... I want to see it
work on a person. I want to see a negative before I provide you
with a positive....Indulge me.....try her...{Rachel}”5
It takes over 100 questions for Deckard to proove that Rachel is a replicant.
The usual number of questions for proof is 20-30. Deckard makes a decision early
in the film that he will not be hunting Rachel. Because she is different, special.
The replicants that Deckard is hunting do not think they are
human. They are jealous of humans because of their life span. Remember, they
are sentient. The replicants have human like feelings. Roy weeps
for Priss when he finds her body, after retirement. He howls like a wolf who
has lost his mate. He mourns her loss and later mourns his own loss.
“Time to die...”6
And much the same way that a terminally ill person is angry at God for what
is happening to them, Roy is angry at his “creator” Tyrell...
“I want more life...fucker!”7
Later, Roy actually saves Deckard’s life. I think that Roy does this so
that someone will know who he was. So that someone will know that he was here.
So that he can have an effect on someone’s life. So that someone will tell
about Roy Batty and remember Roy Batty. I think that there would be no bleakness
worse than to die with no one knowing you ever lived. Sometimes I feel this
way as a Step-Mom without children of my own..my step kids love and value their
biological mom, as it should be. And they love me too a whole bunch. But sometimes,
when I’m feeling beaten by the job of raising adolescents in the 90’s
I wonder “what about me?” Will no one remember me?” Anyway, back
to the movie....
Leon comes after Deckard after he retires Zhora, a lover crazed
with grief after the death of his mate. They consider themselves worth defending,
They fight for life..evidenced by the death throws of Zhora and Priss.
They are moral creatures after a fashion. Their morality is based on the morality
of their creator: Like a child's morality I’ve been a bad boy..guilty
sort of. Roy acts like he wants to be punished in this scene.
Roy: “It’s not an easy thing...to meet your maker.”
Tyrell: “You were made as well as we could make you”
Roy: “But not to last...”
Tyrell: “The light that burns twice as bright, burns half
as long – and you have burned so very brightly Roy...
Look at you, the Prodigal Son – you’re quite a prize..”
Roy: “I’ve done.....questionable....things”
Tyrell: “Also extraordinary things...revel in your time...”
Roy: “Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn’t let
you in heaven for...”8
Something interesting also happens to Roy in this scene....He experiences the
defective side of his creator, his god. You can see it in the irony in his last
remark: “nothing the god of biomechanics....” How could Roy be expected
to have a fully developed morality when his creator wasn’t moral? Tyrell
clearly says here, yes you did some bad things, but it’s ok because you
are so much better than everyone else. Today we value how much money you have.
Everyone knows if you have lots and lots of money, the law doesn’t apply
to you quite the same way it applies to a gang member from the “hood”.
In the beginning of the replicant projects, before the Nexus
series the Tyrell Corp. creates products. They could be slaves, they could be
anything that the company wants them to be because they are the property of
the company until they are sold. Retiring the early models would be like unplugging
a kitchen appliance like a toaster. If the government outlaws toasters on earth,
then no toasters on earth. BUT the Nexus models are not appliances, they are
sentient, organic creations. They are aware of themselves. This awareness is
all Jung needed to allocate “person” to an entity. A crime was committed
by the Tyrell Corp. on the Nexus replicants because they were infused with a
damaged persona a persona without ethics, morality or compassion. The Tyrell
Corp. did not rise to the occasion of nurturing the soul that was growing in
the Nexus models. If memories could be imprinted on a Nexus, then so could ethics,
and compassion and morality. But Tyrell Corp. did not value these elements.
Tyrell Corp. did not count on the fact that Roy in particular, would grow them
to a fairly advanced degree before he died. Perhaps the 4 year life span
was calculated on purpose to avoid the point of development where in the replicants
would have earned the name living sentient being – human – worthy
of protection – with value.
This story shows the bleakest scenario of man as creator. I
tend to think that this is probably how things will evolve if we ever figure
out how to create this type of life. But I want to believe. I want to hope that
we could go another way.
So again I say....”Life begins at the moment of conception”.
By conception, I mean the conception of the idea in the creators mind...whether
it be a musical piece, a film script, or a life form. The deciding factor in
the life born is the motive of the creator. What if the motive of the creator
was to give something to the world. What if the motive was to add to the Greater
Good? To give instead of get, for you instead of me. To fill emptiness in the
human spirit, not out of greed or novelty, but out of compassion?
God initiated the creation of man to share the universe with
us. When the Creation Story in the Old Testament of the Bible is studied from
the original language – Hebrew, you find something that was blatantly missed
in the English translations. When God created the animals, He created them “tove”.
The English moron’s (sorry, my opinion again...) translated it they chose
the word “good”. Tove does not mean “good”. Tove means complete.
A cow is complete..what can a cow evolve to? Cows are cows, always have been
cows, always will be cows. Man was not created tove. Man was made with
the tools we need to develop and grow and learn. We are not stagnant, we are
free dynamic, organic processes. So were the replicants. Once created,
we are no longer the property of our Creator. He/She/It turned us loose. We
are even free enough to grow to reject our Maker. We have complete and total
autonomy from our Creator. I would like to hope that our Creator delights in
the accomplishments we have achieved.
The Tyrell Corp. in the movie is about making money. Providing
the fulfillment of a need...for a slave laborer, for a companion, for a risk
taker, to do despicable jobs....for a price. The motive is greed, not creativity.
Power for power’s sake. How strong can we make it? Let’s make it better
than human. (what ever that means..) This creation cannot be free or autonomous
because we loose our investment. This creation must be controlled, possessed.
The problem that the Tyrell Corp. ran into was that they did indeed create life,
but they tried to contain it.
I have included a copy of a short story by Ray Bradbury called
“I Sing the Body Electric”. (not on the web
version, sorry) It is a wonderful story about a child named Agatha, and
her father and brothers. Poor Agatha has never adjusted after the death of her
mother. Her father comes across a company called “Fantocinni Ltd”
who makes “electronic grandmothers”. And they only sell them to families
who need them. In an effort to provide the maternal love that his children are
lacking, he has one made.
“We do not sell our Creation to able-bodied families where parents are
available to raise, effect, shape, change, love their own children. Nothing
can replace the parent in the home. However there are families where death or
ill health or disablement undermines
the welfare of the children.......”9
Agatha doesn’t adjust to this one either...at least not right away.
Fantocinni builds biological constructs too, but they build
them knowing that they will leave something of themselves in the world: in the
hearts and minds of the children that they will help to raise. Fully aware of
what can happen, Fantocinni builds miracles.
“he knew that most machines are amoral, neither bad nor good. But by
the way you build and shaped them you in turn shaped men, women,
and children to be bad or good. A car, for instance, dead brute,
unthinking, an unprogrammed bulk, is the greatest destroyer of souls in history.
It makes boy-men greedy for power, destruction and more
destruction.”10
It’s not about what you can get from your creation, it’s about what
you can give with your creation.
“ I am given things which I then give to you. I don’t know
what I give, but the giving goes on. You ask what I am? Why, a
machine. But even in that answer we know, don’t we, more than
a machine. I am all the people who thought of me and planned
me and built me and set me running. So I am people. I am all
the things they wanted to be and perhaps could not be”11
When you give with your creation, then your creation belongs to the world and
to itself. Roy had just gotten to this point, when his time was up. The electric
grandmother in the story does not realize that she is already alive, but like
Pinnoccio thinks that if she is good enough, she may someday earn life.
Man WILL create in this way one day soon. I leave this paper
and semester with two offerings....two ways that it could go. One of gain, one
of loss. I really hope and pray for the first.
from I Sing the Body Electric...
At the dinner table one night, the grandmother discusses
human frailties, Agatha chimes in...
“And you...why, you never make mistakes, you’re perfect,
you’re better than anyone ever!”
The grandmother responds:
“Not perfect no, for what is perfection? But this I do know,
being mechanical, I cannot sin, cannot be bribed, cannot be
greedy or jealous or mean or small. I do not relish power for power’s sake.
Speed does not pull me to madness. Sex does
not run me rampant through the world. I have time and
more than time to collect the information that I need around
and about an ideal to keep it clean and whole and intact.
Name the value you wish, tell me the ideal you want and I can
see and collect and remember the good that will benefit you
all. Tell me how you would like to be: kind, loving, considerate,
well balanced, humane...and let me run ahead on the path to
explore those ways to be just that. In the darkness ahead turn
me as a lamp in all directions. I can guide your feet.”12
from BLADERUNNER, Roy’s last words...
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships
on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-Beams...glitter
in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.
All those moments will be lost...in time.. like tears...in the rain
Time...to die”13
Bibliography
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick, (c.1968)
I Sing The Body Electric! by Ray Bradbury, (c.1962) -- for The Twilight Zone
(ABC). Original for T.V. Later adapted into a short story.
BLADERUNNER, Warner Bros. 1982, Produced by Michael Deeley/Ridley Scott, Directed
by Ridley Scott
1 from text prolog of movie
2 the dying words of Roy Batty
3 Priss
4 Leon, when trying to kill Deckard
5 deckard’s meeting w/Tyrell
6 last words of Roy Batty
7 Roy to Tyrell
8 Dialog from Tyrell Corp meeting
9 Fantocinni advertisement, p118
10 I sing the Body Electric, p. 136
11 I sing the Body Electric, p. 135
12 I sing the Body Electric, p. 137
13 the dying words of Roy Batty