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The Posthuman

Today, society is controlled by several transforming technologies. Advancements such as

computer graphics, artificial intelligence, robotics, mechanical implants, virtual reality, and

biotechnology that were thought to be science fiction have now become a reality. The

advancements have blurred the distinction between a machine and a human. What is meant to

define humans make them look more of the machines. The nature of a human keeps changing as

the reality is blurred. With the emergence of Genetic Engineering, humans have assumed the role

of the creator.

Blade Runner is based on the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K.

Dick is one of the movies that questions what it is like to be human. The film is based on the

future, and it is a depiction of what the earth will look like years to come. Technologies in the

movie leave the viewer wondering what it is like to be human. Humans and replicants in the

movie appear to be identified because the non-humans seem to have emotions while humans are

unemotional and cold. According to Hayles (4), replicants become just like humans and then

superior to them. The movie’s primary focus is to define what it means to be human.

The replicants are Post-humans. The machines made by Tyrell download human

consciousness into a computer to make them being beings that are different from humans in
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terms of reproduction and thinking. Just like Hayles suggests, the replicants can perform thinking

functions that were previously thought to be performed by humans only. The replicants replaced

humans in the colonies. They perform most of the activities that only human beings were thought

to perform.

The movie goes beyond humans by creating replicants that operate according to Tyrell set

standards. According to Hayles, humans want to be free from the will of others. They own

themselves. Contrary to this belief, the replicants have been designed by a human being to whom

they own their freedom. They are owned because they are made machines and not because

ownership is a natural condition (Hayles 3). According to Tyrell, commerce was their main aim,

and its motto was more human than human. They had to implant the replicants with memories to

be able to control them. The making of the replicants as human-produced machines and not

humans enables Tyrell and his team to legitimize their course without the question of morality

been raised by society.

A series of tests are designed to separate humans from the machines created by Tyrell

through provoking a psychological response, which is a clear indication of empathy. The tests

help Deckard decide whether to “retire” or kill the replicants. Here, the movie tackles a

significant ethical issue on who controls life and who is the creator. If subjects fail to portray

empathic feelings during the test, then they are deemed as replicants. In the movie,

posthumanism tries to undermine humanity. The transformation from humans to post-humans

can only be seen through a Voigt-Kampff test. The central embodiment of post-humans is

cyborgs. As Hayles points out: “Fourth, and most important, by these and other means, the post-

human view configures human being so that it can be seamlessly articulated with intelligent

machines. In the post-human, there are no essential differences or absolute demarcations between
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bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot

teleology, and individual goals” (3).

According to Hayles, post-humanism is the convergence of technology and biology to a

point where they are indistinguishable. For a very long time, humans could control and develop

technology, a factor that gives them superiority over other creatures. However, this sense of

uniqueness and superiority is being challenged by the same technologies created by humans. The

distinction between men and machines is becoming less clear (Byron, 45). For example, the

movie questions “our lack of humanity,” which is a characteristic exhibited by nonhumans.

According to Hayles, post-humans views consciousness as a seat of human identity. However,

this is not the case as the humans in the movie appear to be inhuman while the replicants have

empathy, and they care about the feelings of each other (Bruno 10). Deckard, who was a

replicant, was going through an emotional dilemma. He has many regrets when retiring the

machines, and he acknowledges that he does not like this work.

According to McNamara (432), the demonization of androids makes people shift their

attention from the real threat to democracy that comes as a result of the manufacture of robots

that threatens society. For example, Tyrell refuses to accept the fact that the replicants are

superior to human beings. He fears that the machines will outdo humans. When Deckard

discovers that a long-deceased female replicant had a child, he orders Deckard to retire it. He felt

that if the public learned the replicants could reproduce, many waves of panic would set in. Just

like Hayles suggest that intelligent machines will have the superior ability over humans, the boss

also fears that the replicants will outdo the humans. According to her, when humans enter into a

relationship with the machines, then they might be replaced (Hayles 15). Again, this leaves the

viewer wondering if clones reproduce. How could they probably reproduce other clones if not
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with the right programming? However, according to Hayles (10), the participation of replicants

adjusts the internal organization into a single role of a given replica who can reproduce, but when

in the group of non-humans it cannot. This means that it was possible for a clone to reproduce.

His boss Lt then commands k. Joshi to look for the child of the deceased Eve and retire it.

However, K feels that a baby born would be close to a human (Graham 22). For him, he had

never killed anything with a soul. However, with the programming, he had to kill the replicants

because they saw them as non-humans.

In conclusion, Blade Runner is a movie that provides a philosophical focus on what it is

like to be human. Today, society has been faced by the dilemma of defining what is human and

what is not. How to maintain humanness in a race of humans is a question confronting the

society in an era where technologies continue to dehumanize humans. In the movie, the

replicants appear to be more human than the real human being. They seem to be compassionate

compared to the humans who are cold and brutal. The definition of a human in modern society is

an issue based on the complex interactions of the people who theorize the norms and those who

enforce them.
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Works Cited

Bruno, Giuliana. “Ramble City: Postmodernism and ‘Blade Runner.’” October 41 (Summer,

1987): 61-74. JSTOR. Web. 22 May. 2019.

Byron, John. “Replicants R Us: The Crisis of Authenticity in Blade Runner.” Sydney Studies in

English 34 (2008): 41-62. Web. 22 May.2019.

Graham, Elaine L. Representations of the Post/Human: Monsters, Aliens and Others in Popular

Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002. Print.

Katherine, Hayles. How We Became Posthuman. University of Chicago Press, 2010. Internet

resource.

McNamara, Kevin R. “Blade Runner’s Post-Individual Worldspace.” Contemporary Literature

38.3 (Autumn, 1997): 422-446. JSTOR. Web. 22 May 2019.