Ridley Scott's futuristic Blade Runner along with Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? contain similar accounts of post apocalyptic dystopian worlds in which androids are seen as evil and humans as good. Androids are hunted by the bounty hunter, the supposed hero Rick Deckard.  They are considered illegal on Earth essentially because they refused to be slaves to humans on Mars (or on an "off world" according to the film) and thus daringly returned to Earth to escape their oppression.  Upon their return, humans seem to be devoid of emotion and are on a constant struggle to reclaim their lost power over them.  Humans justify the killing of the androids, with the proposition that androids are not human, because they do not contain empathy or human emotion.  It seems more than ever that in this dystopian tale, humans have lost their own humanity.  In the film, the technology has consumed the humans, thus maintaining power is tremendously tempting.  Although the novel was published in 1966 and the film released in 1982, both have a stark resemblance to our society.  The technology, albeit more advanced in both stories, have altered humans completely, whereas in our society technology has ways to go to reach Blade Runner but has elements that are similar in the technology advances becoming a factor in deteriorating human contact and human emotion.

       To determine the meaning behind humanity one must first decipher what makes humans different than animals, nature, and machines.  In the Blade Runner universe humanity is based on emotion.  Rick Deckard determines who is an android by administering the Voight-Kampff Empathy Test, a test designed to bring out emotion, or lack thereof in the subject.  Thus, emotion and empathy in an individual could determine who is a human. 

Previous Page                  Next Page