Before I begin my actual
blog post, let me get this off my chest first... What in the world happened in
this movie?! Blade Runner is one of the strangest movies I've seen in a while.
It was hard to follow and there was enough creepiness to weird me out to the
point I will probably never watch it again. Hope anyone else that watched it
had a better experience than I did!
Anyway, on with the show!
Or blog post in my case. Besides the creepy factor of the movie, I can see how
it coincides with the reading and the other movies we've watched in these last
few weeks. The whole movie revolved around finding people who weren't actually
people, but A.I.s known as Replicants. We can assume from their name that they
are in the form of something that already exists: humans. They look enough like
you and me that they are "replications" of real people. However,
these Replicants only have a lifespan of 4 years. They are also only used as a
sort of slave to build up other planets so that real humans might one day be
able to move there. Besides their looks, they are also aware, just like humans.
They can feel, understand, and mirror human emotions. This makes it easier for
them to blend in with people in the city, which is exactly what happens in the
movie.
After watching this
movie, I can safely say I never want technology to become so advanced that we
can't tell human from A.I. units. It's a scary thought, in fact. Creatures such
as these could very well be made to look almost identical to someone else,
which means if that duplicate were to commit a crime and be seen, the person
they look like could be tried for the crime. Depending on the severity of the
crime, they could either be jailed for a short time or for their entire
lives.
In reference to Brian
Christian's "The Most Human Human," these Replicants would most
definitely pass the Turing Test in looks. However, in the movie, they actually
ask the Replicants a series of questions to determine if they were human or
not. I believe they were using a form of the Turing Test, though it was a
little more advanced due to the extreme realness of the A.I.s. There is such a
thing as "too human" when it comes to technology, and I hope above
all that it doesn't get that far in my lifetime.
Below I've attached a
video that I saw while browsing Facebook. Hopefully these robots don't get any more
advanced than they need to be.
Okay, I have to comment on that video you shared. Despite it being really creepy and way too similar to Ex Machina, I think one of the most interesting things about it is how they censored the dolls and robot. It's kinda weird to think about, but the moment they take on human form, it's as if, subconsciously at least, we already consider them somewhat human. If we didn't, would they be censored?
ReplyDeleteThere are two types of ways you can look at robot technology. You can either look at it as a good and exciting thing or you can look at it as a bad thing. I'm pretty sure Christian mentioned this in the book, but I can't find the exact page number right now. From yourPOV and the movie's POV, the latter argument is very clear. But think about it for a moment: These replicas could commit a crime and frame the real person, but they also have healing properties attached, too. When it comes to grief, the replicants could be used for the grieving process. This is similar to a creepy thing humans already do now. If a mother loses her baby at birth, some hospitals preserve the baby's corpse and allows the parents to take it home for a few nights. This allows the parents to fully grieve and have a moment with their child. Story can be found here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2744458/Meet-parents-using-refrigerated-cuddle-cots-buy-time-stillborn-babies.html
ReplyDeleteThose replicants can be used for the grieving process. I mean, it's easy to focus on the bad things, I think we're all afraid of change naturally. However, I think it's worth to see it from both POVs!