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Desire in the Age of Robots and AI pp 49–74Cite as

Incep Dates and Pleasure Models: Death, Life, and Love in Blade Runner

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Abstract

This chapter examines the first Blade Runner movie, Ridley Scott’s adaptation of the original novella (1982). In Blade Runner, Replicants become undetectable, undifferentiated visually, from humans. The newer models can pass the Voight-Kampff test—a test which distinguishes true emotional responses from implanted ones. This perfect mimicry is our next iteration of how we desire sex robots to behave, and it is desired well in advance of the possibility of building such bots. It is in this iteration of the story where two theoretical questions appear—that of the racialization of the characters, which is far more apparent in a visual media, and the humanity of death—that how being able to die, and the fear of it, humanize the movie’s Replicants.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I have chosen not to quote the movie in this particular instance, so as not to write that word out in this text.

  2. 2.

    Also a reference to the chickenheads of the book.

  3. 3.

    The question of biological waste is not addressed, as it often is not in movies with a certain amount of seriousness to them; however, one presumes that Replicants (and the Androids before them) do eliminate in similar manners as humans.

  4. 4.

    This language is mirrored by Villeneuve in Blade Runner 2049, when Joi laments that her information only contains two symbols (1 and 0) to K’s four (ATCG). K replies “half as much, but twice as elegant, sweetheart,” (Villeneuve, 2017).

  5. 5.

    User names removed to respect anonymity.

  6. 6.

    It should be noted here that, at least in anthropology, this word is no longer considered accurate or polite, and is only to be used in contexts where one is describing or transcribing an historical usage. The proper anthropological term as of 2019 is biracial, mixed race, or mixed ancestry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA

    Rebecca Gibson

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  1. Rebecca Gibson
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Gibson, R. (2020). Incep Dates and Pleasure Models: Death, Life, and Love in Blade Runner. In: Desire in the Age of Robots and AI. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24017-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24017-2_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24016-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24017-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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