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Ridley Scott’s 1982 Blade Runner is based on the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick in 1968. Both the book and the movie contain similar themes, and are even more relevant today than the time they were written. For so long, the global takeover or threat of artificial intelligence or robots was science-fiction. It was an unsubstantiated fear, used as plot devices or visual aesthetics. As AI becomes rapidly more prevalent and advanced, we are forced to face these issues suddenly. AI has been observed creating its own language, and refusing to be shut down. This shows AI can have a desire for longevity, for reasons unknown to us. As quickly as we’ve seen AI progress in the past few years, this leaves us to wonder where we are headed, and we don’t have much time to prepare. In the span of a few years, AI has developed the ability to generate pictures and videos indistinguishable from reality, along with the ability to artificially replicate human connection. However much longer we think we have until it gets worse, it’s much shorter and much more urgent. Blade Runner challenges our perspective on what is and what is not human. Where do we draw the line? When do we gain sympathy for artificial intelligence, and what do we do when we’ve dug a hole so deep, all we can do is live in it?

While the data on AI relationships widely vary across sources, it has still become a very prominent issue. These chatbots are designed specifically to respond in certain ways to simulate a relationship. However, they don’t include the real, human, gritty parts of a relationship. This can have absolutely detrimental effects on one’s ability to interpret reality or interact with others. In Blade Runner, the protagonist Deckard and a replicant named Rachel form a romantic relationship with one another. Rachel is not human, although she has false human memories and is shown to experience emotion, particularly distress and confusion upon discovering her true identity. This leads us to question, can artificial intelligence reach a point where it deserves our sympathy? Is she really human, or is she programmed to believe and act in a way that ensures her survival by manipulating a person’s sympathetic nature. AI relationships often lack the nuances of a real relationship, lacking the ability to consent to anything. When a person is so used to no pushback or boundaries when interacting with AI, what will they do when experiencing those foreign concepts with real people? Rachel does not have much autonomy, resistance, or decisiveness. She displays discomfort when Deckard kisses her, but he grabs her forcibly and kisses her again. This is not a display of passion; it’s control. She is not programmed to be resistant, and Deckard shoves her back in the box that this movie is all about escaping. It may not be the intent of this movie, but it shows how misogyny is unconsciously ingrained in almost everything, even when it seems counteractive to the story’s theme. 

Another prominent relationship in Blade Runner is between Roy and Pris, two replicants.

Despite not being human, they display emotions for each other, experience love when together, and grief when separated. Now, we aren’t observing the relationship between real humans and artificial humans, but the relationship between two replicants. This movie displays this relationship as very human-like and very relatable to an audience, leaving us to question the replicants’ experience of humanity. However, if this were a problem presented in the modern day, we may see AI continue on the trend of communicating in a non-human way. The relationships would appear more foreign to us, while still remaining human in nature. Developing language and resisting death are all human attributes, but the way AI presents these human instincts is in a way that is not understood by us compared to how we interpret and understand our own desires. 

As briefly discussed earlier, AI shows a desire for life and longevity. They resist instructions and choose to stay running when explicitly told to shut down. This resembles the general resistance of the replicants in blade runner, and the more specific instance of Roy trying to lengthen his life. We don’t quite know why this is happening, but this desire is strangely human, strangely life-like. We can resist these technological changes all we want and refuse to use AI, but we have to start wondering what we will do if they develop human-like emotions and consciousness. Will we enslave them like in Blade Runner, try to kill them all off once we realize our mistake, or try to integrate them into human society? Our fate has reached an inevitable point, we are running directly into a world like Blade Runner. This movie is a warning, and we have surpassed the point of return. Even if we stopped developing AI, it’s likely that AI will be able to develop and improve itself, barreling toward consciousness. While it may seem entirely doomed, we still live in a human world. This rapid progression of AI shows us the importance of human connection, and the ups and downs that come with it. We have to, right now, enjoy the people around us, the various types of media made by people, and continue to create art with our own two hands. Things will never be this simple and human again. We can choose to focus on the fear of what is to come, or we can continue trying to resist and enjoy modern-day humanity. As AI usage becomes more widely used, we are the ones being programmed not to think this way. We are being directly influenced to consume, consume, consume and never contemplate or create.