The Being of Replicants

Do the existential anxieties of Blade Runner show us what it means to be authentic?
The central theme of blade runner is the tensions that define what it means to be human. Through blurring the distinction between non-humans and the real thing, we are left with questions where these boundaries lie. In Being and Time, Heidegger poses these questions and offers a philosophical response to these questions. Physiological representations do not have the weight to justify what it means to be human, as this is a variable that can change vastly. The manner of existence that humans realise in Heidegger's view is referred to as 'Dasein', literally translated as there-being. The question of what it means to be is the very encounter that defines Dasein. Heritage and Death are two key factors in understanding the relationship with Dasein.

Heritage can be seen as life experiences through an series of events where pre-established relationships give significance to culturally conditioned patterns of meaning. A being 'collects up its past', giving it the essence of Dasein. The realisation of false memory implants can trigger a crisis of being, so allows for an interesting investigation on Dasein and the relationship to heritage, as this absence of heritage marks the encounter with the question of being.

With Death, Heidegger points out that it is only ever a possiblity, cause it dont matter much once you are dead. When an individual confronts the inevitability of death, existence as a human is brought into perspective, the crucial encounter for Dasein. The anxiety of unbecoming part of this world renders it unintelligible. This reveals the possibility of a world where you no longer exist -- existential anxiety. Once again, totally possible for a Replicant-like being.

For heidegger, existential angst is a pathway to authenticity, a way to take ownership of your life in the way that gives significance to you. Living in fear of one's own death as a fixed event is to live inauthentically, without ownership or control.

Blade Runner blurs the lines that define replicant and human, and specifically does not assimilate one into the other. Having a false heritage drives existential anxiety. This narrative investigates the significance of being not at the level of feelings and emotions considered merely as experiences, but at the level of the most fundamental structures that determine the ways in which lives are made meaningful.