The Being of Replicants

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.