Replicants supposedly have no capacity for empathy, and their unemotional reaction to Voigt-Kampff questions reveals their artificiality, e.g., "If you saw a tortoise lying on it's back in the desert..."
The replicants in 'Blade Runner', based on the book by Phillip Dick, (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), are created to exactly resemble humans. In San Francisco post WWT there is often confusion whether a humanoid is real or an android. Bounty hunters and others use the Voigt-Kampff test to distinguish humans from replicants. The test consists of questions which elicit an emotional response. In order to understand how a replicant thinks it would be necessary to get inside a replicant's brain. This being almost impossible in the year 2002, we might instead read about one man's attempt, in the not so distant future, in order to become more familiar with the way replicants think and act, so as to be better prepared ourselves, in how to deal with them. As narrated by Rick Deckard in 'Blade Runner' Deckard plans to kill enough errant replicants so he can replace his robotic sheep with a real one. Says Deckard: "The electric things have their lives, too. Paltry as those lives are." (Androids 214). In the process of hunting down these pseudo-humans, Deckard falls in love with a replicant, in fact the beautiful Rachel, the daughter of Tyrel. In the process Deckard learns about himself and what it means to be human and subhuman. As the narration continues Deckard becomes confused just like we would in the same situation; who or what is the real human? And, how are we going to be able to tell the 'clones' from the real thing? We can't even sort out all the various religions, races, and nationalities now, let alone sort out humans from identical replicants in the future! This brings up the question of human consciousness, robot consciousness, and how they are similar and different from us thinking humanoids. The main theme of Phillip K. Dick's novel concerns similarity and difference; sentient robots that look identical to humans, but are not human at all. The central question is whether or not we can spot replicants in order to retire them. Looming in the background is the question: is Deckard himself a replicant? Thinking like a replicant is the way Deckard explores his own consciousness and humanity. Replicants, that is, androids, make Deckard realize that he might not be so human after all. He actually becomes more inhuman than the replicants he is remorselessly hunting! I think the answer is clear: Androids dream of sheep just like humans do. After all, they are replicants. Blade Runner - She's a Replicant HD Video http://youtu.be/yWPyRSURYFQ Blade Runner Soundtrack - Vangelis - (33 1/3 RPM Vinyl - Technics SL-D1 turntable w/Empire 888 TE cartridge) http://youtu.be/2x3UNHNo1LA
