Tuesday, March 29, 2011
What is the purpose of giving replicants emotions?
The discussion was brought up in class about the replicants having emotions. I agree that the replicants should not be given emotions. Why make them more human like if their purpose is to do dangerous labor. It's understandable for certain jobs to have some sort of emotion but giving them emotions makes them harder to separate them from actual human beings. I don't understand why the Tyrell corporation gave them artificial memory either. There slogan was "more human than humans" which makes me believe that the only reason for making these replicants was to make some sort of Utopian society of perfect beings. Any thoughts? -Danielle Holub
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It surprises me that during class nobody mentioned the movie AI: Artificial Intelligence or even Frankenstein. They both share the concept of man-made creatures possessing emotions.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly are these stories trying to tell the reader and the audience? That perhaps emotions aren't a human trait after all? That if you give something life, they will possess emotions no matter what?
Something to think about.
The way I see it, the majority of these movies, and even novels, that include human-like robots end in chaos. The robots either want to take over (hello, I, Robot) or have an existential crisis and self-implode like in AI. I guess my point is that in a world that generally is against things like cloning or even life-like robotics, these movies tend to instill a fear in their audience.
ReplyDeleteMovie makers seem to be sending a warning message that trying to "play God" ends badly for humanity, whether these robots have emotions or not.
It's possible that emotions are inseparable from replicants. Throughout the film they're attributed with biological qualities, almost like clones. So perhaps this is a future where genetic technology simply outstripped robotics and emotions were an unintended side effect. This also explains why Tyrell would implant memories. If they can't outright eliminate emotions, they would need to soften the blow somehow and that's what they attempted with the memories and their strange fascinations.
ReplyDeleteAlso, James, replicants in the film are represented as very human. They do bad things, sure. They manipulate, and murder, but they also experience fear and at the end, kindness. If anything, I think replicants are represented as the next evolution of humanity. They're flawed in their fledgling state, but have the potential to be, well, more human than human.
I agree with you the only thing that I can think of that would give purpose to making basically human robots is to create some sort of utopian society. There is no other reason for a simple laboror robot to have emotions.
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