Tyrell Corporation: Not Far From Fiction

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In Blade Runner, the Tyrell Corporation accentuates corporate overreach and unethicality. It creates highly evolved technoogical “Replicats,” artificalial being that are indistiguishable from humans. They are designed to be exploited, and used for labor and warfare. The corporation prides itself on making porducts that are “more human than human” making a model out of surpassing human limitationts. The companies actions lead to severe consequences in the film that include social unrest, existential crisis and violence.

There some parallels that can be made between the Tyrell Corporations, and corporations of the contemporary world. Companies such as Amazon have faced criticism for their treatment of workers as expendable resources, similar to Tyrell’s exploitation of the Replicants. Furthermore, there are corporations crticized for their monopolization of markets and greed for power and influence. These include some tech giant like Google, Meta, and Amazon which have been caught overstepping in realms of privacy and information.

While these comparisons are important to make, there is of course the idea of potential hyperbolization of reality because the Tyrell Corporation is a work of fiction. Despite this, some realistic predictions can be made. If technological adavancements contune to evolve without proper ethical oversight, there is an increased risk of exploitation, dehumanization, and inequality. A consolidation of power by a few corporations, in AI and biotech fields specfically, is a very real concern.

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