Blade Runner (1982) and Neuromancer (1984). what does it mean to be human ?

My experience with technology is different from what we see in cyberpunk stories. I grew up far from big cities, and technology was never the most attractive thing for me. I preferred to spend my time outside, enjoying nature and doing activities instead of using computers or advanced technology.

Because of this, I did not expect Blade Runner to interest me so much. However, the movie surprised me. Even though it is very focused on technology and artificial intelligence, it helped me learn different ways of thinking about humanity, emotions, and identity. The movie made me reflect on how technology can affect people’s. The movie and the book helped me to connect my own background with new ideas, and it improved my understanding of cyberpunk in a meaningful way.

Memory and Humanity in Blade Runner

In Blade Runner, the story is about replicants, who are artificial humans created by a big and powerful corporation. One important character is Rachael. Rachael believes she is human because she remembers her childhood. These memories help her understand who she is and how she feels about life.

Later in the movie, Rachael discovers that her memories were implanted and are not real. This moment is very strong for me as a viewer. Even though the memories are fake, her emotions are real. She feels pain, fear, and confusion. While watching this scene, I started to think deeply. If memories help create our identity, does it really matter where those memories come from?

Identity and Cyberspace in Neuromancer

In Neuromancer, the idea of being human appears in a different way. The main character, Case, spends a lot of time connected to cyberspace. For him, the mind is more important than the body. His identity exists more in digital space than in the real, physical world.

The artificial intelligence in the book, such as Wintermute, does not have a body, but it can think, plan, and communicate. This shows that intelligence and identity do not always need a human body. While reading the book, I started to question if being human requires a body, or if consciousness and memory are enough. This idea connects to posthumanism, which questions traditional ideas about human identity. Neuromancer shows a future where humans and machines are closely connected, and identity becomes flexible and not fixed.

My Conclusion:

When we examine Blade Runner and Neuromancer together, we see that both works question what it means to be human by focusing on memory, identity, and technology.

For me, being human means more than intelligence or memory alone. I believe that to be human, we need to be born human, create our own memories, and have our own body. Our body is a very important part of who we are. It carries the physical traits we inherit from our parents, and it connects us to our family and our history.

To be human is to know that I was really there. My physical body and my mind lived that moment together. I was in that place, and I could feel things, like the wind on that day, the environment around me, and my emotions in that moment.

Because of this, I feel that it is not fair when artificial intelligence can tell a story or remember something it never truly lived. Like Rachael in Blade Runner, she remembers things that did not really happen to her. For me, this is not fair to the replicants, and it is also not fair to humans. What makes us human is not just remembering, but living the memory, feeling it with our body and our senses.
Both stories really challenge my beliefs.

References

Blade Runner. (1982). Directed by Ridley Scott. Warner Bros.

Gibson, W. (1984). Neuromancer. Ace Books.

Class lectures and previous homework assignments from this course.

AI tools were used only to help translate some words into English