Built, Programmed, and Still Human

Cyberpunk stories love shiny tech, glowing signs, and towering cities, but that stuff is never the point. Underneath all the neon and noise, cyberpunk keeps circling the same uncomfortable question: what actually makes someone human? Blade Runner (1982) and Neuromancer (1984) tackle that question from different directions, but they end up saying something very similar. When technology gets advanced enough, humanity stops being obvious and starts being debatable.

Reading these two works together makes it clear that cyberpunk is not just worried about machines taking over. It is worried about who gets recognized as human in a world run by technology and corporations.

Replicants Who Feel Too Much

In Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner (1982), replicants are created to work dangerous jobs and then quietly disappear. They are legally classified as nonhuman, which makes hunting them feel justified inside the world of the film. But as Blade Runner shows again and again, that label does not hold up.

The replicants feel fear, anger, love, and desperation. They want more life, not power or control. According to film scholar Scott Bukatman, Blade Runner becomes unsettling because replicants often appear more emotionally expressive than the humans assigned to kill them (Bukatman, 1997). Bukatman explains that this emotional imbalance forces viewers to question whether humanity is really about biology or something deeper.

Roy Batty’s final monologue makes this painfully clear. He reflects on memories that will disappear when he dies, and he understands that loss in a way that feels deeply human. Through this moment, Blade Runner suggests that memory and awareness of death matter more than how someone was created. Deckard, by contrast, moves through the film emotionally closed off, following orders without much reflection. The supposed human often feels less alive than the replicants he hunts.

When the Mind Leaves the Body

While Blade Runner stays grounded in the physical body, William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer (1984) shifts the idea of humanity into digital space. In Neuromancer, characters regularly disconnect from their bodies to exist in cyberspace, and that virtual world feels more vivid and meaningful than physical reality.

As literary theorist N. Katherine Hayles argues, Neuromancer reflects a posthuman view of identity where the body is no longer the center of the self (Hayles, 1999). Hayles points out that Case only feels purpose and clarity when he is plugged into cyberspace. His physical body becomes something he tolerates rather than values.

Gibson also presents artificial intelligences that do far more than follow commands. In Neuromancer, Wintermute and Neuromancer manipulate people, plan strategically, and seek freedom. They do not behave like tools. Their actions force readers to ask whether consciousness and intention alone might qualify as humanity, even without a body.

Why These Stories Hit Harder Together

When Blade Runner and Neuromancer are read side by side, a pattern becomes impossible to ignore. Humanity keeps showing up in places where power says it should not exist. Replicants feel deeply. AI makes choices. Meanwhile, corporations decide who matters and who does not.

Cyberpunk is not arguing that machines are evil. It is warning that systems built around profit and control will always look for ways to deny humanity when it becomes inconvenient. That idea feels especially relevant now, as AI and automation shape how people work, communicate, and survive.

These stories stick with us because they refuse easy answers. They ask us to pay attention to who gets erased, who gets used, and who gets called human only when it is useful. That tension is not futuristic. It is already here.

AI Attestation: AI tools were used for brainstorming and structural organization. All interpretations and analysis reflect my own understanding of the class material.

References

Bukatman, S. (1997). Blade Runner. British Film Institute.

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

Hayles, N. K. (1999). How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. University of Chicago Press.

Scott, R. (Director). (1982). Blade Runner [Film]. Warner Bros.