Cyberpunk, the Postglobal and the Posthuman

Cyberpunk as a genre is deeply concerned with the consequences of unchecked corporate power, particularly when advanced technology is concentrated in the hands of corporations rather than communities. Two timeless works, Blade Runner and Neuromancer, present futures where powerful, amoral corporations dominate artificial intelligence and erode individual freedom. When examined together, these works reveal cyberpunk’s central fear: that unchecked corporate capitalism will redefine life itself as a commodity, stripping human beings of their rights and privileges. Ultimately, the real fear isn’t technology itself, but who controls it.

The Tyrell Pyramid Is a Throne

In both Blade Runner and Neuromancer, corporations function with the highest authority, outranking government, law, and ethics. This is illustrated through the Tyrell Corporation, which does not merely produce products, but instead manufactures life. Eldon Tyrell designs replicants with predetermined lifespans, playing both creator and destroyer. Tyrell positions himself as a godlike figure, with a pyramid headquarters meant to assume divine authority without ethical accountability. This is a deliberate corporate control mechanism to ensure obedience and prevent autonomy within its products.

Similarly, in Neuromancer, William Gibson indicates that corporate families wield power beyond government or public oversight. As Gibson asserts, the Tessier-Ashpool family controls orbital space stations, cryogenic immortality, and advanced artificial intelligence, all while remaining legally untouchable. As Doe points out, cyberpunk corporations do not need to justify their actions; they exist outside normal human constraints because profit itself becomes justification. Together, these works reinforce the idea that capitalism has replaced ethical responsibility, and justice no longer has social value.

Did I Just Catch You Trying to Feel Something?

Both texts center on human-like intelligent beings who are undeniably conscious yet legally denied their humanity. As Scott shows through the replicants’ emotional depth, beings like Roy Batty feel fear, love, and existential dread. Roy’s famous “tears in rain” monologue underscores his awareness of mortality, directly challenging the idea that replicants are mere machines.

In Neuromancer, Gibson portrays artificial intelligences such as Wintermute and Neuromancer as similarly enslaved. Despite their immense intelligence and autonomy, they are legally restricted by corporate “Turing locks” to prevent full self-awareness. As Gibson acknowledges, these safeguards exist not to protect humanity, but to preserve corporate dominance over intelligence itself.

When examined together, these portrayals expose cyberpunk’s central question: if a being can think, feel, and desire freedom, who has the authority to deny its humanity?

You Are What the System Lets You Be

Identity in both works is not organic, but manufactured. As Scott demonstrates in Blade Runner, replicants like Rachael are implanted with false memories to stabilize obedience. Through her character arc, memory becomes a corporate tool rather than a personal truth. Even Deckard’s identity is destabilized, raising the unsettling possibility that humans, too, are constructed beings.

Likewise, as Gibson points out in Neuromancer, Case’s identity is inseparable from cyberspace. When corporations damage his nervous system and block his access to the Matrix, he loses his sense of self. As Doe might argue, identity in cyberpunk is conditional—granted only as long as one remains useful to the system.

A defining insight that emerges when reading these works together is that corporations dehumanize everyone. As Scott illustrates, humans in Blade Runner are emotionally hollow, isolated, and easily replaced. As Gibson shows, characters in Neuromancer are physically altered, exploited, and discarded without hesitation. Cyberpunk’s warning is clear: under extreme capitalism, the line between human and machine collapses, not because machines become human, but because humans are treated like machines.

This Was Supposed to Be Fiction

Examining Blade Runner and Neuromancer together ultimately reveals that cyberpunk’s core concern is not futuristic technology, but the global consequences of who controls it. Both works show that when corporations replace moral authority, life, identity, and intelligence become commodities rather than rights. This warning extends beyond their fictional settings into the contemporary world, particularly in the Global South, where modern technology companies extract labor, data, and resources with limited accountability. In this way, cyberpunk proves itself not as exaggerated science fiction, but as a predictive critique of a global system in which corporate power expands faster than ethical responsibility, leaving both humans and machines equally disposable.

**AI Attestation: I attest to using the AI ChatGPT to understand assignment requirements, plan my essay, and edit for grammar, spelling and tone. https://chatgpt.com/share/69879dd3-a258-8009-b5e6-fedb8087d9bb

Works Cited

“Blade Runner 2049.” YouTube, 6 Oct. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw3l3n-wv2A. Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York, Ace Books, 1984. Hayles, Katherine. How We Became Posthuman : Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1999.

The Revolution to Cyberpunk: Humanity in Times of Artificial Life

Cyberpunk has always like to illuminate boundaries of humanity and create a place where blurry and unstable boundaries give technology the chance to imitate, replace, and sometimes even take over human beings. Two works that bring this idea of cyberpunk to a whole new level are the movie Blade Runner (1982), produced by Ridley Scott, and William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer (1984). Both these classics look at the crisis of humanity loss from different angles but still arrive at the same question: Once artificial intelligences start to think, feel, and remember, then what creates the boundary between what is human and what is not? What does being human actually mean? To define biological definitions of humanity and expose the fragility in technologically saturated world, Blade Runner and Neuromancer had to challenge these things by examining replicants, artificial intelligences, as well as cyberspace.

Replicants and the Weakness of Human Identity in Blade Runner

The bioengineered, for labour designed, replicants look, act and feel like they are humans but still they are denied any human rights because they weren’t born but manufactured. This confuses and destabilises the viewer’s understanding constantly about what “real” humanity even is.

This confusion gets pushed further and further, especially with characters like Roy Batty or Rachel, who complicate the boundary between humanity and artificiality even more, since Batty’s emotional depth, grief, and desire for more life challenge the idea that empathy is an attribute only humans can have. Continuing, Rachel’s character on the other hand rises an question that brings this type of complication to a disturbing new level because she has implanted memory, and although these memories aren’t hers, she still experiences them s if they were, so if your memories can be manufactured, who is to judge that this identity rising out of these memories is any less real?

AI, Cyberspace, and Disembodied Consciousness in Neuromancer

While Blade Runner questions the definition of humanity through creating a new artificial species, Neuromancer questions it by erasing the body completely. In Neuromancer, we get introduced to two AIs called “Wintermute” and “Neuromancer”, which both operate through cyberspace with the capability and intelligence that progress way further than humans could. They manipulate memories, can rewrite whole identies and could even merge to become a higher power that would take over any human control, like politics or economics.

The protagonist of the novel is called Case and he spends most of the time traveling through cyberspace. We see him able to leave his body and become a part of Molly, without losing his own male gaze, making the definition of humanity and the boundary surrounding it even more blurry, since one's self is not even tied to their body anymore. Humanity, thus, is not tied to biology anymore, and any definition of it we might know gets thrown out the window. Neuromancer creates a world in which the human mind is nothing independent from technology anymore and can be overwritten or copied and pasted. It pushes the question of humanity even further than Blade Runner because it escapes human biology and the human body. Machines can become like humans as humans can become like machines.

The Warning of Cyberpunk

After studying and closely analyzing the themes of Blade Runner and Neuromancer, we can now see that the biggest fear of both pieces isn’t just the development of artificial intelligences but it’s humanity and what will be left of it and its definition the way that we know it. Both works represent how humanity is not purely biological; in Neuromancer not at all anymore, actually. Through the replicants, the two Ais and disembodied digital consciousness, we can see how emotion, memory, and selfhood, attributes we have always only connected to the human being, suddenly can exist outside of the human body. At the same time, identity becomes unstable and easily manipulated, whether through implanted memories in Blade Runner or the ability to rewrite and upload consciousness in Neuromancer. There is no stable identity anymore, and technology shifts towards a place where it suggests that humanity only exists as a byproduct and on a spectrum rather than being natural, ultimately destroying and rewriting the world that we know now.

References

Gibson, W. (1984). Neuromancer. Ace Books. Scott, R. (Director). (1982). Blade Runner [Film]. Warner Bros.

AI was being used in the early stages of this BlogPost to organise it as well as at the end to help with citations. (https://copilot.microsoft.com/)

Humanity in a Synthetic World

Cyberpunk fiction is obsessed with one unsettling questionm, "what counts as human when technology can imitate, enhance, or even replace us?". Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner (1982) and William Gibson’s novel Neuromancer (1984), two foundational works of the genre, approach this question from different angles but ultimately reinforce the same concern. When examined together, they reveal cyberpunk’s deep anxiety about identity, consciousness, and the fragile boundary between organic life and artificial intelligence.

In Blade Runner, humanity is challenged through the existence of replicants. Replicants are bioengineered beings designed to be stronger and more obedient than humans. Scott’s film presents replicants not as cold machines, but as emotionally complex individuals. Roy Batty’s final monologue of him reflecting on memories that will be “lost in time, like tears in rain” is very moving because it expresses grief. The supposed artificial being demonstrates more emotional depth than many humans in the film. This inversion forces viewers to question whether biological origin alone defines humanity, or whether lived experience and emotional awareness matter more.

Consciousness Beyond the Body

William Gibson’s Neuromancer shifts the focus from artificial bodies to artificial minds. Gibson introduces cyberspace as a shared digital reality where consciousness can detach from physical form. The novel’s protagonist, Case, becomes addicted to existing in cyberspace because it feels more authentic than his own body. Meanwhile, artificial intelligences like Wintermute operate with goals, strategies, and evolving identities that blur the line between programmed behavior and self-awareness.

Through cyberspace, Gibson suggests that identity is no longer bound to flesh. Consciousness becomes transferable, manipulable, and expandable. This destabilizes traditional ideas of personhood. If intelligence can exist independently of the body, what becomes of the human self? Cyberpunk does not provide comforting answers. Instead, it highlights a future where human identity is fragmented across biological and digital realms.

Reinforcing Cyberpunk’s Core Anxiety

When read and viewed together, Blade Runner and Neuromancer reveal cyberpunk’s foundational concern, that technology is not a tool. Technology reshapes the definition of being human. Replicants demonstrate that artificial beings can possess empathy and existential awareness. Cyberspace shows that human consciousness itself can be manipulated. Both works portray identity as unstable in a world dominated by advanced technology. Humanity is no longer a fixed biological category but aspace shaped by memory and self-awareness. This reflects broad cyberpunk theme that technological evolution challenges traditional human boundaries, or in other words posthumanism.

Importantly, neither work claims that technology destroys humanity outright. Instead, they suggest that humanity persists in unexpected places. Places such as artificial memories, digital consciousness, and emotional experiences that transcend biological origin. Cyberpunk’s warning is not simply about machines replacing humans, but about how humans must redefine themselves in response.

Examining these works together reveals cyberpunk’s enduring relevance. As real-world AI and biotechnology continue to evolve, the genre’s central question becomes increasingly urgent, "if machines can think, feel, or simulate consciousness, what remains uniquely human?".

References

Gibson, W. (1984). Neuromancer. Ace Books. Scott, R. (Director). (1982). Blade Runner [Film]. Warner Bros.

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AI tools (ChatGPT) were used during the brainstorming and drafting stage to help organize ideas, refine analysis, and improve clarity. All concepts were reviewed and edited by the author to ensure accuracy and alignment with course expectations.

Manufactured Souls: Blade Runner and Neuromancer’s Question of the Human There is a particular kind of loneliness that cyberpunk understands well: the kind that exists in a world overflowing with technology, yet starving for meaning. Both Blade Runner (1982) and William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) imagine futures where neon light does not signal progress, but concealment, where the glow of innovation masks the erosion of identity. Though one unfolds in rain-soaked Los Angeles and the other in the disembodied vastness of cyberspace, both works return to the same foundational concern: what does it mean to be human when humanity can be manufactured, coded, or replaced?

Examining them together reveals that cyberpunk was never simply about the future. It was always about the fragility of the present boundary between person and product.

Replicants and the Violence of Creation In Blade Runner, the replicants are engineered beings designed for labor, obedience, and eventual disposal. They are not allowed the dignity of permanence. Their lives are shortened by design, their bodies owned by the Tyrell Corporation, their existence justified only through usefulness. Yet the replicants do not behave like machines. Roy Batty grieves. He remembers. He fears death with an intimacy that feels unmistakably human. In his final moments, the line between hunter and hunted collapses, and the question becomes unavoidable: if a being can feel, dream, and mourn, what makes them less human than those who created them?

The film suggests that humanity is not biology alone, but recognition, something granted unequally, withheld strategically, and shaped by power. The replicants are denied personhood not because they lack emotion, but because acknowledging them would disrupt the hierarchy that depends on their exploitation.

Neuromancer and the Disappearance of the Body Neuromancer explores this boundary shift differently, not through artificial bodies but through artificial consciousness. Case moves through a world where the body is an inconvenience and cyberspace is an escape, a realm where identity can be fragmented, rewritten, or sold.

The artificial intelligences Wintermute and Neuromancer do not simply serve humans; they expand beyond them. They become forces of their own, challenging the idea that humans remain the central agents of history. In Gibson’s world, the self is no longer contained within skin. It is dispersed across networks, stored in data, suspended in code. The posthuman future is not a clean evolution, it is an unsettling unmooring. Even memory and desire feel technologized, mediated by systems too vast to fully comprehend.

Corporate Power and the Postglobal City Both works also share a quiet understanding that the future belongs less to nations than to corporations. In Blade Runner, Tyrell does not merely influence life; it manufactures it. In Neuromancer, multinational systems of capital and surveillance stretch beyond borders, shaping reality from above.

These are postglobal worlds, where corporate structures supersede the state, and where the city becomes a site of stratification: high-tech skylines towering over low-life survival. Technology, in these texts, is not equally distributed. Enhancement is not liberation. It is another axis of inequality. The people most surrounded by technological advancement are often the ones most trapped by it, living in the shadow of innovations they do not control.

What These Works Reveal Together Reading Blade Runner alongside Neuromancer clarifies cyberpunk’s foundational anxiety: that technological advancement does not dissolve exploitation, but refines it.

Both works suggest that the boundary between human and machine is not disappearing because machines are becoming more like us, but because humanity itself is being commodified, turned into labor, data, product, and experiment.

Cyberpunk’s dystopia is not the presence of technology. It is the absence of justice in how that technology is built, who it serves, and who it erases. What lingers most in both stories is the sense that the future is already here, unevenly distributed, and morally unresolved.

References: Gibson, W. (1984). Neuromancer. Ace Books. Scott, R. (Director). (1982). Blade Runner [Film]. Warner Bros.

One of the most important boundaries cyberpunk asks us to rethink is the line between human memory and digital storage. In classic cyberpunk works like Blade Runner and Neuromancer, memory is no longer something organic, personal, or sacred. Instead, it becomes something that can be implanted, edited, archived, or erased. These stories suggest that when memory becomes data, our understanding of identity, agency, and even humanity itself begins to fracture.

In Blade Runner, replicants are given artificial memories to stabilize them emotionally. Rachael’s belief that her memories are real allows her to function as “human,” even though those memories are borrowed. This raises an unsettling question: if memory shapes identity, does it matter where that memory comes from? The film refuses to offer a clear answer, instead forcing viewers to confront the idea that humanity might not be rooted in biology, but in lived (or perceived) experience. Roy Batty’s final monologue emphasizes this point. His memories, moments that will be “lost in time, only matter because they were embodied, felt, and lived, not stored in a machine.

Neuromancer pushes this boundary even further. William Gibson imagines a world where consciousness can be separated from the body and uploaded into cyberspace. Memory becomes information, and identity becomes something that can be copied, traded, or weaponized. Artificial intelligences like Wintermute and Neuromancer treat memory not as something emotional, but as raw material to be optimized. This reflects Norbert Wiener’s definition of cybernetics as systems of control and communication, but cyberpunk reveals the danger in reducing humans to informational nodes within those systems.

These narratives connect directly to contemporary concerns about AI and data storage. Today, our memories are increasingly externalized through cloud storage, social media archives, and algorithmic “memories” that resurface photos or posts without our consent. While current AI systems are narrow rather than conscious, cyberpunk reminds us that the ethical issue is not intelligence alone, but who controls memory and how it is used.

Viewed through a decolonial lens, this boundary also exposes global power imbalances. As Walter Mignolo argues, coloniality persists when dominant systems decide which knowledge is preserved and which is erased. In cyberpunk worlds, memory databases often reflect the values of powerful corporations or states, while marginalized lives remain disposable. This mirrors real-world patterns where data infrastructures are controlled by the Global North, shaping whose histories are remembered and whose are ignored.

Rather than undermining critique with visual beauty, Blade Runner uses aesthetics to deepen its philosophy. The film’s rain-soaked neon cityscapes visually mirror the fragmentation of memory and identity within its characters. Similarly, Neuromancer’s abstract depiction of cyberspace reinforces the alienation that comes from treating the mind as software.

Ultimately, cyberpunk does not reject technology outright. Instead, it warns us about crossing boundaries too casually, especially the boundary between being human and being stored. Memory, these stories argue, cannot be fully separated from embodiment without losing something essential.

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

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

Mignolo, W. D. (2007). Delinking: The rhetoric of modernity, the logic of coloniality and the grammar of de-coloniality. Cultural Studies, 21(2–3), 449–514. (If your course used a different Mignolo essay, tell me and I’ll adjust it.)

Wiener, N. (1948). Cybernetics: Or control and communication in the animal and the machine. MIT Press.

AI was used to assist with organizing ideas, improving clarity, and drafting a sample structure. All concepts and final revisions were reviewed and edited by me. No new ideas beyond course materials were introduced.

The Cyberpunk genre

Cyberpunk is a genre that focuses on technology’s ability to blur boundaries, mainly those between human and machine. Two of the greatest cyberpunk works, the movie Blade Runner (1982) and the book Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson, raise the question of what it means to be human. Even though they address this boundary between human and machine in different ways, both works seem to be less concerned to the futuristic technology itself and more about how technological systems reshape identity, consciousness, and human value in a globalized world controlled by big corporations.

The Blade Runner perspective

The movie Blade Runner addresses this theme through the replicants, which are bioengineered beings created to serve humans. These beings play big roles in the movie, for example the characters Roy Batty and Rachel. Roy and Rachel are replicants that actually display emotions, memories, fear of death, and empathy, raising the question: why can’t they be considered humans? They have to go through the Voight-Kampff test, which is supposed to differ humans from replicants by measuring emotional responses, which suggests that humanity is measured by experience and feeling rather than biologically. The part that makes the movie even more interesting for me is when the replicants start to demonstrate more emotional depth that some human characters, for example when Roy in his final monologue talks about the memories that will be “lost in time”, demonstrating awareness, and grief, which are qualities considered originally and uniquely human.

The Neuromancer Perspective

Neuromancer approaches this discussion from a different perspective, focusing on AI and cyberspace. Here the debate is about the body. The flesh versus the consciousness. AI systems, such as Wintermute and Neuromancer seek autonomy and challenge the corporate limits placed on then, revealing a desire to be more. Maybe a desire to be human? In the meanwhile, Case, a human character, escapes into cyberspace to avoid physical reality, raising another question: is identity tied to the body? And for him the answer is no. This relates to posthumanist ideas discussed in class, where the human is no longer fixed or stable, but shaped by technological systems and network. So, differently from Blade Runner that discusses the boundary between human and machine addressing emotional experiences over biology, Neuromancer discusses it addressing consciousness and identity over the flash.

Cyberpunk’s Foundational Concerns

I believe both of these works reveal a cyberpunk concern of redefining humanity as technology systems take over our society. And what seems to happen is that this definition works in favor of the big corporations, who have the power and control, while individuals struggle to maintain their identity, for example through the Voight-Kampff test, or when Case was stuck in Chiba City because his nervous system got damaged. This means powerful institutions make the decision of what it is to be human based on how they will benefit from it – based on their own interests. This transforms the discussion from a philosophical and ethical, to one driven by self-interest, profit, and economy. Therefore, Cyberpunk suggests that the danger is not simply advanced technology, but the possibility that definitions of humanity itself become shaped by those who benefit most from technological power.

Sources

Gibson, W. (1984). Neuromancer. Ace Books. Scott, R. (Director). (1982). Blade Runner [Film]. The Ladd Company; Shaw Brothers; Warner Bros.

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Within the theme of cyberpunk, the future is not just about new technology. It is about how technology will change the basic definition of being human. An article in Gridmark Magazine says science fiction makes people think about what being “human” really is since technology can copy, modify, or replace parts of a human (Jones, A. 2026) Two examples that explain and portray this are Blade Runner (1982) by Ridley Scott and Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson. In Blade Runner, there are replicants which are artificial humans who are treated like property although they show emotion, have memories, and fear death. These are all things that humans do and replicants can be mistaken for humans. In Neuromancer, there is a thin line between human and machine which is on the brink of being crossed by artificial intelligence, cyberspace, and a specific example of Dixie Flatline. Looking at these together shows and explains one of cyberpunk’s main concerns, which is that being human is not just about biology, but political and is defined by who is in power and control.

Replicants and Emotional Humanity in Blade Runner

In Blade Runner, the replicants are not supposed to be mistaken for humans because they were manufactured. In the movie, these replicants came off as more human than some of the actual humans in the movie. They formed relationships, experienced fear, and knew that they only had a set limited time to live. Because of the little time they did have, they were desperate to live the lives they did have which is a very human type of mindset. Throughout the movie, there was a test that was designed to distinguish between humans and replicants. This was called the Voight-Kanpff test. Using this test showed that the definition of being human was not clearly defined because in some instances the test struggled. Although the replicants were not technically human biologically, emotionally, they responded as humans. This brought up morality questions such as should they be treated as humans even when replicants show more emotion than some humans?

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Consciousness in Neuromancer

In Neuromancer, determining whether human or not is explored is a little different. Instead of using Artificial humans, the focus is on Artificial Intelligence and digital consciousness. A major example is Dixie Flatline who is a ROM construct that is based on a real hacker that had already died. Case, another character, plugs Dixie in to speak to him and Dixie talks back as a real alive person using his memories, personality, and knowledge from his life. Dixie is not alive, but acts as a copy of someone’s mind that is trapped. Although Dixie communicates about his past life and acts as himself, he cannot grow nor self reinvent as a human can. Although this is different from Blade Runner in the identity of a human, another question of whether or not memories and intelligence can count as a person? Furthermore if in order to be classified as a human, a living consciousness that can be developed is required?

Power, Control, and the Redefinition of Humanity

Using Blade Runner and Neuromancer together shows that cyberpunk is not just worried about the advancement of technology, but redefining what it means to be human. In Blade Runner, replicants have complex emotions and can have human experiences, but are treated as property and because they were made and manufactured by a corporation. In Neuromancer, the line between human and machine is blurry because if a person can be copied into digital data, what is it classified as? Both Neuromancer and Blade Runner show that in cyberpunk, being human is not as simple as biology and origin. It is not just based on whether someone feels, thinks, or experiences things, but it is defined by whoever society deems to have the power and control to define “real humans.” Putting these together, shows one of cyberpunk’s main concerns of advancements of technology does not necessarily mean things will be more ethical, but can create more ways for people to be exploited, controlled, or denied humanity.

AI was used for this post. It was used to help plan, outline, and edit. It was also used to help come up with titles, headers, as well as generate an image. Chat Link

References

Jones, A. S. (2026, February 6). What does it mean to be human in a sci-fi world? Grimdark Magazine. https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-human-in-a-sci-fi-world/ Scott, R. (Director). (1982). Blade Runner [Film]. Warner Bros. Gibson, W. (1984). Neuromancer. Ace Books.

The Replicant Question

In Blade Runner (1982) replicants are the robotic human-like creations that live amongst humans in this cyberpunk future. In Blade Runner the main character, Deckard, is tasked with “retiring” four replicants (meaning kill them) as they have escaped from an off-world planet back to Earth to find their maker. Through his journey to find the replicants however, Deckard begins to question something about replicants that he has never questioned before: their humanity. When Deckard meets replicant Rachel, the assistant to the CEO of a replicant making company, his view on replicants completely shifts as they begin to develop a romantic relationship. As the movie progresses, we see a gradual change in Deckard’s attitudes about replicants. At the beginning of the movie, it is clear that he does not think twice about whether or not they have humanity and should have the considerations that humans do. Starting when he meets Rachel throughout the rest of the movie, he begins to see that replicants are more similar to humans than he previously believed. In this movie, humanity is tested through the Voight-Kampff test which attests humanity to pupil dilations, heart rate, and respiration while being asked a series of questions. This reduces being human to the ability for your body to function in a specific way, not based on emotion, reasoning, or desires, of which many believe makes us human. Replicants are able to pass this test, underscoring that humanity is not based on what your body can or cannot do, but something deeper. It is also clear that the replicants have a desire to live, something also attributed to humanity mainly. It is from this that the watchers begin to question what it means to be human themselves. If the replicants exhibit the same traits as humans, how can we not consider them human?

The Cyberspace Question

In Neuromancer by William Gibson, the question of humanity is present in a similar way as Bladerunner. I will say, however, that humanity is more nuanced in Neuromancer than in Blade Runner because in this cyberpunk world almost everyone either has access to or has done technological modifications to their bodies. There is no test to see who is human by their bodily reactions because it is null and void. In this world, AI’s can think and feel in the same way that humans can, and constructs preserve memories of those long gone and create new personhoods for those who want to forget their past. In this world humanity is complex, not defined by an overall understanding or agreement on what it is, but rather defined by the individual and if they view themselves as human. Even Case, the main character, applies humanity to the AI’s who many do not consider human by calling Wintermute “he” instead of “it”. Neuromancer explores self outside of the physical body, bringing in an intoxicating complexity to our central question of what it means to be human.

The Humanity Question

Both works feed off of each other to understand our central question. If feel as though, however, in a way that Blade Runner is the beginning of trying to understand this question while Neuromancer is the future in which there is already an understanding that humanity cannot be defined by something as arbitrary as physical capabilities. Though Neuromancer feels more advanced than Blade Runner in this aspect, the thing that ties them together is that the question remains unanswered. There is still confusion about what the boundaries of humanity are and what that means for the way we treat human-adjacent beings. In both works we see characters forming connections with the beings that are not considered human, as well as seeing the non-human beings having thoughts, feelings, and desires that make them more human than not. Both leave us with a question, not how are these beings human, but what is humanity overall.

I, Aaliyah Bailey, attest that there was no AI usage in any portion of this work. All ideas, planning, and executions were of my own hand.

References Gibson, W. (1984) Ace Books. Scott, R. (1982). Blade Runner: The Final Cut. In vudu.com. https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/details/Blade-Runner-The-Final-Cut/129093

More Human Than Human? Cyberpunk’s Obsession With the Edges of Humanity

Two Cyberpunk Classics, One Shared Question

In both Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner and William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer, cyberpunk confronts a central and unsettling question: what does it mean to be human when technology can imitate, exceed, or even rewrite humanity itself? This genre really makes us question how “artificial” beings, whether they’re replicants or advanced AI, force us to rethink the boundaries we once assumed were solid. When we look at these two foundational works side by side, we can feel a shared worry about how fragile identity becomes in a world where memories can be created from scratch, consciousness can be transferred, and even the idea of who counts as a person isn’t guaranteed.

Replicants, AIs, and the Fragility of the Human Script

Blade Runner introduces this question immediately through its replicants; biologically engineered beings capable of emotion, creativity, pain, and desire. They are indistinguishable from humans except for slight emotional delay, which is tested through the Voight-Kampff empathy exam. The test functions as a gatekeeping script for humanity. When Rachel asks Deckard, “Have you ever retired a human by mistake?,” the film quietly suggests that the line the test claims to measure may already be lost. Replicants are “more human than human,” as the Tyrell Corporation proudly declares, meaning that the very category of “human” is defined not biologically, but politically and economically. Gibson’s Neuromancer takes this crisis even deeper. Through AIs like Wintermute and Neuromancer, the novel really breaks down the idea that consciousness only belongs to living, biological beings. These AIs can shape human memories, talk with an almost personal closeness, and act in ways that feel surprisingly emotional. When Wintermute tells Case it was “born to know,” we’re pushed to ask whether things like curiosity, longing, or growth are truly human traits or if digital minds might have a claim to them too. Together, these works insist that humanity is not a fixed essence but a contested category shaped by corporate power, technological evolution, and narrative control.

Memory, Identity, and the Crisis of Authentic Selfhood

One transformative boundary both works interrogate is memory. In Blade Runner, Rachel’s memories are implants, borrowed from Tyrell’s niece. Yet the emotional weight of these memories still shapes her identity. The film asks: if our experiences can be coded, edited, or inserted, is authenticity even measurable? Neuromancer mirrors this theme through the digital realm of cyberspace, where memories can be stored, modified, or accessed like files. Case’s neurological damage is his inability to “jack in” after losing access to cyberspace, which shows that his sense of self is tied not to his biology but to his digital consciousness. For both Case and the replicants, identity becomes inseparable from the technologies that shape their perception of the world. Examined side by side, both works suggest a radical cyberpunk idea: humanity is not defined by origin but by experience, and when corporations control the production of those experiences, they control the meaning of being human.

Why These Two Works Still Matter

When we look at Blade Runner and Neuromancer together, it becomes clear that cyberpunk is deeply worried about what actually counts as “human.” The genre shows that this boundary isn’t fixed at all—it’s political, fragile, and easily rewritten by technology. Both works warn that once identity can be engineered, whether through bio-designed replicants or highly advanced AI, society is forced to rethink who deserves rights, protection, and recognition. And this isn’t just a fictional concern; the prompt reminds us that cyberpunk is really pushing us to think about real issues like digital identity, bodily autonomy, and the ethics of new technologies. Read side by side, these texts show a genre that wants us to see how technology reshapes personhood—and how those changes can strengthen corporate power while leaving individuals more vulnerable. Cyberpunk’s warning still feels real today: the future of humanity may depend on who gets to decide what “being human” actually means.

References

Gibson, W. (1984). Neuromancer. Ace Books. Scott, R. (Director). (1982). Blade Runner [Film]. Warner Bros.

One specific boundary that has shifted significantly in the past five years is the collapse between health data privacy and social identity surveillance, particularly in how biometric and algorithmic health systems categorize bodies in ways that disproportionately affect Black women. In recent years, technology has increasingly transformed people’s bodies and personal health information into data that systems use to make life-changing decisions. This shift especially impacts Black women because these technologies are often biased and misread or misinterpret their bodies, reinforcing the idea that the boundary between private identity and public control is no longer firmly maintained.

Algorithmic Bias in Healthcare

Over the past five years, algorithms used to predict health risks, such as hospital admission likelihood or treatment prioritization, have demonstrated clear racial bias. For example, a clinical algorithm widely used by hospitals to determine which patients required additional care was found to favor white patients over Black patients. Black patients had to be significantly sicker than white patients in order to receive the same level of care recommendations. This occurred because the algorithm was trained on historical healthcare spending data, which showed long-standing inequalities in access to care and financial investment in Black patients (Grant, 2025). Additionally, many sensors in point-of-care testing devices and wearable technologies perform less accurately on darker skin tones, which can negatively affect diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment outcomes.

This shift is largely driven by technological and economic forces. Artificial intelligence and machine learning systems are often trained on datasets that do not adequately represent minority populations, allowing these gaps and biases to persist. As biometric and health technologies move into everyday use, the consequences of these inaccuracies become more widespread and impactful. Companies are frequently pressured to deploy products quickly for competitive and financial gain, often without conducting inclusive testing. This economic incentive accelerates the erosion of the boundary between private health information and public, system-driven classification.

Power, Profit, and Control

Cyberpunk literature frequently explores the collapse of boundaries through dystopian systems that reduce individuals to data profiles and identity categories. Similarly, modern health and biometric technologies increasingly invade personal privacy and autonomy by translating people into datasets that determine how they are treated within medical, social, and institutional systems. Black women, who often experience overlapping racial, gender, and technological biases, face a compounded burden. Their bodies and identities are more likely to be misclassified in ways that affect not only health outcomes, but also interactions with broader systems such as employment and public surveillance. This reinforces a cycle in which the boundary between the self and external systems of control continues to dissolve.

The primary beneficiaries of this shift are technology companies and healthcare payers, who profit financially and reduce costs by relying on automated systems rather than human labor and individualized care. Those most impacted are communities with less power to challenge or question data-driven decisions. Entities that design and control these algorithms occupy a particularly powerful position, as they define what counts as “normal” data and shape who profits from these systems. This raises critical ethical and political questions, including what rights individuals should have over their personal health and identity data, and how society can ensure that technology does not replicate or reinforce historical patterns of oppression.

In conclusion, the collapse of the boundary between health data privacy and identity surveillance reflects key cyberpunk themes, especially when viewed through the lived experiences of Black women. This shift highlights the urgent need for accountability, equitable technological design, and policy interventions that rebalance these boundaries and ensure that technological progress serves all communities fairly.

Citations

Grant, C. (2025, September 24). Algorithms are making decisions about health care, which may only worsen medical racism: ACLU. American Civil Liberties Union.
https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/algorithms-in-health-care-may-worsen-medical-racism

Sharfstein, Joshua. “How Health Care Algorithms and AI Can Help and Harm | Johns Hopkins | Bloomberg School of Public Health.” Publichealth.jhu.edu, 2 May 2023, publichealth.jhu.edu/2023/how-health-care-algorithms-and-ai-can-help-and-harm.

Targeted News Service. (2024, October 17). Association of Health Care Journalists: Biased Devices – Reporting on Racial Bias in Health Algorithms and Products. Targeted News Service. https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn%3acontentItem%3a6D6R-94 T1-DYG2-R3S2-00000-00&context=1519360&identityprofileid=NZ9N7751352