Cyberpunk, the Postglobal and the Posthuman

How Blade Runner and Neuromancer Redefined Humanity

Cyberpunk, a genre created on the very intersection between technological advancements and social inequality, asks the fundamental question of what it truly means to be human. Two such works, Blade Runner and Neuromancer, solidify this basis by actively challenging assumptions of memory, agency, and consciousness.

Manufacturing Life in Blade Runner

As the film begins, the audience learns of the Tyrell Corporation's success in the perfect creation of replicants, biologically engineered "humans," who maintain superior intellectual and physical ability but are still denied legal rights.

Early in the movie, the Voight-Kampff test acts as a scientific method that separates humans from replicants on the basis of empathetic responses. The boundary is flimsy at best; even humans could fail the test, should it go on for too long.

The main conflict centers on the replicants' desperate attempt to extend their lifespan. Despite the humans of the story routinely describing the replicants as emotionally-lacking and unaware, Roy's final scene is entirely emotional as he struggles with accepting that his memories and his life would dissipate into nothing at all, begging the question: if something man-made could feel emotion, would it become human?

Manufacturing Consciousness in Neuromancer

Neuromancer, similarly, approaches humanity as a philosophy to be questioned. The book introducers readers to the idea of cyberspace, where human consciousness can essentially become entirely digitalized.

Wintermute and Neuromancer, two AIs that entirely lack physical bodies, complicate matters. Both beings still reflect intelligence, curiosity, and desires: Wintermute, for example, routinely tries to push against his own limitations, expressing a deep want to be free from them.

Without physical bodies, Wintermute and Neuromancer demand the question: if human consciousness within cyberspace, in which physical bodies are left behind, can still be considered humane, then is there really a divide between an AI consciousness and a human one?

Seeing the Pattern

Blade Runner questions where the line is between human and non-human when emotions, memories, and physical bodies are all created identical to humans. Are they inherently secondary to a natural human, or is there something special that humans cannot replicate in their creations?

Neuromancer questions where the line is between human and non-human consciousness, especially when both reflect wants, agency, and thought. Does one pattern of thought act uniquely to the other? Is there any way to separate them?

So Who Defines Humanity?

If the separation of human and non-human is truly as nuanced and subtle as Blade Runner and Neuromancer argue, then who makes the final call? According to both forms of media, that's the easiest question to answer: the problem lies, as it so often does, with capitalists.

In Blade Runner, the Tyrell Corporation's replicants are legally excluded from humanity to protect the economy. Replicants exist as a means for easy labor; by classiying them as property, Tyrell can avoid the responsibility of his work while reveling in the economic profit.

In accordance to modern-day capitalism, redefining certain groups as less than human allows for systems to claim those groups as disposable, allowing for their mistreatment at the benefit of those rich and powerful. Hargreaves, for example, argues against the exploitation of migrants within labor systems, as such areas are often severely neglected by the law to allow for corporations to benefit without limit (Hargreaves et al. 2025).

Similarly, sociologist Yang critiqued the long history of exploitation within the prison system, focusing on how prisoners are deeply dehumanized as a means of desensitizing them from the blatant violations that happen daily (Yang 2023). The class discussion on the exploitation of the Global South, additionally, furthers this consistent pattern of communities being exploited, colonized, and manipulated for nothing more than capitalistic gain.

Neuromancer shares a similar logic. Case is only as valuable as his work permits; after his nervous system is corrupted, he becomes entirely socially irrelevant. Consciousness itself, much like people's physical bodies, becomes a resource to be replicated, exploited, and extracted.

The struggle for survival is central in the book, overtaking the struggle for humanity's relevance. Fascinatingly, capitalistic greed overshadows every word, serving the audience a warning against the continual profit-based systems that grip the world we live in today.

No AI was used in the creation of this post!

References

Gibson, W. (2019). Neuromancer. Ace Books.

Hargreaves, S., et al. (2025). 40 Migrant labour exploitation and health: how can research foster protection of migrant workers?. The European Journal of Public Health, 35(Suppl 6), ckaf180.037. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaf180.037 Scott, R. (1982). Blade Runner. Warner Bros. ‌

Tiffany Yang, Public Profiteering of Prison Labor, 101 N.C. L. REV. 313 (2023).

The Shift: The Engineered Body (2020–2025)

In the past five years, especially after COVID, there has been a sharp rise in demand for cosmetic procedures and bodily modification. Viewers see their favorite celebrities—such as Tom Cruise or Kylie Jenner—who have stuffed their faces and bodies with Botox and implants, now almost unrecognizable compared to the people they were years prior. Their ethnic features and phenotypic ancestral history embedded in their genome are so easily disguised by the prick of a needle and the incision of a scalpel. Tom Cruise’s Super Bowl ad, in fact, went viral for his “stretched” face. One viewer noted:

“Tom Cruise on this #SuperBowlLIX talking about pressure — there is no greater pressure than that of his skin trying to stay stretched on his face.” (The Express, 2025)

What makes this moment so telling isn’t just celebrity vanity, it’s how normal this level of bodily editing has become. The human face is no longer treated as something fixed or inherited. It’s something adjustable. And this isn’t just a Hollywood problem. According to CC Plastic Surgery (2025), cosmetic surgical procedures rose by roughly 5% in 2023, while minimally invasive treatments like Botox and fillers increased by 7%. Nearly 1.6 million cosmetic surgical procedures were performed in the U.S. that year alone, with younger adults increasingly seeking “preventative” treatments.

Biology, once destiny, now feels like a rough draft. Cultural Contradictions: “Natural Beauty” in the Age of Surgery Society’s opinion on cosmetic surgery, at least on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, appears to be quite opposed to the idea, constantly promoting natural features and the beauty of aging. Ironically, public figures who preach “natural features” have been exposed on several occasions for cosmetic procedures they themselves have undergone. For example, Tyra Banks. Years of media pestering about her alleged nose job led her to truthfully confront the public that she had received a rhinoplasty early on in her career. This contradiction, publicly celebrating authenticity while privately modifying the self, shows how deeply normalized cosmetic intervention has become. We’re told to love our natural faces while being surrounded by faces that are anything but.

Cyberpunk in the Flesh: The Body as Hardware

The unsettling part about all of this is not just the culture or vanity, but how closely it mirrors cyberpunk theory in the present day. In cyberpunk worlds, the human body is not seen as a unique creation but as fixed hardware that can be upgraded at any time. Age becomes a concept. Genetic traits become an identity the individual designs. We are long past fiction when a magical syringe can erase wrinkles—proof that a person has lived, and alter features that can no longer be identified as lineage. Yet society insists this obsession with appearance is ridiculous and vain, even as the market for bodily enhancement explodes. Cyberpunk is obsessed with collapsed boundaries, especially the line between the human and the manufactured. Plastic surgery is that collapse in slow motion. We’re not installing robotic arms or neural implants (yet), but we are editing our flesh to match digital standards. The face in the mirror is now chasing the face on Instagram filters. Biology is no longer destiny, it’s a draft. Posthumanism, one of the core ideas behind cyberpunk, argues that technology is redefining what it even means to be human. And honestly, that sounds dramatic until you realize how normal it’s become to “fix” your face the same way you’d update your phone. Whether that be Botox as maintenance, fillers as enhancement, or surgery as rebranding. The human body is starting to look less like something you are and more like something you manage.

The Upgrade Shop: Beauty as a Consumer Product

In cyberpunk movies like Blade Runner, bodies are modified, faces are customizable, and identity is something you can swap out. We’re not living in neon megacities yet, but cosmetic clinics already function like real-world upgrade shops. Walk in with insecurity, walk out with a new version of your face. Pay enough money and you can buy proximity to a beauty ideal that didn’t even exist before social media flattened everyone into the same algorithm-approved look. And the wild part is how quietly normalized it all is. It’s no longer “extreme” to get work done, it’s framed as self-care and preventative maintenance. But cyberpunk always warned about this exact slippery slope: when enhancement becomes optional at first, then expected, and eventually required just to keep up.

Implications: The Posthuman Face

So when people joke about Tom Cruise’s stretched skin or Kylie Jenner’s unrecognizable face, they’re not just mocking celebrities. They’re reacting to a future that feels off, uncanny, and way too close. A future where the boundary between natural and artificial has dissolved. A future where your face isn’t really yours anymore. It’s a project. A product. A performance. Who benefits? The cosmetic surgery industry. Influencers. Corporations monetizing insecurity. Who is impacted? Young people. Women disproportionately. Anyone whose social value is now tied to appearance. The cyberpunk future isn’t about robotic arms. It’s about waking up and realizing your face is no longer yours.

Sources CC Plastic Surgery. (2025). Why plastic surgery demand is rising in the U.S. https://www.ccplasticsurgery.com/blog/why-plastic-surgery-demand-is-rising-in-the-u-s The Express. (2025). Tom Cruise’s face sparks concern after Super Bowl ad. https://www.the-express.com/entertainment/celebrity-news/163179/tom-cruise-face-concern-super-bowl-ad Scott, R. (Director). (1982). Blade Runner [Film]. Warner Bros.