Use of Empathy in Judging Androids in Blade Runner - Term Paper Example

College: Use of Empathy in Judging Androids in Blade Runner Ridley Scott’s movie ‘Blade Runner’ is a derivative of the plot and ideas of Philip Dick’s novel, titled ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ The science fiction film, just like the book, revolves around the events that take place when the Earth is ruined by nuclear wars and environmental destructions. Consequently, the Earth becomes virtually uninhabitable prompting the devastated human populations to seek refuge in other planets like Mars. To foster emigration and colonization efforts, humans receive robots or androids that are supposed to help them settle in other planets. These humanoids can barely be distinguished from real human beings due to their high level of sophistication. As the plot unfolds, some replicas rebel against their masters and escape. This prompts the remnant law enforcement agencies to employ human bounty hunters, who not only protect the remaining human population, but also hunt and kill escaped droids. Both the novel and the film explore the ethical implications of people’s exploitation of human-like androids. Further, these works use the contraption of human replicas as a basis of delimiting and reviewing the human essence. The principal theme to which the audience is drawn is empathy. Judging from the human-droid interaction portrayed in Blade Runner, it is morally wrong for humans to use this principle as a basis for determining whether a robot should live. Blade Runner keenly explores human essence, showing that the attributes which differentiate people from robots are crucial elements that define humanity. This becomes evident as the novel follows the life of characters like Rick Deckard, a prominent bounty hunter. In the book, Dick places emphasis on humanity being founded upon a belief framework that accentuates the need to empathize with all living beings. One of the most significant empathetic abilities identified in the book, is the love for animals. Just like Galvane (415) recognizes, in her analysis on ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,’ a character, oppressed by the prevailing hegemony for raising dead animals, encourages his followers to purchase or own animals as a way of showing their commitment to him. The empathy for living things is further emphasized by normalization of electric animals, since majority of the fauna have been rendered extinct following destruction of Earth by World War Terminus. It is rather apparent that animal consumption, albeit indirectly through economic gain, is against the empathetic belief system. Further, many individuals can barely differentiate between electric and living animals. Rick Deckard, the novel and movie protagonist, who hunts escaped robots also aspires to own a real animal. This can be interpreted as Deckard’s desire to practice empathy, since owning an animal would translate to taking care of a living creature. The protagonist’s aspiration to own a real animal makes him plan ahead for what he would like in exchange for his cumulative bounties. Humans in Dick’s novel and Scott’s movie are also expected to extend empathy to their counterparts. Clearly, both the book and film use the value of empathy to define the feeling of pity toward other humans or living creatures like animals. Empathy is portrayed as a crucial construct in the movie and as a fundamental aspect of human identity. It is for this reason that the movie applies this concept as a way of detecting humanoids, since they lack the capacity to empathize with others. However, the excessive value held by humans for empathy is not a genuine way of defining themselves and it is also highly pretentious. This is because although they set the standards for empathy, humans in Blade Runner do not portray the stipulated emotive feelings. For example, Deckard’s desire to own a real animal is not founded on empathy. This is clearly shown by the fact that he is saving up his bounties for the ultimate purchase, which in this case, is a real animal. The bounty hunter is more interested in the prestige associated with such a purchase. Deckard obsesses over the price of the real sheep he intends to buy, and how nice it will be to replace the electric one, showing that his desire is linked to socioeconomic stature (Dick 31). These social and financial interests clearly contravene the basic principle of empathy, making the virtue an improper standard of defining humanity. The conflict between animal ownership and the ideology of empathy is not restricted to animals solely, but to humans as well. This is evident from the contentious use of empathy boxes by humans. These are gadgets that give humans an opportunity to share emotions, by enabling them to synchronize moods. Therefore, although the humans have intense hatred for droids, they are largely dependent upon technology as they attempt to create a sense of community and emotions, which are considered to be crucial elements of human identity (Crnkovic and Baran 61). The dependence on technology to foster humanity is clearly shown by Iran, who is the protagonist’s wife. Iran uses the empathy box to regulate her emotions on a daily basis. This does not mean that humanity should be defined on the basis of emotions, empathy and a sense of community, among other ideology. Rather, it reveals that some practices adopted by humans exaggerate the essence of human identity. This in effect invalidates some of the terms used to define humanity, meaning that they should not be used to justify eliminations of droids in Blade Runner. Androids in Blade Runner attempt to live independent of their masters, but realize that the only way they can do this is through destroying humans. The replicas clearly act like their human counterparts, who sought to destroy them in order to survive. They unwittingly become the images of the humans that created them. The fact that the robots mirror people’s behavior shows how humans in their development efforts inevitably cause widespread destruction. This conflict also becomes apparent in the film, when Deckard, whose work is to hunt and kill androids, realizes that Rachel, the woman he loves, is a replica. This draws attention to the fact that being human cannot be defined along distinctive lines. Deckard is torn between his hatred for androids and his love for Rachel. The latter does not even know that she is a droid, blurring the lines between humans and non-humans even further. Therefore, it is ethically unjustified for humans to exploit the replicas for slave labor, deny them their independence and mistreat them, yet they yearn for the same things. It is also morally wrong to decimate the droids, yet within the context of Blade Runner they do not appear to pose any threat to humans. The principle of empathy is further proven hypocritical by this tendency to kill the humanoids, yet they are living creatures in every perceivable sense. Empathy in robots has been one of the most discussed issues in the ‘Blade Runner’. With a lot of emphasis being created on humanity by practicing empathy, people should also have clear distinctions the definition of a human. This is because, it is imperative to discuss technology which human beings rely on especially the droids. This is what makes people have empathy towards the robots but in real sense, the android seem to embrace this aspect more than the human beings. This is why in the utilization of mood organs as well as empathy boxes in the text function creates emphasis in the droids life in ways that are extremely antithetical to the principal purpose of their existence. This is why the foster isolation and division among the humans instead of fostering a good relationship amongst them. This shows that the robots have embraced empathy more than the human beings. Dick (416), show the image of Mercer which serves as the principal purpose of disintegration, but not social solidarity. By abandoning the empathy box as a tool that is used for regulation of the droids by the government, it is clear that the robots were more attached to the human feelings than the humans themselves. It is therefore clear that the humans are the once that do not appreciate their feelings thus can be described s the droids because they are the ones that seem to lack empathy for their own kind. In many cases, human beings do not express themselves to others as much as they are supposed to. The actions of the robots clearly contradict the humans’ comprehension of the androids and their focus towards becoming more human than the humans themselves (Dick 186). This showed that there was a deeper sense of togetherness among the droids than in humans themselves especially with what they share with one another other. Because of the immense technological advances and also in biological science the human being definition is getting more difficult to understand. While droids and other hybrid machines and organism extend to gaining human abilities, there are various ethical issues that have been introduced. This means that the issue of being a machine is becomes a danger to the existence of human beings. This is what many people see when they look at non living things. For instance, if a kid is genetically engineered and animal DNA is introduced into that babies blood stream, then the child will have hybrid aspects which are hard to explain and that will make the child less of a human being and more of an animal. This is what the humans sees in people who are not fully human. Nevertheless, people use animal organ transplants for longevity purposes and this has led to numerous individuals to be less afraid of symbiotic relationships with machines or animals thus the do not see the need to get separated. However, it is imperative to have a difference between animals and droids because of the fact that there is a biological difference that is visible. According to Bruno (65-68), the fundamental description of a human being is someone that is similar to us. This is why in the past, people made rules that differentiated people from inanimate beings. Additionally, the human body is used to tell the difference between the good and a bad human being. This is how people define a human and also differentiate people from non humans’ beings. This is why in the past; some societies would kill children that had abnormal physical features because of the fear of difference in human characters. Defining human beings basically means that people are considered as members of a certain spices because they posses certain properties. Therefore, animals and other living things that do not posses these characteristics do not have much moral relevance, thus they cannot be considered as human beings. However, some machines and robots can have so much human elements and they can therefore be labeled as “human”. This is evident from the novel where one of the treatment of an android called Pris, is exceptional especially when being hosted. For instance, Pris is offered margarine by Isidore (Dick 69). This shows that a human being was not being judgmental of the fact that Pris was a robot and he treated him with the respect that should be accorded to a visitor or any other human being. This shows that indeed human beings are empathetic despite the fact that they are seen to be less accepting of the robots. This portrays Isidore as the most empathetic in the text and at a pint he even confuses a real cat to an android and this does not mean that he is ignorant but it just shows that he is not judgmental in any way. That is the way people should view such non humans living among them and not judge the fact they are trying to be more like them (Smith, n.pg). In ‘Blade Runner’, there is a delicate situation in the expression of the “humanity” of the droids in comarson to the real humans. This is why the humans want to portray the droid as violent and lacking human values. This is especially subtle when Roy Batty’s kills his creator. This is what show he difference between the robots and human beings. While an android can kill without any emotional dispensation, a human being on the other hand cannot be able to kill another human being. This shows that there exists empathy between human beings despite the fact that the movie make humans seem to be less empathetic than the droid. Nevertheless, despite the obvious violence, there is a dynamic of common uprising which show the emotional bond of between the droids. This shows a huge difference of what people perceive non human things to be and what they can achieve by embracing empathy in their daily lives. In conclusion, it is evident that both the movie and the book express the human characters to be portrayed only by humans, while at the same time revealing humanity in the androids. Therefore, the difference that can be noted between a human and an android is easily shown by as Zizek (40). This is when he argues that human memories are also ‘implanted’ and this is portrayed by the fact that people borrow aspects of individual myths from one another (Zizek, 41). Further he suggests that the identity that an android take is gotten from human aspects. Therefore, it is not morally correct for the humans to judge androids by utilizing empathy as the determining factor for one to be a member of the society in ‘Blade Runner’. Works Cited Baudrillard, Jean. From The Precession of Simulacra. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2ndEdition. Eds. Vincent B. Leach, et al. New York: Norton, 2010. 1556-66. Bruno, Giuliana. Ramble City: Postmodernism and ‘Blade Runner’. October, 41 (1987): 61–74. Print. Crnkovic, Gordana and Baran Curuklu. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Ethics and Information Technology 14.1 (2012): 61 Dick, Philip. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Reissue: Del Rey. 1996. Print. Galvan, Jill. “Entering the Post human Collective in Philip K. Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’” Science Fiction Studies, 24.3 (1997): 413-429. Print. Smith, Adam. "Greater Good." Can Robots Feel Your Pain? N.p., 2007. Web. 15 December 2013. Zizek, Slavoj. Tarrying with the Negative: Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology. Durham: Duke University Press, 1993. Print. Read More