Meanwhile later models become more and more docile and subservient, first with David serving his maker Peter Weyland better than Roy served Eldon Tyrell, and then with Ash perfectly obeying his corporate masters but with a sadistic streak in Alien. Finally, Bishop in Aliens (1986) is a benign and dutiful synthetic, albeit he was never programmed to betray his crewmates. For humans, Bishop (Lance Henriksen) is the preferred robot to keep around, but that is because he is the least like us and the least likely to follow the beat of his own drum. The machine itself is an odd mix of 70’s and 80’s electronics with older technology. Three mini CRT displays, a sensor arm, and a bellows are some of the machine’s best-known features. [Tom] is starting with the sensor arm, an odd mix of belts and telescoping rods. He’s already got a manually operated prototype built. Add a motor, and one part of the machine is ready for action. Thanks to its brilliant melding of film noir, science fiction, and cyberpunk motifs, not to mention its stirring music and unprecedented visual density, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982/2007) has become an influential cultural icon. What really sets the film apart from most movies, however, are the ways in which it encourages philosophical questions. Virtually all commentators agree that “What does it mean to be human?” – understood as asking something like, “What characterizes the real (or authentic) human being?” – is the central philosophical question the film raises. Attempting to answer that question can be a fertile approach to the film, with moral implications for how to think about the qualifications for inclusion in the human community. That is not, however, the only way to appreciate the philosophical significance of Blade Runner. The film also encourages viewers to ponder the question, “What fundamental experiences constitute the uniquely human mode of self-consciousness?” Showing how the latter question leads to a richer appreciation of Blade Runner as philosophy is the aim of this chapter. Keywords

You’re in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of a sudden you look down and see a tortoise. It’s crawling toward you. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1945. The film and the new psychology. In Sense and non-sense, 48–59. Trans. H. Dreyfus, and P. Dreyfus. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1964.

In terms of performances, there’s an argument that Harrison Ford always plays Harrison Ford, but here he loses the swagger of Han Solo and the self assuredness of Indy to become a world-beaten man (replicant?) who’d really rather be at home drinking whiskey from beautiful futuristic tumblers. As replicant and love interest Rachael, Sean Young is given little to do, but still manages to make the character live and breathe. That is because humans by and large have wrought a world of utilitarian uselessness in both films. And the people with real depth and souls are the robots built to serve them. Indeed, one can draw a through-line from Ian Holm’s Ash in Alien to Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty in Blade Runner to Michael Fassbender’s David in Prometheus. While the most recent of those three films is technically a prequel to Alien, it is also a bridge between the other two. The LayerOne conference takes place in greater Los Angeles and this year it adopted a Blade Runner theme in honor of that landmark film. My favorite part of the theme was the conference badge modeled after a Voight-Kampff machine. These were used in the film to distinguish replicants from humans, and that’s exactly what this badge does too. In the movies, replicants are tested by asking questions and monitoring their eyes for a reaction — this badge has an optional eye-recognition camera to deliver this effect. Let’s take a look!

But it doesn’t stop there. This umbrella also comes with a built-in flashlight in the transparent handle, providing you with convenient and practical lighting whenever you need it. No more fumbling in the dark or struggling to find your way. With this umbrella, you’ll always be prepared.Of course, the most referenced and telling connection between Alien and Blade Runner is how they share what is essentially the same tech. In Alien when Sigourney Weaver prepares to fire up her escape lifeboat from the Nostromo, she revs the engines by commencing to “Purge” them.

You’ve got a little boy. He shows you his butterfly collection plus the killing jar. What do you do? Yet more on the nose still is the below image from the UK steel box release of Prometheus on Blu-ray. Yep, if you look at the text files buried in the materials of that Alien prequel, you get a transcribed ramble from Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce), who in the midst of his droning heavily implies that Dr. Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel) was his mentor. Carroll, Noel. 2006. Philosophizing through the moving image: The case of Serene Velocity. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 64 (1): 173–185. Pate, Anthony. 2009. Nietzsche’s Übermensch in the hyperreal flux: An analysis of Blade Runner, Fight Club, and Miami Vice. Dissertations and Graduate Research Overview, Paper 15. http://digitalcommons.ric.edu/etd/15. Accessed 12 Aug 2019.Erv’ Plecter] replaced the central support rod for the umbrella with a clear polycarbonate tube. An optic cable snakes through the hollow tube, illuminated by a Luxeon LED in the handle. The custom PCB and 900 mAh battery are both housed there as well. Take a look at (and listen to) the demo after the break. We’ll need to add this to our future projects list right after that Lightsaber movie replica build. Often imitated but never fully replicated is Vangelis’ Golden Globe nominated synth score. Recorded on an Yamaha’s CS-80 synthesizer, these ambient textures were as vital to creating the universe of the film as the set design (which drew inspiration from Edward Hopper paintings and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis), costume, lighting and Orwellian ‘Cityspeak’ language invented for the film. But for whatever is in the actual movies, those in charge of marketing and fan-baiting at 20th Century Fox have been stoking this theory for years. Look no further than the 20th anniversary Alien DVD from 1999, which hid deep in its extras this fascinating easter egg: apparently Tom Skeritt’s Capt. Arthur Dallas freelanced a stint for the Tyrell Corporation of Blade Runner.