Laura Mosher
Dr. Chris Boese
English H102
September 15, 1998
The Complex Mind of a Human
In the science fiction movie, Blade Runner, engineers decide that only
having humans on the planet is not enough. They believe that the Earth
needs replicants to advance the human race. Many questions are then
brought up. Many people do not believe that these replicants can
be considered as part of the human race. Despite the beliefs of many
people these replicants must be regarded as humans. I believe that there
are defining characteristics needed to be considered a human: the ability
to think, the ability to have emotions, and the ability to use ones experiences
to form his/her life.
To
think for oneself
One determining factor of being part of the human race is the ability to
think for oneself. I was always told that when I went away
to college I would have to start thinking for myself. I believe it
starts much earlier than this. Humans start to think for themselves
the instant they are born. The infant decides to cry, the toddler
decides to walk, and the teenager decides to rebel. Each of these
decisions are helped along by other humans, but each is also done partially
by the individual. As a human gets older, his/her thoughts become
more individualized. The same thing happens to the replicants in
Blade Runner in the beginning they are programmed to think certain things.
As the replicant matures, he/she gets more and more of his/her own thoughts.
Pris from Blade Runner states it best when she says, “I
think, Sebastian, therefore I am.” This is a famous quote by
Descartes that has been used throughout history. My translation of
the quote would have to be that when someone has the ability to think he/she
has the ability to exist as part of any given race. The replicants
that are created are made with the same intelligence as the engineers who
programmed them. This leads me to believe that these replicantes
have just the same right to exist as a human as the engineers that created
them. When the engineers give their creations the ability to think
for themselves, they give them the ability to be part of the human race.
The people who do not believe that replicants are human believe that
the replicants only think what they are programmed to think. These
people are completely misled. A human child mostly thinks what his/her
caregivers inspire him/her to think. Then as the child gets older,
he/she develops his/her own thoughts. Even though replicants have
limited life spans, they have time to develop their own thoughts.
Since the replicants start out with a brain that is already much more sophisticated
than an infant’s, it does not take as long for the replicant to develop
his/her own thoughts. As far as I am concerned, the fact that replicants
have their own thoughts is indisputable. The incident in the movie
when the replicants start to kill humans in the off world colony in order
to take control is direct proof that they have their own thoughts.
The humans who create replicants would not program them to kill their masters.
This fact proves that replicants can think for themselves and therefore
have a major characteristic of a human being.
To have emotions
and a soul
Another major characteristic of a human is the ability to have emotions.
I believe that emotions are the most important quality in a human.
Emotions are very complex things that show that a person has a soul.
I believe that a human soul is the part of that person that organizes,
expresses, and controls his/her emotions. In Blade Runner, Rachel
had all the emotions of a human. She was able to love her “family”
that are in her pictures. When Deckard tells Rachel that her memories
were only implanted in her mind, she feels deep pain. She can laugh,
cry, and love. There is no limit to the emotions she can feel. It
is not, however, only Rachel who has emotions that show her soul.
There is a specific scene in Blade Runner that shows the presence of a
soul in Roy. When Roy is dying, he is holding a dove which is a universal
symbol of a human’s soul. When Roy dies he releases the dove, and
it flies away. I believe this is to show that Roy does have emotions
and a soul, but they had always been restrained. When Roy dies his
emotions are finally set free. Since replicants have emotions, even
if they are concealed, they have the complexities of a human mind.
It is said that the early replicants are made to have no feelings
or emotions. This is impossible. There is no way that someone
can create something that can live, breath, and think without giving him/her
the chance to build emotions. It is a possibility that the engineers
believe that if the replicants can not physically feel, they will not be
able to emotionally feel anything. This is not true. It is
true that Roy, in Blade Runner, can reach into boiling water and not be
hurt. He can also stick a nail through his hand and not even look
phased by the event. However, when he finds Pris dead, he mourns
over her and gets an animal rage in him because he is so hurt by this event.
This shows that even if the replicants are programmed not to feel anything,
they learn how to emotionally feel through the experiences they have.
To
experience life
It is the experiences in life that give the replicants one more aspect
of a true human being. When humans start to experience things in
life, they begin to build themselves into the person they are. No
one can say how a specific person is going to end up in life. I believe
partially in fate, but I know that everything that I experience in my life
leds me to this point. All the good and bad things that have every
happened to me have made me into the person I am. The moment replicants
are switched on, or however they are started, they begin to experience
things. Each of their experiences makes them more into a person.
Their experiences build their ability to think for themselves, they give
them their emotions and their souls. In the movie Blade Runner Roy declared,
“I’ve seen
things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the
shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the
Tannhouser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears
in rain. Time to die.” In one statement he shows
everyone that he has developed emotions through his experiences.
It is not possible for the engineers of the replicants to be sure how the
replicant will feel throughout his/her life span. The experiences
that they have are the only things that can really determine the quality
of ones life.
Genetic
Engineering
Scientists, today, are even trying to predict how our lives will be.
In “The Dark Side of the Genome” it is said that scientists can determine
diseases in fetuses. It says that in a couple of years one will be
able to determine, from the fetus, the eye color or body shape of the person
that will develop. The article also says that in twenty-five years
we will be able to “predict various aspects of cognitive functions and
general educability.” (Weinberg, 310) I believe that this will only
cause problems. A person’s behavior and his/her ability to learn
has more to do with the environment he/she is given and the experiences
that she encounter than the make up of his/her DNA. I will state
once again that it is impossible to predict how anyone’s life will be lived.
The comprehension of it all
When one starts dealing with the human mind and soul, it is impossible
to understand it all. The scientist can study all they want, and
engineers can invent as much as they want; but when all is done the human
mind is out of any human’s understanding. As far as I can tell a
human is someone who has experiences that let him/her think for himself/herself,
and someone who can express his/her thoughts through emotions. A
human is also someone who, no matter how hard he/she tries, will never
fully understand the process in which his/her mind and body works.
It is stated in the Bible that, “We can hardly guess at what is on earth,
and what is at hand we find with labor; . . . .” (The Wisdom of Solomon
9:16) It makes no difference whether one is born with this complex
mind or is given one in a laboratory, no one will understand all its aspects.
With this in mind genetic engineering is actually pointless. No one
will ever understand, let alone be able to predict, what makes a human
feel certain ways and what makes him/her do certain things. The only
thing I know for sure is that to be considered as a part of this complex
race one must possess a certain number of qualities: the ability to think,
the ability to feel emotions, and the ability to trace out his/her own
life through your experiences.