123 School Work

Bladerunner Are the replicants more human than human

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  There are many characteristics that make a human being; be it at a more spiritual level adopted by the Greek philosophers ("I think therefore I am"), or the rather mundane definition given by the dictionary. Whatever one's interpretation may be, there is no doubt that the replicants, are at least, humans. It is the statement "more human than human" which prompts the question of characteristics that define humans, and how the replicants exceed such characteristics.
  
  The fact that the replicants are at least human, in the context of the film, can easily ascertained from the film due to the fact that the replicants are created with a four year life span; it suggests that when a replicant passes its four year life span, it will become human, and therefore cannot be distinguished from other humans using the Voight-Kampff test. It could be argued, that since the replicants don't live after the age of four, they are not humans because they will never actually become 'human'. However, this is countered by using an analogy of an infant. An infant, at birth, can hardly be described as human; they have no empathy, no sense of oneself, no emotions, and no rational reasoning ability, other than pertaining to its instincts, such as its desire for food. Yet infants qualify as human beings because of their potential to become one. This is exactly same for the replicants; they have potential to gain emotions ("The designers reckoned that after a few years they might develop their own emotion responses. You know, hate, love, fear, envy...