We're all, essentially, replicants...

I have heard so much about Blade Runner in my life that I ended up putting it on a pedestal in my mind. A few years ago there was this rumor that it was oging to be put back on the big screen. I decided then that I would wait until that moment to finally see the film. When Alex said that he'd be showing it in 142, I figured that that was good enough. After 20 years of waiting, I finally got to see the legendary Blade Runner.

Honestly? I was extremely underwhelmed. I just didn't like it. Perhaps it was the hype I had created... but I don't think so. Conceptually, there is a lot going on and can certainly provide hours of conversation, discussion, and debate... but the film as a piece of entertainment did not work at all. My biggest problem was that there was so little character development. I never once actually found myself caring for Deckard. His plight did not seem interesting or captivating. On top of this, the pacing was so random that before I had enough time to understand one scenario, we were on to another. By the time we find Deckard hanging perilously from atop a high building, I really couldn't have cared less if he had fallen to his death.

I like to discuss the idea of a self-aware android, but I really feel like a broken record at this point. What more can I say on the topic? I think I have made it rather clear that I find absolutely no moral dilemma when it comes to artificial intelligence. What is it to me if we create a separate sentient entity?

However, the idea of creating memories is new to the class and highly interesting. These characters have vivid memories that give them purpose and definition. When it turns out that these are really just scripts put into their minds rather than actual recorded events that played out in their life, it makes you really wonder what the point of memories really is in our daily lives. Without memories, we really cannot know who we are because we do not know where we have been and what we have done. But then, when I really think about it, it occurs to me that it is only the memories that define us, not the actual events. If you remember something one way, that is what guides you, even if that isn't "really" how it happened. So for these androids, they feel a certain way based on the stories they believe to be their own. To me, then, it doesn't really matter at all if they are accurate. If you remember something, then it is real to you. Sure, she never LEARNED to play piano, but she remembers learning and still CAN play, so how is that any less real?

It reminds me of a strange paradox that has occurred so very many times in my short life. I like to embellish the details a little... even when I am just retelling the story in my head. The result of this is that, occasionally, I recreate history. I even remember that I made up details, but I forget which ones and the truth is lost. It bothered me at first, then I realized that however I remember it IS how it happened. The past, after all, doesn't exist. It may have at one time, but here and now is all there really is. And now, however the past is remembered is how it happened. Once something is gone, it can never be found. This angers some people, but I take solace in knowing that the universe has its truth and we, as decaying masses of flesh, have ours.

I'll be Back to the Future

Terminator. You know, I had never actually seen this in its entirety before this last Thursday. I don't know what I expected, but what I saw certainly wasn't it. I enjoyed it a lot, but I must say that I don't think that it holds up very well. This is really one of those cases where the original film relied heavily on special effects so, as time went on, those effects start to fall flat. The film just FEELS like the 80s and I don't think that it will ever escape that. That isn't to say that the story isn't still very cool, but watching it when there are movies like I, Robot or the Matrix which are just far more FUN to watch these days because of their far more polished effects. Sure, in another decade they, too, will fade, but not yet.

Time travel. One of the most popular topics in all of Science Fiction. In my opinion, however, it almost always fails. Time travel, unless taken lightly, is extremely unbelievable. I must say, however, the fact that time travel is only one way in this film makes it much more believable. The biggest problem when it can go either way is that going BACK to the future is ridiculous. Once you change the past, going back to the future is too dangerous as the world will no longer be the same place.

One thing that I did like was that Reese coming back and fathering John Connor really didn't change anything. As he said, he was just preserving it. In both "universes", he clearly acted the same way. I appreciate when time travel doesn't change anything, it is just another means of transportation. It makes me think that there really was never any way that the Terminator could have succeeded. He obviously had to fail simply because he existed at all. It basically amounts to this being a contained loop in time that should always play out the same way. Had it ever NOT done so, then it could never have been to begin with.

See how stupid that whole paragraph sounded? That's why I hate time travel. You CANNOT sound smart discussing it (unless it is with worm holes and bending light and all of that good stuff... but that is completely different!).

Help Me!

For my first catchup post, I would like to discuss my feelings on The Fly. I first saw this movie when I was about 8 years old on a night where I had a "scary movie marathon." Of course, being only 8, my parents didn't actually let me watch very many truly scary movies, but my mom was adamant that I watch The Fly. I never did find it scary, but certainly found it disturbing. Watching it again more than a decade later, my mind found whole new issues with the film.

The first is the whole idea of teleportation. Sure, this is one of the coolest superpowers that any of the X-Men ever had, but that was always explained without science to come in and ruin the fun. Here we actually find a discussion about the movement and re assemblage of atoms and molecules so that the same person or thing comes out on the otherside. I must say, even if scientists were ever able to develop such a thing, there is no chance in HELL that I would get into the thing. My reason is actually the same reason that Invasion freaked me out. I just don't believe that the person who would show up on the other side of the device would be me. To the glance of anyone else it would be... and in a way it would be a perfect remake of me that would act, think, feel, move, be the same as I was. However, I can't help but think that I would actually be dead and gone. My personal consciousness would cease to exist and that is just something that I would not be willing to risk.

Back to the film itself, I find the ending to be a fantastic theoretical question. Posed with the same dilemma of killing the half fly/half-man beast that was screaming from the web, what would you do? Personally, no matter what I did, I know that I would be utterly ruined for life. Should I save the creature, there really isn't anything I could do to help it. The rest of both their bodies was completely destroyed so there is obviously no hope of saving either animal. However, letting it die, or, killing it myself, would prevent me from ever having a good night's sleep again. Did I kill a human? Am I a murdered? Was it the right thing to do? It works well to blur the line between killing humans and animals. Sure a fly might not be entirely sentient, but there is SOME sort of consciousness there...