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This page contains all of the posts and discussion on MemeStreams referencing the following web page: On the limited self-awareness of replicants. You can find discussions on MemeStreams as you surf the web, even if you aren't a MemeStreams member, using the Threads Bookmarklet.

On the limited self-awareness of replicants
by possibly noteworthy at 6:45 pm EDT, Jun 16, 2008

Having recently watched the BD release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut [2], and with the observation that this film is among the favorite films of ubernoir [2], flynn23 [2], Jello, Hijexx, Wraith, and Bob the Great (among many others, likely), I note that even Deckard doesn't realize he's a replicant, and Rachael has a hard time believing this about herself even after Deckard explains how her memories have been implanted.

I quote, from a reviewer who disagrees with Scott's Final Cut but summarizes nicely:

Deckard is greeted by a young woman named Rachael (Sean Young), who visibly resents his occupation. At first, Deckard doesn’t understand why Tyrell insists on having him administer the test to Rachael before trying it out on a Replicant, but eventually it dawns on him that Rachael herself is a Nexus 6. In fact, she’s an experimental second-generation model, equipped with a lifetime’s worth of implanted memories borrowed from her creator’s niece. She’s so close to human that even she doesn’t know she’s a robot. The rationale behind the experiment is that reports from the field indicate that ordinary Nexus 6’s frequently do develop considerable emotional capacities even despite their short lifespans, but of a strangely stunted and unhealthy type.

...

Ever since Blade Runner first appeared, observant viewers have been arguing over whether or not Rick Deckard was supposed to have been a Replicant himself. Even the original theatrical version contains plenty of subtle clues to that effect. Like the Replicants he hunts, Deckard keeps a collection of photos which have no apparent connection to his own life. He is as emotionally flattened as any android, and at one point, Rachael asks him bitterly whether he had ever taken the Voigt-Kampf test himself.

If this review is representative, then it seems that even the declarations of the Creator himself cannot satisfactorily end the debate.


 
 
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