As part of our viewing of Blade Runner, we have to consider how humanity is redefined in the world of this film. We are exploring what it means to be human, in a world where people have their "fake," non-living counterparts ("replicants"). What does authenticity mean in a world where everything, including emotions, memories, reveries, beings, etc. can be simulated, created by people? What defines a "human" or "humanity" in the world of Blade Runner? What distinguishes the real/genuine/authentic from the fake/simulated/ersatz? What is missing/lost/sacrificed (if anything) in these replicas? Is anything gained? Who/what serves who/what? Who are the masters and who are the slave? Who are the superiors and the inferiors? What are the relationships (colleagues, friendship, sexual, love, etc.) between different types of beings? What is a real "emotion" if it can be simulated or real memories if they can be implanted? . What about the setting, the dystopian, half-abandoned world, where the haves reside in pyramid arcologies (on Earth) or have moved Off-World? What kinds of competing sets of values are at play? What are central conflicts of the first part of the movie? I am also particularly interested in tracing how, through their interaction with the "replicants," people (the "blade runners", colonists, or the people who work on creating the replicants themselves) move from merely embodying values/norms of their society that they have have already internalized, to developing individual, (perhaps rebellious?), free-thinking understanding about the world and their places in it, and the hierarchy of beings (living and otherwise). You will be wriring a reflection essay responding to the idea of humanity as it exists in the fim Blade Runner, using the ideas above. This is a personal response essay - you can use first-person/second-person pronouns to express your own individual ideas about the topic. Please note, though, that this needs to be a well organized, well-thought-out reflection.