The movie "Blade Runner 2049" tells the story of a dystopian society
in which humans have left the earth and moved on to new planets due to the ruined state of our own.
The earth, where the story is set, is still inhabited by what are known as replicants:
bioengineered humans born in laboratories who are viewed as less than other humans.
They're left to live in deplorable conditions and work the kinds of jobs that no one else wants.
The movie follows the story of K, a replicant who works for the Los Angeles Police Department.
His job is to retire by killing older models of replicants who were created before applicants were engineered to be obedient.
Trouble arises when K discovers on one of his missions that a replicant has given birth,
something which had previously been thought impossible.
His superiors are afraid that if this were discovered, it might lend credence to those
who argue that replicants should be afforded the same rights as natural-born humans,
inciting a rebellion.
"Blade Runner 2049" deals with two essential questions, one of which is current
and one of which will arise in the not-too-distant future.
The first of these pertains to those people who are not treated as fully human
so that the rest of society may live in relative comfort.
Who are they? Where are they? And how can we help them?
The second of these questions is who is human? And who should have equal rights as such?
As we advance further and further with our medical and robotic technology,
we get closer and closer to having to answer this question.
How close to human is close enough for equal dignity?
Must our creations talk like us, love like us, create life as we do?
The replicants are submitted to a whole host of wrongs because they are seen as less than human.
They are required to work, live in terrible conditions, and have no freedom to be who they are as individuals.
They are seen as mere objects tools with which a job may be accomplished.
The question we must face today is who are our replicants?
Who might they be in the future? And who do we see as less than human?
"Every leap of civilization was built off the back of a disposable workforce.
We lost our stomach for slaves.
Unless engineered."
*outro music*
