BladeZone's Off World Forums

(Sorry for posting it in the general topic area too but i dont know which area of this forum is the most popular and i need ideas asap. !)

Hey guys, i have a very big school project concerning this movie and thought this would be the place place to ask it because of all the experts.

My teacher asked us : based on the film, what are the differences between humans and replicants.

To be more specific, i will share a few of my ideas so you guys know what im talking about :

1) Humans and replicants both have the desire to LIVE.

The average Joe will do anything to survive, just like any of us would do.
In this film, we could see that even the replcants have that desire to live, even though they are "robots" ( u know what i mean ).

2) Humans and replicants both DEVELOP emotions and a moral conscience when they live in a society.

Humans dont have moral standards or manners when they're born, they develop it with time by living in a society, JUST LIKE THE REPLICANTS DID.

3) This time its a difference. Humans and replicants dont have the same physical power.

i.e : When Roy inserts a nail in his hand. I dont think any man would be able to do that without screams of pain.

Anyhow, i hope to receive more aspects i can talk about that relates humans to replicants in this movie.

Thank you in adance

The lack of a natural empathy is the main difference between humans and replicants (apart from the obvious physical stamina, strenght and pain tolerance of reps).

That emphatic reaction is what the Voight-Kampff machine measures in Leon and Rachel. In humans, this response is very fast and its intensity varies according to the questions, while in the replicants is slightly delayed and not so "in tune" with the stimuli. By analizing the times and intensity of the phisiologycal reactions to the questions, the Blade Runners are capable of establishing if a subjetc is human or replicant. It is shown how, with subjects like Rachel, this process becomes more and more difficult.

thank you for your answer centauro.

One quick question though : what does empathy mean?

thanks in advance

Hi, anto. "Empathy" generally means identification with and an understanding of another person's (or in the case of the VK test, an animal's) situation, feelings, motives, etc.

Plenty of definitions at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/empathy

More on empathy, as it pertains to Blade Runner, here, (Empathy Test).

I completely forgot about this website I had linked in a blog.

Empathy is the recognition and understanding of the states of mind, beliefs, desires, and particularly, emotions of others. It is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into another's shoes", or experiencing the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself; a sort of emotional resonance.

The Empathy Symbol