Widely acclaimed as a future classic on its release, Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 is both visually stunning and philosophically profound and provocative film. Extending the story of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, it is a cinematically stunning achievement in its own right. Containing specially commissioned chapters by a roster of international contributors, this fascinating collection explores the philosophical questions that abound in Blade Runner 2049, including:
- What does it mean to be "real"?
- What distinguishes the authentically "human" person from the mere simulacrum?
- What are the essential conditions for personhood?
- How does the fact of being born inform one’s experience of being-in-the-world?
- How might shared memories feature in the constitution of personal identities?
- What happens when created beings transcend the limits intended in their design?
- Can a hologrammatic artificial intelligence have its own subjective experiences?
- To what degree are all conscious experiences akin to controlled hallucinations?
- What essential feature defines intimate relationships of romance, sex, and love?
- How might developing artificial economics impact our behaviour as prosumers?
- What are the implications of techno-human enhancement in an era of surveillance capitalism?
- How might distinct cinematic worlds nevertheless be narratively "interlinked"?
- What, if anything, can we really know about fictional truths?
Including a foreword by Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049: A Philosophical Exploration is essential reading for anyone interested in philosophy, film studies, philosophy of mind, psychology, gender studies, and conceptual issues in cognitive science and artificial intelligence.
Arvustused
"To think that Blade Runner 2049 sparked such conversations and stimulated such reflections about humanity and artificial intelligence sincerely deeply moves me... That is one of the reasons I love the very existence of this book."
Denis Villeneuve, Director of Blade Runner 2049 "To think that Blade Runner 2049 sparked such conversations and stimulated such reflections about humanity and artificial intelligence sincerely deeply moves me... That is one of the reasons I love the very existence of this book." - Denis Villeneuve, Director of Blade Runner 2049
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ix | |
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| Acknowledgements |
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xv | |
| Note on the director |
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xvi | |
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List of characters and cast |
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xvii | |
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| Foreword |
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xix | |
| Introduction |
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1 | (7) |
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1 We're All Just Looking For Something Real |
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8 | (19) |
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2 The Alphabet Of Us: Miracles, Messianism, And The Baseline Test In Blade Runner 2049 |
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27 | (21) |
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3 The "Miracle"Of Replicant Reproduction |
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48 | (20) |
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4 Being-From-Birth: Natality And Narrative |
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68 | (19) |
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5 The Best Memories: Identity, Narrative, And Objects |
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87 | (21) |
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Christopher Jude McCarroll |
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6 Breaking The Code: Strong Agency And Becoming A Person |
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108 | (19) |
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127 | (22) |
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8 Androids Dream Of Virtual Sheep |
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149 | (16) |
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9 Her Eyes Were Green: Intimate Relationships In Blade Runner 2049 |
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165 | (20) |
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185 | (21) |
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206 | (22) |
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12 What Am I To You? The Deck-A-Rep Debate Andthe Question Of Fictional Truth |
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228 | (20) |
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| Index |
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248 | |
Timothy Shanahan is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and the author of Philosophy and Blade Runner (2014).
Paul Smart is a researcher at the New University of Lisbon, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, UK, and a freelance cognitive science consultant, specializing in machine learning and virtual reality technologies.
