Blade Runner, is a cyberpunk movie about a retired detective named Deckard and his mission is to find replicants on earth and kill them. Deckard eventually falls in love with a replicant named Rachel, unveiling the possible connection between a human and a robot. Is this possible in the future? Can robots eventually rule the world?
Rachel & Deckard Source: Blade Runner
“The power of computer users to simulate environments is central to much cyberpunk, with the computer user jacking into this virtual environment or cyberspace by some means: through spine, through eye sockets, through a chip in the head” (Butler, 2001).
With the creation of chips for humans now available in Australia, we could be moving towards a society in which we cannot differentiate between humans and cyborgs. To understand this further it is important to define Cybernetics, which is ‘a study of communication, command and control in living organisms, machines and organisations’ (Egan, 2016).
Lister (2009) states that the idea of cyborgs is not new, however it has different technological stages of development. He also suggests that life and technology has continuously converged and diverged, meaning that it will not disappear (Lister, 2009). It is here to stay. Although these concepts are quite difficult to come to terms with, it definitely is intriguing.
I understood that technology is forever developing and is part of my everyday life. I thought about Siri on my phone who can be witty, and even emotionally supportive. How is this even possible and how far can this go? It’s quite scary when I think of it.
I decided to look at the history of my iPhones over the years. Below I have a timeline of the advances Apple has made. The phones were fed to us slowly, with little improvements year by year. I accepted every technological development and didn’t think twice about Siri, and why she knows so much.
http://www.timetoast.com/flash/TimelineViewer.swf?passedTimelines=1322612
This was a very enlightening week and I now have a list of Cyber Punk movies to see over the holidays.
Reference List
Butler, AM 2001, Cyberpunk, Pocket Essentials, Harpenden, GB. Available from: ProQuest library. [ 28 August 2016].
Egan, Elizabeth 2016, ‘Week 4 Lecture ‘Cyber Space & Cyber Punk’, Griffith University, Brisbane, Semester 2, 2016.
Lister, M., Dovey, J., Giddings, S., Grant, Ian., Kelly, Kieran., 2009, New Media: a critical introduction, London: Routledge, 237-42, 281-3
Stone Tablets to Glass Tablets 