Blade Runner Creative Process 10/11

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”

While watching Blade Runner, we were struck by how similar the story was to a lot of the science fiction media we consume. Through research, we discovered that “Do androids dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick was likely the core source of inspiration for not only Blade Runner, but all the media we were reminded of.

Netflix Series "The 100": Similarities of Blade Runner and The 100 within AI technology 

• “The grounders” were the last of the humans who survived the nuclear apocalypse

• The rest of the human race lives in space on a satellite called “The Arc” 

• “The Flame” or the “Spirit of the Commander”, was an artificial intelligence that resided in a cybernetic neural implant

• The Flame was designed to allow the AI to directly interface with a human brain and augment it

• The grounders used The Flame as a mean of divinity and authoritative power on earth to control rival tribe interactions 

• A.L.I.E. was a sentient artificial intelligence whose primary objective was to make life better for mankind. It was responsible for the Nuclear Apocalypse, overseeing the City of Light, and served as the main antagonist of Season Three

The replicants within Blade Runner were advanced forms of AI technology designed to support the human race, when consequently, they turned against the human race to benefit themselves. A.L.I.E was also designed to support the human race and protect mankind, however, she became too powerful and essentially destroyed our existence. Both pieces contain themes of the advancement of AI technology and how potentially threatening it could be to our species due to the difficulty of distinguishing reality from something virtually artificial.