Blade Runner 2049

[mike]

At the end of the clip: "The future of the species is finally unearthed"

Back when the original Blade Runner was made synthetic biology was indeed science fiction.

"Synthetic biology is the engineering of biology: the synthesis of complex, biologically based (or inspired) systems which display functions that do not exist in nature. This engineering perspective may be applied at all levels of the hierarchy of biological structures – from individual molecules to whole cells, tissues and organisms. In essence, synthetic biology will enable the design of ‘biological systems’ in a rational and systematic way."

"Synthetic biology is an emerging area of research that can broadly be described as the design and construction of novel artificial biological pathways, organisms or devices, or the redesign of existing natural biological systems."

What is Synthetic Biology? - Synthetic Biology Project

Artificial human life could soon be grown from scratch in the lab, after scientists successfully created a mammal embryo using only stem cells

Artificial human life could soon be grown in lab after embryo breakthrough

150 Scientists Just Met in Secret to Discuss Creating a Synthetic Human Genome

 

[marduk]

Wasn't Deckard a replicant with a shelf life of only a few years?

 

[Red]

Wasn't Deckard a replicant with a shelf life of only a few years?

I think they intentionally left that ambiguous in the film. There were some hints that he might be, but it was never clear cut. Ridley Scott does say Deckard was a replicant. I think one can make the argument that if replicants can be engineered with a four-year life span, there is the possibility there are some that could have been engineered with longer life spans.

 

[marduk]

I think they intentionally left that ambiguous in the film. There were some hints that he might be, but it was never clear cut. Ridley Scott does say Deckard was a replicant. I think one can make the argument that if replicants can be engineered with a four-year life span, there is the possibility there are some that could have been engineered with longer life spans.

It's pretty unambiguous.

He had the glowing eyes. They didn't trap all the replicants that escaped.

And Ridley said he was a replicant.

 

[Red]

It's pretty unambiguous.

He had the glowing eyes. They didn't trap all the replicants that escaped.

And Ridley said he was a replicant.

I think it also depends what version you saw. I've never seen the director's cut, plus it's been at least a decade since I've seen the film.

 

[mike]

I think he was a Replicant, and the new trailer hints at that too.

Philip K Dicks stories often had a twist at the end. Total recall is another that leaves you guessing

In the film, the hero, renamed Quaid, travels to Mars, but the initial memory implant scene foreshadows much of what he achieves while there, thus causing the viewer to doubt whether or not everything that happened after the Rekall scene happens or is all in Quaid's purchased memory.

 

[mike]

Its worth noting that Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have warned of the threat posed by AI/SI. But its traditionally taken as being in the context of non biological substrate based SI.

In reality if it is a threat we have two vectors by which it could come about. Non biological and Synthetic Biological.

Humanity 1.0 may be about to be replaced.

 

[marduk]

Its worth noting that Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have warned of the threat posed by AI/SI. But its traditionally taken as being in the context of non biological substrate based SI.

In reality if it is a threat we have two vectors by which it could come about. Non biological and Synthetic Biological.

Humanity 1.0 may be about to be replaced.

I think we're about to be upgraded. Check out the book Homo Deus.

Basically, we're creating AI that is intelligent but not conscious. Imagine a vastly intelligent elastic cloud... that isn't conscious.

Imagine augmenting our consciousness with that AI.

That is what I think our post biological future is.

 

[marduk]

Wired article from 2007:

Wired: It was never on paper that Deckard is a replicant.
Scott: It was, actually. That's the whole point of Gaff, the guy who makes origami and leaves little matchstick figures around. He doesn't like Deckard, and we don't really know why. If you take for granted for a moment that, let's say, Deckard is a Nexus 7, he probably has an unknown life span and therefore is starting to get awfully human. Gaff, at the very end, leaves an origami, which is a piece of silver paper you might find in a cigarette packet, and it's a unicorn. Now, the unicorn in Deckard's daydream tells me that Deckard wouldn't normally talk about such a thing to anyone. If Gaff knew about that, it's Gaff's message to say, "I've read your file, mate." That relates to Deckard's first speech to Rachael when he says, "That's not your imagination, that's Tyrell's niece's daydream." And he describes a little spider on a bush outside the window. The spider is an implanted piece of imagination. And therefore Deckard, too, has imagination and even history implanted in his head.

Deckard as Replicant

 

[Randall]

In the Wikipedia article: "When Scott was asked about the possibility of a Blade Runner sequel in October 2012, he said,
"It's not a rumor — it's happening.
With Harrison Ford?
I don't know yet.
Is he too old?
Well, he was a Nexus 6, so we don't know how long he can live. And that's all I'm going to say at this stage.

"Shot in Budapest, the sequel Blade Runner 2049 is now scheduled for release in October 2017."

So it would seem that was was implied in the film has been confirmed at least once by the director. I got the soundtrack from the original. I like it as much as the movie itself.

 

[marduk]

In the Wikipedia article: "When Scott was asked about the possibility of a Blade Runner sequel in October 2012, he said,
"It's not a rumor — it's happening.
With Harrison Ford?
I don't know yet.
Is he too old?
Well, he was a Nexus 6, so we don't know how long he can live. And that's all I'm going to say at this stage.

"Shot in Budapest, the sequel Blade Runner 2049 is now scheduled for release in October 2017."

So it would seem that was was implied in the film has been confirmed at least once by the director. I got the soundtrack from the original. I like it as much as the movie itself.

I love that soundtrack as well.

The two movies I have consistently re-bought when media formats change have been 2001 and Blade Runner.

They age impeccably, and you can turn around and re-watch either one endlessly.

And one of the things I enjoy about having an Apple Music subscription is the insane back catalog - that includes the BR soundtrack.

 

[mike]

I too have the soundtrack, its fantastic isn't it. (Except for one more kiss dear, I always skip that track lol)

The new trailer sort of hints at Deckard being a replicant too. He seems to have isolated himself and once found says "They hunted us".
And as mentioned such twists are entirely consistent with Dicks style of writing.

 

[mike]

Imagine augmenting our consciousness with that AI.

I would argue we are already doing it, We are just not using BCI's to access it yet. But they are coming.......

Facebook is building brain-computer interfaces for typing and skin-hearing


Over the last few years, researchers have started to get quite good at reading your brain activity — your thoughts. Commercial brain-computer interfaces that you can plug into your computer’s USB port have been around for a good four or five years now, and in the last couple of years we’ve seen advanced BCIs that can be implanted directly into your brain. To create a brain-to-brain connection (i.e. telepathy) you also need the other side of the equation, however: You need to be able to take some data and input it into someone else’s brain — and that, as you can imagine, is proving to be a bit harder.

Now, however, a team of international researchers have cracked it.

The first human brain-to-brain interface has been created. In the future, will we all be linked telepathically? - ExtremeTech

 

[ALPHA ROMEO UNIFORM]

Not surprised Fbook a direct link to NSA. First Blade Runner a classic saw it at the movies in the 1980s and A.I. here already no doubt.

 

[marduk]

I would argue we are already doing it, We are just not using BCI's to access it yet. But they are coming.......

Facebook is building brain-computer interfaces for typing and skin-hearing


Over the last few years, researchers have started to get quite good at reading your brain activity — your thoughts. Commercial brain-computer interfaces that you can plug into your computer’s USB port have been around for a good four or five years now, and in the last couple of years we’ve seen advanced BCIs that can be implanted directly into your brain. To create a brain-to-brain connection (i.e. telepathy) you also need the other side of the equation, however: You need to be able to take some data and input it into someone else’s brain — and that, as you can imagine, is proving to be a bit harder.

Now, however, a team of international researchers have cracked it.

The first human brain-to-brain interface has been created. In the future, will we all be linked telepathically? - ExtremeTech

Exactly.

Imagine a word where intelligence doesn't matter, because machine AI is a lot smarter than you.

All the jobs requiring intelligence will render human intelligence worthless.

But consciousness may be a different thing. It may yet have some value.

Or imagine that is our future. Humans are useless. Machines explore the universe, but not consciously.

Perhaps that's what we're seeing in the sky.