The artificial intelligence It has long been our faithful daily companion, capable of performing tasks, solving problems, helping us with research, and much more. But what would happen if Siri or Alexa could have a body and no longer live through technological devices? In this case, we would be talking about androids, replicants, robots. In the history of cinema, there are numerous films that deal with this topic: we have chosen three, analyzing the human-machine relationship"The world of replicants","Blade Runner"and "MatrixAlthough there are no androids in The Matrix, we thought it appropriate to discuss them because machines dominate humans, much like what happens today with social networks and various technologies. Let's take a look at a hypothetical future, touching on the themes of habitus and field, identity, master-slave dialectic, and simulacrum, with the help of sociologists and psychologists such as Tajfel, Baudrillard, and Bourdieu, but being careful not to give away too many spoilers for those who haven't seen them yet.
A world of replicants
In the near future, humans have decided to live their daily lives in a condition of total alienation, interacting with the outside world through robotic copies of each individual: this is android (or surrogates), real humanoid alter egos but in an improved version compared to the originals, both in appearance and attitude. The passive life of human beings is turned upside down when surrogates are mysteriously killed: here comes into play a Bruce Willis completely rejuvenated, who will play the role of a policeman who decides to carry out the investigations himself, emerging from isolation. It is impossible not to notice the similarities with the habitus theory di bourdieu: In the movie, the replicants are just like clothes worn by humans.
Bourdieu between field and habitus
To provide an adequate definition, the French sociologist's theory must be briefly explained: constructivist-structuralist, argues that there are social structures that are independent of individuals, that is, that exist a priori and that society itself provides. They have the power to influence individualsThere are objective and subjective structures. An objective structure is the field (academic, religious, power, work), that is, the social arena in which each of us plays our role. Complex societies, for example, tend to create a large number of distinct fields. Thehabitus Instead, it's a subjective structure, that is, the psychological sphere constructed by the individual with their set of beliefs and expectations. Habitus and field are related: the individual wears the habit, using it in different ways depending on the type of field they're interacting with. In this film, we have a habit that simultaneously exists in two different fields: humans are able to project their psychological sphere onto replicants, managing to live firsthand in society, at work, anywhere, while remaining in total isolation, comfortably seated in dentist-like chairs, attached to a computer in their own home. Therefore, the type of relationship that binds androids to humans is assimilative, as replicants are used as a means to live young and disease-free for as long as possible. The android, in fact, was conceived and built as extension of the human body and not as a distinct being. We find a completely different relationship in the film "Blade Runner", which clearly highlights the difference between humans and androids. But we'll see that in the next episode...
Claudia Leonardi
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Born in 95, I'm a sociologist and a student in Media, Digital Communication, and Journalism at Sapienza University. Passionate about criminology, social psychology, and sociology, my guiding spirit is Goffman. I love punk rock music, psychological horror films, and I'd hike anywhere.
