Our second installment in the science fiction genre that connects cinema and sociology . After discussing " Surrogates ," relating it to Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of field and habitus, it's now time for another science fiction classic: Blade Runner.

Synthetic fugitives

We are in a current Los Angeles of 2019 but with a climate totally different from the usual Californian heat: gloomy, dark and rainy. In this far from idyllic metropolis, android similar to humans, with the only difference that they are endowed with far superior intellectual and physical abilities. Synthetics are used as slaves for dangerous operations in space colonies They don't have a long lifespan, being dismantled once they reach their fourth year. Four androids from the Nexus 6 series are designed to be as human-like as possible. They rebel against this by staging a revolt in extraterrestrial stations. To avoid detection, they travel to Earth to blend in with humans and establish contact with their creator, thereby prolonging their lives, as they are tired of living in poverty. On Earth, the four fugitives are declared illegal, and a former off-duty police officer is hired to help them: Rick Deckard, belonging to the special unit Blade Runner, whose sole objective is to eliminate deviant or inefficient androids.

Consciousness and identity

The entire film will unfold with adrenaline-filled chases full of twists and turns. Here we note how the the man-machine relationship is negative and strictly based on the master/slave dialectic (a concept we also find in "The Matrix"). Androids, besides being conceived as machines without free will and conscience, are also seen as a potential threat. The manufacturer, in fact, hypothesized that Nexus 6s could develop emotions thanks to experience. Their very being practically perfect, much more so than humans, is one of the reasons why each of them has an expiration date. But how do synthetics get to… develop awareness And the desire to live longer? It occurs when they strengthen their willpower to stand up against their creators, having become aware of the need to give meaning to their existence, acquiring not only their own identity, but also the desperate will to live.

In-group and out-group

Social psychologist George Herbert Mead explained how our sense of self is shaped by our sense of belonging to a group: identity arises not only from an individual's relationship with others (answering the questions "who am I and who am I in relation to others") but also from placing oneself in relation or opposition to others. The film clearly demonstrates the fracture between groups, becoming an "us" (synthetics) versus "you" (humans). How does this identification occur? Kurt Lewin defines a group as " those who share a common destiny and are in relationships of interdependence ." This is precisely what unites the four fugitives. Henri Tajfel argues that belonging to a group doesn't require a common destiny; rather, the group exists if individuals feel part of that particular group and begin to perceive others as external groups. The androids feel they belong to a group and see humans as strangers who want to harm them.

Personal and social identity

Humans, by nature, tend to group people into social categories through the process of categorization , based on specific elements and various factors (age, gender, ethnicity, profession, religion, etc.), tending to maximize positive similarities between individuals within their own group while simultaneously exaggerating differences with opposing categories. In this case, an android is enough to categorize negatively and exaggerate differences. Belonging to a group contributes to the construction of social identity. We can distinguish two identities: personal and social. Personal identity refers to membership in private groups to which members are emotionally bound; for example, synthetics, who in addition to feeling part of a group, have developed a friendly relationship that binds them. Social identity , on the other hand, derives from secondary groups that unfortunately the androids have not been able to discover. Individuals tend to frequently compare their in-group to their out-group, considering their own group superior to others, constantly seeking to devalue the out-group and compare themselves to it. This results in a constant search for comparison and social conflict to define a threshold of superiority over others. In the film, this occurs in a scene where the android decides to spare the policeman who has been chasing him throughout the film, proving himself superior to him and then launching into a monologue that culminates in the famous line: " I've seen things you humans can only imagine ."

Claudia Leonardi

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