Editor's note: "Blade Runner: 2049" is the sequel to the sci-fi movie "Blade Runner" released in 1982. The story is based on Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Bionics Dream of Electronic Sheep?" "Adapted, takes place in a future world where replicators and humans coexist. The author parodyed the title and asked questions, looking forward to unfolding an alternative artistic imagination about non-human beings.
Zifeiyu knows the joy of fish
About 2,000 years ago, two ancient Chinese philosophers, Zhuangzi and Huizi, had an interesting philosophical dialogue. At that time, the two of them were swimming together on Haoliang. Seeing the minnows swimming around in the river, Zhuangzi said with emotion: “The minnows swim freely, so happy.” Huizi immediately asked Zhuangzi, “You are not a fish, how did you know? Are fish happy?". Zhuangzi immediately replied: "You are not me, I don't know the happiness of fish." Keiko continued along Zhuangzi's logic and said: "I am not you, so I don't know your situation; you are not a fish, so I don't know either. Is the fish happy?" Zhuangzi retorted again: "Going back to our original topic, you asked me'how do you know that fish are happy'? This shows that you already know that I know the happiness of fish, but just ask me where And know. Then I tell you, I know by standing on Haoliang." The conversation ended here.
This philosophical dialogue was very interesting. On the surface, Zhuangzi won the right to close the conference and also won the debate. But from a logical point of view, what Zhuangzi did was actually a kind of sophistry, avoiding Keiko's question. Keiko’s question "Zifeiyu, know the joy of fish", no one has given a satisfactory answer to this day. In my opinion, this question raised by Keiko is also true for the story of the recently released science fiction movie "Blade Runner: 2049" in China.
"Blade Runner: 2049" is a sequel to the sci-fi movie "Blade Runner" released in 1982. The story is based on Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Bionics Dream of Electronic Sheep?" "Adapted, takes place in a future world where replicators and humans coexist. In the movie, in the process of executing the order, the replicator K discovered the secret that the replicator can reproduce, and in this process, it aroused thinking about his own identity and destiny. In addition to copying people, another life form appeared in the movie, namely, K's virtual girlfriend Joey. Joey is an artificial intelligence without a body, but in the long-term relationship with K, a sincere love occurred between the two and an emotional resonance occurred. However, as the story progresses, when the villain destroys Joey's memory, Joey's data is deleted (memory data is equivalent to human flesh for AI?), and reformatted into an AI girlfriend product that can be used as best as possible.
Although it has not won market recognition, "Blade Runner: 2049" has been praised by many film critics and in-depth fans, believing that it touched on a series of profound philosophical issues such as what people do and the difference between people and inhumans. But in my opinion, the film has not really broken through the high typification of many western science fiction movies in the story core, that is, the high degree of personification of all inhuman things. Whether it is a typical Hollywood blockbuster "X-Men" or this is considered to have a high degree of ideological "Blade Runner: 2049", for its inhuman are highly consistent imagined, and even in the flesh, the generation mode People are different, but psychologically and spiritually they still share the same emotions and thoughts, especially the ability to love and hate.
However, here, I want to quote Huizi's question about Zhuangzi and express my dissatisfaction with this: As a human being, how do you know the inhuman mind? Since so-called clones or AIs are completely different from us humans in terms of physical structure and production methods, how can we make a judgment that they are no different from ours in spirit or soul? One possible defense may be: since the clones or AI are created by humans, and humans are designed to imitate humans in the process of producing and creating them, it is not impossible to think that they have the same emotions as humans. However, the slightest error is too far away, and scientists are currently unable to accurately control the complex structure of human consciousness. Who would dare to say that a clone or AI based entirely on another mode of production can be exactly the same as what we think. After all, the DNA similarity between humans and mice is as high as 99%, but who would dare to say that humans and mice can share the same emotion?
Two inhuman imaginations
Of course, in reality, robots and clones that are truly highly intelligent have not been produced, and there is no conclusive evidence about the discovery of aliens. Support or opposition to the above-mentioned viewpoints is just a matter of fact. Up to now, the socialized imagination of all non-human types mainly exists in the works of artists. In science fiction movies represented by Hollywood, we can see two completely different imaginations. One kind, just like the previous narrative, imagines all non-human beings as a highly humanoid existence , the mutants in "X-Men", the aliens in "Superman" and "ET", "Artificial Intelligence" "Bicentennial man" in the robot, not only have human emotions, even more than the average person behave more human (often the government workers, scientists, etc. as a negative contrast). The other is the opposite. Starting from the first science fiction novel "Frankenstein" in history, to "Alien", "Starship Paratrooper", "Terminator", "The Matrix", etc., the aliens, AI, robots, etc. are described as completely non-human, not only completely different in physiological structure, but also not possessing the so-called human nature, and they often exist as the opposite of human beings in stories. For example, the future machine killer played by Schwarzenegger in "Terminator" has always maintained absolute coldness and rationality, without any emotional fluctuations. Of course, the two are by no means diametrically opposed, and there are often two types of inhumanity, both humanity and non-humanity, in the same movie. For example, in "Terminator 2", the robot played by Schwarzenegger is no longer a cold killer standing on the opposite side of humans, but turns to protect humans, and gradually demonstrates the right to Understanding and identification of human nature. Similarly, in "Blade Runner 2049", there is another clone killer who fought against K and completely accepts his own destiny as a tool.
Undoubtedly, as many film critics have pointed out, literature and art always reflect real life, and the two types of inhumans in science fiction movies actually reflect the changes in Western social reality and thoughts after World War II. Since the beginning of the scientific and technological revolution, Western countries have built a globalized colonial system with the help of the first-mover advantage of their scientific and technological trees. The opposition between the West and the rest of the world is manifested in the opposition of civilization, science and barbarism, and backwardness. Ancient Asia, backward Africa, and the mysterious America are just barbaric places waiting for civilized Europeans to open up and educate themselves. The admiration of science and the expectation of oneself at the peak of the civilization chain are combined. Westerners themselves are the incarnation of science, and science naturally becomes the appearance of civilization and progress. In the literary imagination of this period, such as "Robinson Crusoe", "Around the Earth in 80 Days" and other works, we can clearly see the Westerners ' imagination of the high degree of integration of technology and Western civilization . In the eyes of writers such as Verne and Defoe, what is scientific in the West is what is scientific in the West. The constant admiration of science is the constant self-affirmation and identification of Western civilization. However, the outbreak of World War I and World War II completely shattered Westerners’ imagination of the integration of technology with themselves. Machine guns, tanks, and even nuclear bombs, the evil consequences of technology no longer fell on the heads of non-Westerners, but truly became Westerners themselves. The nightmare that I was in. At the same time, the rise of Eastern socialism and the outbreak of the Cold War made Westerners find for the first time that they are facing a hostile camp that is no longer inferior to their own in terms of technological progress. Technology is no longer bound by Westerners, but has become a death sickle that can slash at one's head at any time. It is against this background that Western science fiction writers began to appear in large numbers of inhuman groups that are more advanced in science and technology. One of the typical representatives is "Starship Paratrooper". In this classic science fiction novel created during the Cold War, the enemy of mankind is a group of aliens named Zerg. In the novel, the technological level of the Zerg is roughly the same as that of human beings, but their organization is exactly like a swarm of bees, with queens forming a unified brain, and all ordinary Zerg soldiers have no independent thoughts and only know how to fight bravely. Familiar withReaders of the history of the Cold War can easily see that the setting of the Zerg actually corresponds to the Americans' imagination of the centralized world under the Eastern Iron Curtain during the Cold War. This setting shines afterwards, and constitutes the original source of similar alien populations in many science fiction games, novels, and movies , such as the Zerg in the video game "StarCraft".
There has been a historical separation between the development of science and technology and the self-expectations of Western civilization . Naturally, there are two diametrically opposed imaginations about the future development of science and technology. A continuation of the previous spirit of optimism , that the advancement of science and technology and even the evolution of species produced by humans through technology will not bring distortions of human nature, but will create new humans or AI that are more powerful but also human . "Blade Runner: 2049" is exactly the case. Although the tone of the story is still decadent and depressing, if you abandon the innuendo of class and race issues and simply examine the core logic of the story itself, this is still a promising movie. After all, what the director wants to convey is exactly that clones and robots are still like us, and are still the continuation of our civilization. The other is a downright tragic color, even if it is a comedic ending like the "Starship Paratrooper" or "Terminator" series. Because in this kind of story, the separation of humans and technology is inevitable, and the emergence of science and technology is a new race that completely abandoned our human civilization, or another type of race with a completely different civilization. In the eyes of these robots or aliens, human civilization itself is insignificant, and the so-called brilliance of humanity is nothing but the strategic weakness of our species in the ultimate battle.
Continuation of God's creation of man
The starting point of the artist's imagination is often based on the background of his civilization, and various literary or film and television stories always unconsciously repeat the mythical moments of his civilization. In "Blade Runner 2049," this is the case. The core logic of the awakening of the copyist is essentially the reconstruction of the story in the Bible.
According to the Christian doctrine, God is the creator of mankind, and Jesus Christ, as the son of man, showed the miracle of resurrection, thus forming an intermediary and bridge between God and man. Because of Jesus' endurance of the sins of man, God and man once again reached a contract, mankind was saved again, and humanity was baptized and sublimated. In "Blade Runner 2049", humans are the creators of clones, and clones also show the so-called "miracle" (conceived and gave birth like a human). With the help of this "miracle", the differences between humans and humans have been questioned, and humans have been confirmed to have the same ability to love as humans. It is worth noting that although in the superficial logic of the film, the miracle exhibited by the cloner appears to be conception and childbirth, what it really hopes to show is that the cloner is no different from humans in terms of love. In the eyes of devout Christians, the true greatness of Jesus is not the resurrection of life, but the love of God for humans shown by this fact.
According to the spirit of Christianity, God created mankind and bestowed his love on mankind. Therefore, the true brilliance of human nature is the persistence and identification of the love given by God. In many optimistic-based science fiction movies , this understanding of human nature's Christian color is very prominent. Whether it is an alien superman, an evolutionary abnormal X-Men, or the AI life created by humans, their understanding and identification of human nature are highly consistent with the understanding and grasp of love in Christian civilization. . On the other hand, in all kinds of pessimistic-based films, although there are populations that are diametrically opposed to humans, and even humans are completely likely to fall into a disadvantaged situation, the persistence and development of human nature by humans themselves is still the theme of the film's praise.
However, history, sociology, and anthropology all tell us that there has never been an eternal, universal humanity. In different historical periods and different forms of civilization, there are completely different understandings of human nature. The ancient Chinese's answer to "Jixi who is different from beasts and humans" is the way of benevolence and righteousness, while in the wisdom of Buddhism, humans are just one of the sentient beings who go back and forth in reincarnation. From the perspective of true materialists, the Western civilization theory of human nature that has lost the blessing of science and technology, just like other civilized theories of human nature, has already fallen off the altar, and there is no need to blindly insist on and guard it.
What is human nature?
"Lost humanity, lose a lot; lose animality, lose everything." This is a classic line in Liu Cixin's science fiction novel "Three Body". In the novel, the opposition between human nature and animal nature is essentially based on the coldness of the universe itself and the highly instrumental nature of technology. Regardless of the laws of nature or technological progress, in Liu Cixin’s view, people’s emotional needs will not be taken into consideration, but they will continue to move forward according to their own logic. In the final analysis, the survival and development of all populations must conform to their development, rather than stick to their own so-called bottom line of principles.
The concept of "Three Body" is undoubtedly extremely politically incorrect in today's highly universalized Western ideology, and it has also aroused many criticisms and dissatisfaction. However, to a large extent, this work fits the historical cognition of many Chinese people. In their view, as an ancient civilization of five thousand years, China has long occupied the pinnacle of human civilization, but due to its backwardness in science and technology, it once suffered unprecedented humiliation. Unlike the re-emergence of Western roads, they broke the myth that Western civilization and technological progress are closely linked. As Lu Xun said: "Preserving us is indeed the most important thing. Just ask him whether he has the power to preserve us, regardless of whether he is the national quintessence." And the so-called human nature, tradition, or other, all must serve. The fundamental law of survival and development.
Compared to mainstream science fiction movies in Hollywood, I think the "Three-Body" series has expanded the edge of science fiction even more. After all, Liu Cixin no longer stubbornly thinks about the universe and the future from the standpoint of human beings. He used a highly aesthetic style to describe the complete demise of human civilization in an instant, and the tragic and heroic efforts made by mankind to maintain the relics of civilization seemed so ridiculous and nihilistic at the moment where the two-way foil attack struck. In the face of the cold universe, all human thinking, efforts, and struggles are meaningless and will eventually turn into dust.
If we put aside the troubles of many practical issues and truly look at the future of mankind and technology from a higher perspective, I think we should do our best to meet a less human, less bright, and more challenging future. Just as I jokingly imitated Philip K. Dick in the title of the article, since humans do not really understand and identify with the imagination and civilization of apes (if they really have them), why do you think that the next generation of species (robots, copying) Humans or aliens) will understand and respect our humanity and civilization. In fact, from the technological revolution to the present, the concepts of almost every generation have been constantly evolving and revolutionizing. The young generations born in the 1980s are already dumbfounded by the many concepts and opinions of the post-00s. I sincerely believe that a new generation of life based on completely different production methods and material foundations will have a completely different thinking and civilization from ours.
Hegel once said that the heroes and warriors who seem to be the protagonists of history are nothing more than the incarnation or actors of the spirit of the times. When there is a moment of metabolism, it is also the day when a group of heroes are eliminated and forgotten. History will remember some things, but newcomers are more to get rid of the baggage of history and go lightly. From the perspective of transhumanism, there is no need for human beings to look too high or too heavy. Facing the vast universe, humans should remain more humble. Just like Nietzsche and Marx respectively called, Superman will finally come, history will finally begin, and those of us who have lost the spirit of forge ahead, let the rain blow away.
Author: Zhao Chao
Editor: Older
Beauty Editor: Huangshan
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