What makes us human?

Vance 2021-10-22 14:32:45

First there was darkness, then came the strangers. They abducted us and brought us here. The city, everyone in it…is their experiment. They mix and match our memory as they see fit…trying to divine what makes us unique. One day , a man might be an inspector, The next, someone entirely different. When they want to study a murder for instance…they simply imprint one of their citizens with a new personality…arrange a family for him, friends, an entire history…even a lost wallet…Then they observe the results. Will a man, given the history…of a killer continue in that vein? Or are we, in fact, more than the mere sum of our memories? This business of you being a killer was an unhappy coincidence. You have had dozens of lives before now. You just happen ….to wake up while I was imprinting you with this one.

It is our capacity for individuality…our souls that makes us different from them. They think they can find the human soul…if they understand how our memories work. All they have are collective memories. They share one group mind. They are dying, you see? Their entire race is on the brink of extinction. They think we can save them.

You know how I always feel/ That person isn't me. Never was. You waned to know what is was about us that made us human. Well, you're not going to find it....in here (Pointing on his brain ). You went looking in the wrong place.

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Extended Reading

Dark City quotes

  • John Murdoch: I was just thinking, what you do seems kind of dangerous right now. I mean, how do you know I'm not the killer?

    May: I don't. Why, you feeling any urges I should know about?

  • John Murdoch: When was the last time you remember doing something during the day?

    Inspector Frank Bumstead: What do you mean?

    John Murdoch: I just mean during the day. Daylight. When was the last time you remember seeing it? And I'm not talking about some distant, half-forgotten childhood memory, I mean like yesterday. Last week. Can you come up with a single memory? You can't, can you? You know something, I don't think the sun even... exists... in this place. 'Cause I've been up for hours, and hours, and hours, and the night never ends here.