مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

I was just a boy when, in 1982, fate led me to watch Blade Runner at the Venice Film Festival. Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford were there, but I was much more impressed and fascinated by the fantasy of new technologies than by the celebrities in the cinema. I was not the only one: the film and its seven different versions have since become a “cult movie” and have been analysed not only for their artistic meaning but also for their social, political and economic implications (see, for example, the variety of perspectives presented in Kerman, 1997).

presented in Kerman, 1997). I would like to explore here the film as an experiment in technological forecasting. Many prospective technologies presented in the film, such as flying vehicles, were already predicted by previous science fictions novels, films and cartoons. However, some devices struck my imagination: Electronics: Battery-operated electronic tills present everywhere, even in street kiosks. Voice-operated televisions. Gigantic electronic screens. Scanners (I do not think that the word even existed in 1982) that could in an instant enlarge photographs several times over.

Biological artefacts: Artificial animals (e.g. snakes, owls, ostriches). Artificial body parts (human eyes). Living toys (dolls, puppets and tin soldiers). And, of course, the very hero of the film, the Replicant, an artificial human who could be distinguished from real humans only after undergoing a rather complex psychological/oculist test.