Which Movie About AI Is The Most Accurate?

Ridley Scott’s film based on the novel by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick depicts a dystopian Los Angeles where androids known as “replicants” have run amuck.

The protagonist known as Deckard is a Blade Runner, a bounty hunter tracking down runaway replicants and putting them out of their robot misery—and oh, are they woefully miserable. The cyberpunk classic asks philosophical questions such as what is real and whether or not artificial humanoids have the same right to life that humans do. That was very deep when the film came out, and the novel before it, but does it hold water today with what we know about AI?

Why It’s Inaccurate

Here’s the thing about making exact, organic replicates of human beings that are near-impossible to distinguish from purebred humans: Why the hell would we do that? What would be the benefit to anyone from blurring the lines between organic life and artificial? The replicants are just like humans except that they cannot feel empathy.

There’s a name for people who are unable to feel empathy: Psychopaths. So why would scientists intentionally engineer near replicas of human beings who are all psychopaths? That is just a purely dumb idea. We are also way, far away from being able to replicate an entire human body.

So sadly, your fantasies about becoming a Blade Runner are not coming true, at least not in this century.