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• 1 2025-04-14T22:16:35+00:00 Post-human identity and the crisis of self 28 Blade Runner 2049 interrogates posthuman identity through the replicants’ search for meaning, memory, and authenticity, ultimately questioning whether subjectivity is rooted in biology or narrative. image_header 2025-05-08T20:05:19+00:00 Introduction
  Subjectivity refers to how an individual experiences the world and how they view themselves. Subjectivity accounts for a person’s emotions, their memories, and their identity. Biology argues that subjectivity comes from our brains, our genetics, and forms our own behaviors. The narrative believes subjectivity comes from constructed stories, the way we describe and are seen by others, what goes on in our day to day life, and how our pasts have formed us. Biological theories emphasize that there are genetic components found in certain personality traits that we see in people, most commonly being introversion and extroversion. Also, when a person goes through a traumatic experience it can alter that persons brain, this is something that is commonly seen individuals suffering from PTSD (Damasio). Narrative theory highlights on that subjectivity is stories we get from culture, language, and from our families, the media is also an important role when it comes to our stories as well (Ricoeur).
  Meaning
  Meaning can be defined as “the significance, purpose, or value that a subject assigns to their existence, experience, and relationships.” In Blade Runner 2049, replicants are bioengineered to serve and work. The main character in 2049 is K, who also goes by Joe, is searching for the meaning of his life and his existence. As the movie continues, K, starts to find clues that are suggesting he could be the child of a replicant, and this would be considered to be a miracle. With all of this happening to K he starts to search for the deeper meaning of his life, and this is a desire that is also a fundamental human need. Once K finds out that he is not the miracle child he is not, he becomes devastated, but he is still able find meaning for himself by sacrificing himself so that Deckard could be reunited with his daughter again. K was able to find the meaning of his life by choosing love, loyalty, and sacrifice. Even though all replicants are artificially made and do not have a purpose outside of work we see that many of them in the movie chose to rebel from the society, and went through suffering, and felt love. 
  
  Memory
  Memory can be defined as “the cognitive process by which individuals encode, store, and retrieve information about past experiences.” Memory is more than just that from a psychological and philosophical perspective, because memory is far more than just simple data retrieval. Memory is actually a fundamental piece to our identity as people, our memories can shape us into the people that we are today. They are tied to our emotions, which can also cause us to shape our emotions to other people differently. In Blade Runner 2049, replicants have their memories implanted as a way to help stabilize their psyches, but this also gives them their identity along with emotional depth. In the movie, K is able to eventually accept that his memories are fake and they were designed to be an emotional cushion, but still having the memories as a child of burying a wooden horse stuck with him. This leads to K experiencing real human emotions such as hope, fear, as well as longing, and this causes him to have an existential crisis due to these memories that were implanted. K asks “is is real? Someone lived this, if not me.” This highlights the tension of how these made up memories can produce genuine emotions, which in turn creates authentic subjectivity. This would also mean that the accuracy of an individuals memory does not necessarily matter, but the emotional response that comes from the memory does. For the replicants that took part in the underground resistance gained solidarity and political footing because they have memories of dealing with oppression and going through great suffering. With other characters such as Freysa, being able to have these memories helps her give power for their collective identity as well as giving a cause for their revolution. In this sense, memory can be a collective thing and not just an individual experience. It is able to make people in communities closer, but it also helps with resisting the possibility of dehumanization. Some real world parallels to this include things such as remembering what took place during the Holocaust and 9/11 along with other truth commissions, that try to preserve the memory of these events is critical for healing, allows for individuals to find justice, and also finding their own identity. 
  
  Authenticity 
  When it comes to replicants in Blade Runner 2049, authenticity is defined as the sincerity of their identities, feelings, experiences, and independence, especially when contrasted with their manufactured beginnings and predetermined mission. The movie questions whether bioengineered creatures known as replicants might have traits that are normally only found in humans, and thereby blurs the line between manufactured and real life. Things such as, genuine feelings can be seen when K and other replicants go through feelings like moral conflict, love (for Joi). , and longing. Given that these feelings might be programmed reactions, their authenticity is called into doubt. However, the movie implies that the replicant still perceives the experience as real, which makes the concept more difficult to pin down. We also see other things like authentic autonomy, in the movie, authenticity is also linked to free will. The key question is whether replicants are capable of making decisions on their own and going beyond their training. K's last deed, giving his life for a cause bigger than himself, is shown as a really human choice free from programming. Lastly, we have the authenticity of being, the movie concludes that experience and decision, rather than place of birth, are what define authenticity. If a manufactured being has the ability to feel, suffer, hope, and act on its own, it can still be considered authentic. To put it briefly, Blade Runner 2049 presents authenticity as something that is gained or exhibited via one's memories, decisions, and actions—even if they were manufactured—rather than something that is biologically innate.