The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

Episode 175: Blade Runner: Androids and Humanity (Part One)

On Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1967) and the films Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and Blade Runner (1982). What makes us human? Dick's story about androids emphasized their lack of empathy, while the movie adaptations portrayed the "replicants" as plenty capable of emotion, but unjustly treated as servants or targets. Attention: This second half of this special bonus episode is available only to supporters. You should go ahead and get the full, ad-free <a href="http://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2017/10/29/ep175-blade-runner-citizen/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Citizen Edition</a>. You can also hear it with a $1 or more pledge at <a href="http://patreon.com/partiallyexaminedlife" rel="noopener" target="_blank">patreon.com/partiallyexaminedlife</a>.

The Partially Examined Life is a podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a short text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don't have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we're talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion. For links to the texts we discuss and other info, check out www.partiallyexaminedlife.com.

We also feature episodes from other podcasts by our hosts to round out your partially examined life, including Pretty Much Pop (prettymuchpop.com, covering all media), Nakedly Examined Music (nakedlyexaminedmusic.com, deconstructing songs), Philosophy vs. Improv (philosophyimprov.com, fun with performance skills and philosophical ideas), and (sub)Text (subtextpodcast.com, looking deeply at lit and film). Learn about more network podcasts at partiallyexaminedlife.com.