Blade Runner 2049: A Philosophical Exploration

Widely acclaimed upon its release as a future classic, Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 is visually stunning, philosophically profound, and a provocative extension of the story in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Containing specially commissioned chapters by a roster of international contributors, this fascinating collection explores philosophical questions that abound in Blade Runner 2049, including:

• What distinguishes the authentically "human" person?
• How might natality condition one's experience of being-in-the-world?
• How might shared memories feature in the constitution of personal identities?
• What happens when created beings transcend the limits intended in their design?

• What (if anything) is it like to be a hologram?

• Can artificial beings participate in genuinely romantic relationships?

• How might developing artificial economics impact our behaviour as prosumers?
• What are the implications of techno-human enhancement in an era of surveillance capitalism?

Including a foreword by Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049: A Philosophical Exploration is essential reading for anyone interested in philosophy, film studies, philosophy of mind, psychology, gender studies, and conceptual issues in cognitive science and artificial intelligence.

Author: Timothy Shanahan
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 10/01/2019
Pages: 252
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9781138625334

About the Author

Timothy Shanahan is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and the author of Philosophy and Blade Runner (2014).

Paul Smart is a researcher at the New University of Lisbon, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, UK, and a freelance cognitive science consultant, specializing in machine learning and virtual reality technologies.