What makes up the Human Identity

What does it mean to be human? What makes us human? These are the general types of questions that we ask ourselves every single day. I believe that in order to be human you need to be able to emphasize, be able to tell from right and wrong, be able to have complex thoughts and memories, and have physical and genetic make-up.

In my English class we watched the movie "Blade Runner". This movie is pretty weird and makes you think, "What's the importance of having this in the movie? What's the significance of this?." At least that was what I thought when I watched this movie. The movie was a toss-up between being a sci-fi movie or being a weird comedy movie. You will see what I mean if you decide to watch it. In the movie the setting takes place in Los Angeles in the year 2019. In the future human kind has created the technology to produce replicans which are artificially created clones as slave labor to work on off-world colonies until their four year life span is up. Due to not having any emotions replicans are given a four year life span because their designers are afraid that they will develop their own emotions. However, there is one replican known as Rachael that has emotions. This makes her different from the other replicans. She doesn't know that she is actually a replican. She believes that she is human. Replicans aren’t humans because they aren’t able to emphasize, they can’t tell from right and wrong, and they aren’t genetically human. When I mean by them not being genetically human I mean that they weren’t born like humans are they were created. However, they are physically human to an extent. They are made of human body parts, but what makes them physically different is that they don’t feel pain. However, when it comes to Rachael it’s a whole other story. Even though Rachael is indeed a replican she is more human-like than the other replicans. What makes her more human-like is that she has memories.

We also read a short story called "Blood Music" by Greg Bear. It was such a weird story! I mean this story blew your mind due to its weirdness. Some of the things that were mentioned in the story didn't even make sense and were somewhat random. The point of me mentioning this weird story is that it shows aspects of being human. The story starts off with a scientist named Vergil meeting with his friend Edward. He tells him how he injected himself with a learning biochip in order to improve himself. At first the changes in Vergil's body seem to be small, but as time passes by the changes begin to occur quicker and become more noticeable. He may still be able to emphasize, be able to tell from right and wrong, and have complex thoughts, but he is no longer physically human. The biochips are changing his physical make-up from the inside out. He no longer looks human. Not only that but you start to see that his white blood cells are starting to act human-like. In the beginning they only understand right and wrong and have simple thoughts. As the story progresses they become more human-like because they begin to emphasize and have complex thoughts such as cooperating with one another and organization.

Without having any of the characteristics that I previously stated earlier you aren’t human, but might as well be a non-living object.