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'I am who?' [vague spoilers]


Seeing "Solaris" (the original) and "Metropolis" in the space of a few days made me realise that they both, like Blade Runner, provoke questions about what it is to be human, but with very different answers.

Blade Runner says, "you are human if you have human memories" - that is to say, memories of being human, because memories according to Blade Runner shapes your identity.

Solaris says "you are human if you have the capacity to love" - it is her love for him that refines her from the other ghosts onboard.

But Metropolis is actually far more complex. Whereas both the above involved 'versions' of humans designed to imitate us, Tima is a superhuman android in which the emotions - as the Red Duke says - grow with the ability, the understanding that her consciousness shapes.

So she reaches the world of emotions through a purely logical path, like that of her circuitry. She imitates, and through such a system reaches emotions, which are then cast aside by a greater and more commanding logic, free of human weakness.

Metropolis seems to say 'you can be human if you understand what human is': Tima, with her mechanical heart, a meaningless mock-up of a human organ, nevertheless thinks of it when she feels emotion ... and it is this importance that she invests in it which shows she has a sort of human understanding. Even more interestingly, it is still one that can be transcended by pure logic: and whatever we think of our emotions, the fact is that they are there for a logical reason, and one which might be replaced by a more logical system. Super-humans, then, are beings which can exist beyond emotion.

Does anyone else agree with me that all the above are human, except Tima the super-human?

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