The Loneliness of Artificial Existence: Blade Runner 2049

K

To know why and how lonely and relatable this makes us feel we have to understand the character himself and his background. Well first of all the character’s name in the movie is K, I think that speaks to all of us about how plain and genuinely dull the character was as a person. Ryan Gosling is known for playing these characters amazingly.

The guy is an android that has similarities to humans in terms of emotions, he works for the LAPD, and his job is to retire androids like him who either went rogue or went in hiding. So, to say the guy hunts down his own kind. Well, there is a lot of similarities between the average human and K, he lacks emotional combability because of his programming, and in one of the scenes, he turns down a human girl for whatever reasons we will never understand. Maybe he feels no sense of connection to her because of her humanism.

How We All Relate TO K

Just to clarify K is not so much like a robot than a human, he is an advanced bioengineered being, he is most likely to be considered an evolved human being so to say, a human with fewer flaws. Because of his job in hunting down others like him, he often questions his identity as we all humans do, but when the LAPD notices any trace of that they brainwash him so he is left to start those thoughts and feelings over again, leaving him in an endless loop of an identity crisis.

At a point in life, we’re all left to question our reality and things around us, what matters and what doesn’t, and who we really are. K’s interactions with his holographic peer Joi are what illuminates him as a character he feels as if he’s at the crossroads of belonging somewhere to someone, he discovers authenticity in knowing that for this being especially, he matters and he can’t be replaced. We all question this in a world that makes us feel replaceable in every aspect but surely and slowly like K we can find a way to feel appreciated, whether it feels big or small we can find out that we matter to someone and that’s beautiful. A question often asked to people exploring their identity in a world full of lies is, who are you really so with that I leave you today with the question. Who are you?

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