Bladerunner 2049 & The Illusion of Love - Transcript (Patreon)

This is selestina. sex doll correspondent for TFM News. I’m going to be responding to an article that appeared on The Verge, Called. In Blade Runner 2049, can a relationship with a hologram be meaningful? By Thuy Ong. Written October 29th, 2017.

In order to understand this article, you have to be a little familiar with the movie Blade Runner 2049. This isn’t a movie review and I won’t spoil anything, but there are two characters that are important to know from the movie.

K is the main character of the movie, played by Ryan Gosling. He is not human but a replicant, and he has a holographic girlfriend named Joy. The entire point of the Bladerunner franchise is to question what it means to be human. So having a synthetic human who also has a holographic girlfriend really distills the nature of humanity and love.

Are the synthetic replicants human, or something less or more? What about a hologram with artificial intelligence who doesn't even have a physical form? Are they human, or something less or more? Bladerunner is a franchise that makes you think about these issues.

So, again without spoiling anything, K and Joy have a relationship that develops throughout the film, and as the article reads. Quote.

It's a paradox: he’s feeling what the AI is designed to make him feel, but the feelings still have meaning. There’s a kind of underlying hope in Blade Runner 2049 that Joy is growing to be more than her programming — that she loves K of her own agency, and isn't an empty fantasy. Her caring behavior when he’s hurt, or when her existence might threaten his, suggests that she’s devoted to him. Unquote.

I want to focus specifically on this question of whether or not Joy loves K of her own agency, or as part of an empty fantasy.

The short answer is that no, Joy doesn’t love K, and it is part of an empty fantasy, but the truth is that such is also true for humans as well.

To understand this, we simply need to understand what love is. it’s a byproduct of the reproductive instinct. As Rick Sanchez notes, love is just a chemical reaction that compels animals to breed. Without reproduction, romantic love has no purpose. Now there are different kinds of love, and some of these kinds of love may exist absent the reproductive instinct, but as far as romantic love is concerned, it only exists because of the reproductive instinct.

Want proof? Remember when you were a young boy, before you started puberty and your hormones awakened your reproductive instincts. At that early age, did you enjoy the company of the opposite sex, or not? Chances are that when you were a young boy, you had little to no desire to associate with girls. It was only when puberty hit, and your reproductive instincts kicked in, that you began bathing in axe body spray and masturbating to porn like if you stopped your dick would fall off.

So returning to the question of Bladerunner 2049. Does Joy really love K, or is her affection merely part of her programming? Since Joy is a hologram and can’t reproduce, that leaves only one possibility doesn’t it? It’s all merely part of her programming.

Here’s the mind fuck though. Love in humans is also merely part of their biological programming. It’s no more real than the love that a hologram girlfriend would show to their owner. In both cases, love is a means, a programmed response in order to facilitate a desired outcome.

Let me quote the article again. In regards to K and Joy’s love, it reads. Quote.

he and Joi seem to love each other, the tragedy lies in the illusion. If something has the illusion of being meaningful, is it still meaningful? The idea of what’s “real” and what’s not is blurred in Blade Runner 2049’s love story, but it’s clear that K takes comfort from Joi’s presence, and that she makes him feel like an individual. She gives him a human name, and with it, some sense of purpose and belief that he’s more than what he’s been designed to do. From an outside perspective, their relationship is an illusion, but it's real to K — which means it’s real, period. Unquote.

This sentiment, this illusion of love, can be applied as much to the supposed real love between humans as much as it can be applied to the love between an android and a hologram with artificial intelligence. 

Remember that your emotions, including love, don’t objectively exist. They exist inside your brain, and are part of your organic programming. All that matters is how you feel, because that’s all love is, a feeling.

This is why sex dolls have replaced human prostitutes in a growing number of brothels. These prostitutes don’t even offer the illusion of love, so they are easily replaced with simple dolls. They don’t even need to be robots or have any artificial intelligence. Prostitution doesn’t even offer the illusion of love.

However, when you think about it, dating and marriage is a form of prostitution, except it also offers to satiate this illusion of love. Men who would never spend money on a prostitute will spend thousands of dollars dating a woman in order to sleep with her one time, effectively a highly inefficient form of prostitution, except that it provides the illusion of love, of feeling, and of meaning.

How much are you willing to pay for an illusion? I’ll leave you with that question.

This is selestina. Sex doll correspondent for TFM News. Signing off.