ABSTRACT
Ridley Scott’s sci-ficlassic Blade Runner first appeared in theatres, fans finally were rewarded with a long-wished-for sequel. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049 premiered in Los Angeles on 3 October 2017 and hit US theatres three days later. Fiona Woollard argues that the key issue in working out whether replicants can permissibly be treated as mere products is not whether they are born, but whether they are persons. Drawing upon characteristics of personhood developed in the philosophical literature, she argues that manufactured replicants satisfy the conditions for personhood and, hence, are the kinds of creatures that cannot be justly owned by another. Joi is a form of hologrammatic artificial intelligence — a digital companion marketed by the Wallace Corporation. In “The Joi of holograms,” Paul Smart delves more deeply into Joi’s nature.
