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The Meaning of Life and Death Essay

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The Meaning of Life and Death The abstract idea of life cannot be explained by such simple ideas as being animated, breathing, or speaking. Ordinary machines in this century can perform all of these basic functions. The quandary with defining death is not as abstract and elusive as that of life. The problem of defining life and death has plagued philosophers and the religious bodies for thousands of years for one reason; each philosophy or religion has tried to define the meaning of life and death from only their certain perspective. The seemingly appropriate approach to this problem would be to understand the ideas presented in various philosophies and religions and through this knowledge create a new definition for each idea of life …show more content…

The living have not yet been annihilated (otherwise they wouldn't be alive)” (Cook). Also, according to modern philosopher Steven Luper in an interpretation of Epicurus, death is also “permanent non-existence”, which is brought upon by some act of biological “retirement”. This applies to both humans and replicants. Hereinafter, the deaths of humans and replicants should be considered one and the same. The emphasis on death in Blade Runner can be attributed to many different reasons. One of these reasons includes the search for a solution to its inevitable arrival. The prime objective of the replicants in Blade Runner is to discover when they were created. To a human, this is common knowledge, but the replicants are not given this information freely. Although, in contrast to the human knowledge of when they were incepted or born, the replicants know the ultimate length of their life. After Roy finally meets Tyrell, he is asked, “What seems to be the problem?” Roy answers, predictably, “death.” Why is death such a problem to the replicants? The replicants do not actually have a problem with death; they have a problem with the brevity of their life. This is why the replicants hope that their creator, the person that gave them the time limit on their life, can extend it. This is similar to the hope held by most humans of a life after death, but because the replicants know that there is no such life for them after death,

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