The Politics of 'Blade Runner 2049' Aren't That Futuristic

It's such a simple question Rachael (Sean Young) asks Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) in Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner: "Have you ever retired a human by mistake?" They've just met in Eldon Tyrell's opulent offices, and Deckard, a replicant bounty hunter, has come to interview Rachael as a means of testing the LAPD's replicant-detecting Voight-Kampff device. Deckard's equally simple response-- "no"--comes without hesitation; he nonchalantly shrugs it off as though he's never bothered questioning the supposed difference between humans and the androids he's contracted to kill. The entire exchange takes about five seconds, yet it encapsulates everything that has fueled the public's decades-long love affair with Blade Runner's existential dread: What are humans? What myths do they take for granted? What have they been missing?