K.W. Jeter picks up the tale of Rick Deckard, the `blade runner' created by Phillip K. Dick and popularized by Ridley Scott's cult classic film. Consistent with the sordid vision of 21st century Los Angeles crafted by Dick and Scott, Jeter creates a stylish piece of thrilling, futuristic suspense that finds Deckard not only in the role of hunter, but also hunted. Again, Deckard is on the trail of an replicant, not knowing that it may be the most elusive and dangerous android of all.

Blade Runner 2049 is a 2017 sequel to the 1982 movie Blade Runner, about a world in which some human-looking replicants have become dangerous, so that other human-looking replicants, as well as humans, have the job of hunting down the dangerous models and “retiring” (destroying) them. Both films have been widely hailed as among the greatest science-fiction movies of all time, and Ridley Scott, director of the original Blade Runner, has announced that there will be a third Blade Runner movie. Blade Runner 2049 and Philosophy is a collection of entertaining articles on both Blade Runner movies (and on the spin-off short films and Blade Runner novels) by twenty philosophers representing diverse backgrounds and philosophical perspectives. Among the issues addressed in the book: What does Blade Runner 2049 tell us about the interactions of state power and corporate power? Can machines ever become truly conscious, or will they always lack some essential human qualities? The most popular theory of personhood says that a person is defined by their memories, so what happens when memories can be manufactured and inserted at will? We already interact with non-human decision-makers via the Internet. When embodied AI becomes reality, how can we know what is human and what is simulation? Does it matter? Do AI-endowed human-looking replicants have civil and political rights, or can they be destroyed whenever “real” humans decide they are inconvenient? The blade runner Deckard (Harrison Ford) appears in both movies, and is generally assumed to be human, but some claim he may be a replicant. What’s the evidence on both sides? Is Niander Wallace (the-mad-scientist-cum-evil-corporate-CEO in Blade Runner 2049) himself a replicant? What motivates him? What are the impacts of decision-making AI entities on the world of business? Both Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 have been praised for their hauntingly beautiful depictions of a bleak future, but the two futures are very different (and the 2019 future imagined in the original Blade Runner is considerably different from the actual world of 2019). How have our expectations and visions of the future changed between the two movies? The “dream maker” character Ana Stelline in Blade Runner 2049 has a small but pivotal role. What are the implications of a person whose dedicated mission and task is to invent and install false memories? What are the social and psychological implications of human-AI sexual relations?

In this sequel, blade runner Rick Deckard becomes involved in a race to prove he is human before an android can hunt him down.

Los Angeles, 2029. The city is in chaos, reeling from a Replicant uprising led by Yotun – a genetically defective Nexus 6 who has somehow managed to outlive his four-year lifespan. With Blade Runner Ash his prisoner, the newly completed seawall defenses smashed, and the ruling elite massacred, Yotun’s guerrilla army of fanatical Replicants have moved in to take control and realize Yotun’s dream of a city of humans ruled by Replicants. Now it’s up to Ash to find a way of escaping and stopping Yotun before he burns the city to the ground and kills the woman she loves. Written by New York Times best-selling author Mike Johnson and drawn by fan-favorite artist Andres Guinaldo. “A must-read for Blade Runner and cyberpunk fans everywhere.” – Monkeys Fighting Robots “We’re authentically back in the dystopian world of Blade Runner, and I couldn’t be happier. 9 out of 10.” – Sci-Fi Bulletin Collects Blade Runner 2029 #5-8.

In 2019, the Blade Runner known as Aahna ‘Ash’ Ashina rescued Cleo Selwyn, daughter of business tycoon Alexandra Selwyn, from a plot to give the girl to the Tyrell corporation for genetic experimentation. Ash and Cleo escaped Los Angeles and disappeared. Now, seven years later and living under assumed identities, Ash and Cleo have resurfaced on one of the Off-world mining colonies. But Cleo’s father has never stopped looking for them, sending out dozens of bounty hunters and search parties to kill Ash and bring his daughter home. Now, following a bloody Replicant mutiny, Ash and Cleo have become separated and a ruthless new Blade Runner called Hythe has Ash dead in her sights. Collects Blade Runner 2019 #5-8. “10 out of 10. A must-read title.” – Bleeding Cool

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is widely regarded as a "masterpiece of modern cinema" and is regularly ranked as one of the great films of all time. Set in a dystopian future where the line between human beings and ‘replicants’ is blurred, the film raises a host of philosophical questions about what it is to be human, the possibility of moral agency and freedom in ‘created’ life forms, and the capacity of cinema to make a genuine contribution to our engagement with these kinds of questions. This volume of specially commissioned chapters systematically explores and addresses these issues from a philosophical point of view. Beginning with a helpful introduction, the seven chapters examine the following questions: How is the theme of death explored in Blade Runner and with what implications for our understanding of the human condition? What can we learn about the relationship between emotion and reason from the depiction of the ‘replicants’ in Blade Runner? How are memory, empathy, and moral agency related in Blade Runner? How does the style and ‘mood’ of Blade Runner bear upon its thematic and philosophical significance? Is Blade Runner a meditation on the nature of film itself? Including a brief biography of the director and a detailed list of references to other writings on the film, Blade Runner is essential reading for students – indeed anyone - interested in philosophy and film studies. Contributors: Colin Allen, Peter Atterton, Amy Coplan, David Davies, Berys Gaut, Stephen Mulhall, C. D. C. Reeve.