# Today is Roy Batty's incept date **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507 "2016-01-08T16:28:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/41 "2016-01-09T16:40:08Z")
Heheheh. Very funny. Thanks. Nitpick: the name is “Deckard”: [Rick Deckard - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Deckard) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/42 "2016-01-09T16:49:57Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > To this day, I am curious about who combat models like Roy were manufactured to fight. Were those c-beams fired by warring factions of colonists? Are there alien races that humanity wars against with replicant soldiers? Are the nations of Earth still at war with each other and using replicants? Thank god there’s no prequel to badly answer such questions. > [@ftg](#): > > There is some ambiguity about Nexus models and lifespans. Since only the newer models have memory implants for mental stability, are those the only ones with lifespan limitations built in? No, other way round. The limited lifespan came first, the memory implants were a different, subsequent approach, in Rachel. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/43 "2016-01-09T17:22:32Z")
Well, on the upside, at last the future now isn’t nearly as run down, noisy, overcrowded, and rainy as the movie version. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/44 "2016-01-09T19:06:09Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > No, other way round. The limited lifespan came first, the memory implants were a different, subsequent approach, in Rachel. Okay, I was confusing the “emotional development” thing with the memory implant thing. The Nexus 6 time limit is to deal with the eventual emotional issues. The memory implant thing is for Rachael and possibly unknown others. Note that Bryant has to explain the life span thing to Deckard as part of explaining the Nexus 6 emotions deal, so it was: A. Common to all Nexus 6 models, B. It was a new thing. (Or something else about Deckard was “new”.;)) Note that the habit of collecting old photographs and such was a result of the Nexus 6 emotional weirdness. Leon was especially fond towards his collection. (And in way completely unlike Deckard’s feelings towards his collection.;)) Pris, the basic pleasure model, has her incept date next month. Can you guess which day it is? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/45 "2016-01-09T20:38:45Z")
I know! I know! ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/46 "2016-01-09T20:48:06Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Note that Bryant has to explain the life span thing to Deckard as part of explaining the Nexus 6 emotions deal, so it was: A. Common to all Nexus 6 models, B. It was a new thing. (Or something else about Deckard was “new”.;)) A., I believe, and also C. Exposition for audience benefit. > [@ftg](#): > > Note that the habit of collecting old photographs and such was a result of the Nexus 6 emotional weirdness. Leon was especially fond towards his collection. (And in way completely unlike Deckard’s feelings towards his collection.;)) More to the point, completely unlike Rachael’s. Leon _always knew_ his photos did not represent his own genuine, lived past–but he had an irrational impulse to construct a context anyway. Part and parcel of his ‘breakdown’ into emotionalism. Giving Rachael the impression of ordinary lived experience was specifically intended to avert exactly that part of the breakdown, whether causal or symptomatic. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/47 "2016-01-09T21:15:46Z")
As long as this started as a thread about Roy Batty… I think that Roy is in fact the “Tragic Hero” of _Blade Runner_. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/48 "2016-01-10T00:10:05Z")
A bit too violent to call him a hero, tragic or otherwise, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/49 "2016-01-10T01:49:36Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > As long as this started as a thread about Roy Batty… > I think that Roy is in fact the “Tragic Hero” of _Blade Runner_. I never thought that was in question. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/50 "2016-01-10T05:27:46Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Pris, the basic pleasure model, has her incept date next month. Can you guess which day it is? \ Valentine’s Day…bummer. \ ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/51 "2016-01-10T16:55:39Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > In the book, they’re androids, and they’re called that: > > [Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep%3F) > > This means that they’re robots built to look exactly like a human to anyone who doesn’t try to tear them apart. I don’t know of any definitive explanation why they weren’t just called androids in the movie. Perhaps it was because the robots in _Star Wars_ were called “droids” (although they aren’t androids), so the people who made _Blade Runner_ decided that the word “android” was taken and some other word had to be used for them. Once upon a time androids were artificial humans (more or less) made of meat. One story I remember they had blue skin so you would not confuse them with “genuine” humans. Capek’s “robots” in [_R.U.R_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R.) were of this type. Later it could mean a mechanical being with a skin-like covering so it could pass, more or less, for human. Asimov’s [R. Daneel Olivaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Daneel_Olivaw) is of this type. Finally, George Lucas got into the act, and now any sentient-mechanical thing is an “android.” It’s been so long since I’ve read _Electric Sheep_ I don’t recall whether the replicants were type I or II, but I had the distinct impression in the movie that they were type I ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/52 "2016-01-10T17:32:25Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Note that replicants don’t know _how much_ time they have left. Leon specifically asks Dekker how much time he has left. OTOH, they are aware they have short lifespans. How would Leon have felt if he realized that he was asking the same questions that almost everyone asks at some time? Leons photo collection always seemed like his version of an imaginary friend. He knew the photos were not really about him or his past. But it was fun to make up stories and pretend that he had a family. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/53 "2016-01-10T17:51:11Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Well, on the upside, at last the future now isn’t nearly as run down, noisy, overcrowded, and rainy as the movie version. yet ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/54 "2016-01-10T18:00:16Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Well, on the upside, at last the future now isn’t nearly as run down, noisy, overcrowded, and rainy as the movie version. Go to Hong kong, Shanghai or Beijing and see if you agree with that. Ok we don’t have off world colonies, or replicants but the movie is dead on in other ways. Theres also the central canal area (Dontonbori) in Osaka , Japan which is renowned for looking like it should be in Bladerunner. Anyway we now have five years for Elon Musk to deliver us off world colonies. I live in hope 😉 > **[Dōtonbori](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Dtonbori#/media/File:Osaka_Dotonbori_Ebisu_Bridge.jpg)** > > Dōtonbori or Dōtombori (道頓堀, .mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}pronounced \[doːtomboɾi\]) is a district in Osaka, Japan. Known as one of Osaka's principal tourist and nightlife areas, the area runs along the Dōtonbori canal from Dōtonboribashi Bridge to Nipponbashi Bridge in the Namba district of the city's Chūō ward. Historically a thea... ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/55 "2016-01-10T18:04:07Z")
If you have seen the Kurt Russell movie _Soldier_, which is supposed to be set in the same universe, the off-world colonies are arguably more unpleasant than the polluted, dying Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/56 "2016-01-10T18:12:44Z")
David Peoples, the screenwriter of _Soldier_, considered it to be in the same universe of _Blade Runner_, but nobody who actually owns the rights to _Blade Runner_ authorized it to be such: > **[Soldier (1998 American film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_(1998_American_film))** > > Soldier is a 1998 American science fiction action film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, written by David Webb Peoples, and starring Kurt Russell, Jason Scott Lee, Jason Isaacs, Connie Nielsen, Sean Pertwee and Gary Busey. The film tells the story of a highly skilled and emotionally distant soldier who is left for dead, befriends a group of refugees, then faces his former superiors who are determined to eliminate them. > The film was released worldwide on October 23, 1998. Upon its release, Soldi... ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/57 "2016-01-11T00:09:42Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Come to think of it, who in the right mind would consider a limited lifespan to be a viable safety mechanism? There are plenty of things in every day life that have a limited safe lifespan (car brakes, tyres) after which they should be replaced. If they simply ceased to operate (in a safe way) when they reached a certain wear point that would be safer than they are now. > [@Lobohan](#): > > Uh, I’ll take a Pris replicant if we’re placing orders. I’m torn between the conclusion you are a paedophile since she could at most be 4 years old and the conclusion that you can’t be a paedophile if she is only an object. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/58 "2016-01-11T01:16:06Z")
Roy’s 2 days old now. I imagine he already has a hacking cough from smoking cigs. Luckily, he gave them up on his one week incept day. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/59 "2016-01-11T12:46:45Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Once upon a time androids were artificial humans (more or less) made of meat. One story I remember they had blue skin so you would not confuse them with “genuine” humans. Capek’s “robots” in [_R.U.R_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R.) were of this type. > > Later it could mean a mechanical being with a skin-like covering so it could pass, more or less, for human. Asimov’s [R. Daneel Olivaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Daneel_Olivaw) is of this type. > > Finally, George Lucas got into the act, and now any sentient-mechanical thing is an “android.” > > It’s been so long since I’ve read _Electric Sheep_ I don’t recall whether the replicants were type I or II, but I had the distinct impression in the movie that they were type I The understanding I grew up with was that “robots” were metal artificial people, while “androids” were biological or chemical artificial people. Science Fiction writer Edmond Hamilton was, I think, the one who pushed the distinction. He used it in his stories.\* Later on he wrote comic book stories for DC, and kept up the distinction. If you grew up with pulp SF or with Silver Age comics, you were aware of the distinction. It wasn’t always so clear-cut. The term “android” (meaning, basically, :“man-shaped”) has been used for people-shaped automata since the 19th century, giving the term an older pedigree than “robot”. as mentioned above, “Robot” comes from Karel Capek’s play _R.U.R._\* (“Rossum’s Universal Robots”), where tyhe “robots” really are what Hamilton would call “androids”. In the 1972 movie **Silent Running** there were three diminutive robots that were called “drones”, and had very non-robotic personalities. I suspect that when George Lucas made his epic **Star Wars** , which featured robots with human personalities, and one of them diminutive (and communicating, as Silent Running’s did, without human words), he was influenced to change “drones” to “droids” , which can be seen as an abbreviation of “androids”. Prior to Lucas, I never heard “droids”. The automata of the Star Wars universe are never called “androids”, to my knowledge, although they are referred to _once_, in the first film, as “robots”\*\* - (most notably the Captain Future series, where the titular Captain Future had a Robot sidekick and an android sidekick. You can see the cover of the first issue as a poster on the wall near the door of Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment in Big Bang Theory) \*\* It’s when Luke and Ben are at the Sand People’s tractor massacre, and Luke realizes that the Storm Troopers might know who they sold the “robots” to. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507/60 "2016-01-11T14:56:06Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > How would Leon have felt if he realized that he was asking the same questions that almost everyone asks at some time? Where do I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? And all I could do was sit there and watch him die. From a bullet to the head. * * * I don’t think Leon had that much introspection. If you pointed that out to him, he’d just as soon squeeze your head until it popped. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-roy-battys-incept-date/742507.md?page=4)