Neuromancer

When I first saw Case in the dirty bar or whatever, I thought, "okay so this is the macho rogue underdog, whatever". I honestly didn't expect much from him. I thought I saw every stereotype of a main character in Case, so I kind of just let it flow. But I was pleasantly surprised by his weird character development.

Right of the back this book is confusing. The reader is confused (I mean I was), and Case reflects this. He goes through the story himself finding stuff along the way with the reader, and by the end, he's just as clueless as when he started. When he shows up in the Flatline, he has no idea what any of it is. He's lost at seeing Linda Lee and what the Neuromancer implies. When he sees Wintermute and Neuromancer have merged he's not totally sure what has happened, and at the end even more so when he sees that weird alternate version of himself at the end.
Case proves that he isn't that stereotype of a main character whenever he follows Molly rather than taking control and shows genuine care for her. He's scared when she gets hurt and refuses to leave her to be tortured. He's emotional around people, that I felt, were just kinda bitter all the time. I find this pretty ironic considering that he's the one that wants to spend all his time out in cyberspace instead of in his physical body. When he's jacked in, he doesn't have to carry his body with him, and his emotions are largely what verifies that he's still in fact human. Molly can be stone cold and ruthless (and awesome), but prefers her body to anything out in the cyberworld. If I had to come up with a reason as to why this is it would have to be because Molly knows what her body can do. She gets her leg broken and she still keeps going because she's not afraid of testing her physical limits. Case fears of being trapped somewhere he can't break free from, and his body is one of these prisons.
Case was real. He wasn't unrealistically amazing like, "wow he just pulled that random stunt out of nowhere is there anything this man cannot doo??". Nope. Honestly, the reader is more in awe of Molly and her abilities than Case's. He couldn't stop Armitage from getting killed even though he desperately tried to. Case is given a chance at having his old life back, his hacking life, and in the beginning, he would do anything to keep it. He freaks out when Armitage is killed because he is the only one that can fix him, which is completely understandable, which is what anyone else would have done in the same situation. But when it doesn't end up the way he wants it to, he doesn't go back to wallowing in his self pity after the whole ordeal is over, he finds a new life, which is incredibly admirable.
Molly was another interesting character I wish to dissect. When she's first introduced I thought "oh so here's the badass female lead, that's cool". There's always the one. When her back story is revealed I actually didn't hate her motivations. Usually when I read a tragic back story I'm like "how does it give you a right to be this way though??", but with Molly, it was weirdly okay. I think it's because she didn't let what had happened in the past change her as a person. I mean it definitely did, but I mean it didn't turn her into completely closed off and heartless. I see in a lot of other books or movies that the female lead is either one of two things. A complete wimp or super duper strong and capable. However, the capable lead is typically like a huge rock, kind of like how a guy would be portrayed as. They're emotionless and stoic, which is annoying to see time and time again. I wanna see women who are not only powerful but can also express their feelings because um, they're humans who still have emotions and you don't have to be dead inside to be a hero. I wanna see women where they're both powerful and a good person. I think I saw this in Molly. She had a hard past and yeah it sucked but it didn't close her off. She lets herself care for Case, and she shows that when she tells him to jack out because she wants to protect him. This didn't stop her from being strong. If anything I think it enhances her courage because it displays that fear is okay to have it's just whether or not you fight it that makes you strong or not. 

What We Missed

3D printing has changed the world for the better. Engineers have used it to create complex parts in a matter of hours while elite chefs replicate intricate designs on their pastries. Now, scientists are using this same technique to study how to replicate organs to replace broken ones. In diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia the brain destroys itself because of the lack of blood it's receiving. The victims of these diseases begin to wilt away from the people they once were. There is no known cure. 

However, using the advancing technology of 3D printing, scientists could discover a way to print out new brain parts. The reality is that making new organs is not a future that is too far as people are already creating new body parts like a lung or an ear from stem cells. Replicating brains is definitely a long ways off though, as humans right now don't even fully understand how it even works and all of its complexities, but I think that it's at least in the realm of possibility. Scientists have conducted amazing research with human stem cells already, and when a fetus is growing, their brain grows from cells, so what's stopping us from creating a brain with stem cells we already have? Perhaps we could even 3D print stem cells so that we can create a completely synthetic brain (and maybe even eventually an even synthetic person). Furthermore, engineers could create brains that aren't susceptible to disease or something like memory loss, maybe even making a perfect brain. These brains could be engineered to carry specific traits and talents so that they human with the brain shows them. 

Before this gets too deep and can start dreaming of all the opportunities, immortality is a thing. If we have perfect brains, nothing is stopping us from just recreating ourselves every time something breaks down. Immortality could perhaps finally be achieved, and depending on who you ask, this isn't always a good thing. This would also touch on the matter of soul. Once that part of the brain is lost, then that part of a person is lost. Although they might make a new brain for them, it would not be the same person. I don't know enough about neuroscience and even whether or not souls exists to discuss how people could still remain as the people they are with a new brain. That's the future generations philosophical dilemma. Living forever and philosophy aside, I think overall this would have a good effect on society as death caused by brain loss if often painful and slow. 

This may seem like this is all leading towards AIs or replicants, but if the original purpose of this idea is followed, which is to help victims of brain disease, than this would be an amazing tool in the medical field that could save millions of lives. 

Bladerunning

So what I got from the movie and what I expected from it were completely different things. To be completely honest I don't really know what I was expecting, I just know that it wasn't what the film ended up being. I'm just gonna get my complaints out in the open right now.
What bothered me the most was probably the parts where there was only weird visuals and little to no sounds playing in the background. Like the scenes where Harrison Ford's character would just be looking at things and I'd be thinking 'so is this important??? or nah??' am I missing something?'. Or like that scene where Racheal was just looking at pictures in Deckard's apartment and I thought maybe the people in the pictures were meaningful when in reality they weren't and honestly I still don't know what purpose that served. But onto the things that I really want to talk about.
I don't really understand the relationship between replicants and humans, like, what did replicants do that made them illegal in the first place? Why hide the fact that you're killing replicants by using the terminology 'retire' when everyone knows what that implies? It creates the illusion that what's taking place is actually not as cruel as it seems, as if they were dogs just being put down. However why have this term in the first place if everyone knows they're just being murdered, and in Deckard's case, by rather brutal and inhumane ways. Perhaps the humans feel guilty by what they're doing yet not enough to do anything about it. The replicants have memories, albeit not their own, they have sentience and, as seen in several occasions, a will to live. They're just terrified animals being driven to extinction and they have no idea as to why. Is the viewer meant to think that humans are in the wrong here? What do we think about Deckard? He has killed replicants, but seems to have given up his way of life since he leaves with one. Maybe this is about how one human being redeems himself.