NOTE: This episode contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film yet, you might want to hit pause and come back when you’re ready.

This episode offers a deep exploration of the movie Blade Runner, analyzed through Alison Landsberg’s compelling theory of prosthetic memory. Set in a futuristic world where memories are not naturally experienced but artificially manufactured, and personal identity is constructed from fictional narratives, the central question posed is no longer whether your memories are authentic. Instead, it asks whether the memories, regardless of their origin, feel sufficiently real to hold importance and emotional weight. In the world of Blade Runner, even if the soul is artificial and synthetic, the sorrow and human emotion it evokes remain undeniably authentic and profound.

Learn more about prosthetic memory in Alison Landsberg’s Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture.