The Stakes

I don't know anything about Ridley Scott's background, but I'm pretty sure he intended Blade Runner to be a piece of entertainment or at best popular art, rather than any kind of advocacy. As for Philip K Dick, I assume he wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep to throw the orbital mind control lasers off his trail. (William S. Burroughs I'm less sure about.)

Nonetheless, it presents a strong, nightmarish vision of the future. It's hard to forget the sight of giant flames licking the sky over a dystopic Los Angeles skyline. Likewise the everpresent adblimps, exhorting citizens to make their way to the "offworld colonies" (and also to "Enjoy Coca-Cola!").

That last bit is what struck me while I was watching the newly released director's cut in our local art theater this weekend. The corporate economy has, in the fullness of time, made the planet almost uninhabitable (this comes across more clearly in the book than in the film), and what's the solution to this? Get a "fresh start"! Help them start up the same disastrous process somewhere new, until *that* planet is used up.

Except for the existence of the offworld colonies, I think this is a good baseline projection of how things will play out if we do nothing and just try to hang on to business as usual for as long as possible. "As long as possible" will be a pretty long while, right up until it becomes "too long", and "too late".