The Consequences Modern Thinking Will Bring

Following the modern movement from the early 20th century, society began to expand the abilities of technology into what we would call the Post-Modern Era. Leading into the second half of the century, the generation of the post-modern movement began to apply modern technologies and ask the question “how far can we go with this mind set? And better yet, should we?” Using the film Bladerunner as an example, Ridley Scott creates a dystopian world not far from today [1982]. The setting is in Los Angeles in 2019, the skyline is polluted with fire breathing colossal structures that stand thousands of feet above the ground. The lights of the city go on to a point that seems to never end. The city is portrayed as a functioning machine, littered with billboards dancing across the facades of every building, and producing nothing but artificial products, including food, animals and even humans. One of the many themes the film targets is the concept of a wasteful ideology that our society has adopted. It is most easily noticed when we meet the character J.F. Sebastian, a toy maker who lives in a large worn out building alone. Rather than rehabilitate the structure and make it livable for others, society has chosen to expand and build new structures higher and further away. We know this from two moments in the film, the flying advertisement for living “off-world” and the social status of living higher means better living as we see when we meet Dr. Tyrell who lives at the top of a large pyramid-like building. Bladerunner depicts the city of Los Angeles as a society that is trapped in a cycle of looking to the future with no thought of the consequences it may bring.