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In the year 2018 cars will fly, androids called replicants will be more human than human, and umbrellas will light up with an eerie florescent glow. That’s what we learned from the 1982 classic science fiction film Blade Runner starring Harrison Ford and Sean Young, and it strikes us funny (funny meaning stupid) that noone actually made umbrellas that light up sooner, considering they had the idea handed to them for free twenty two years ago. Still no word yet on when robots will be made to look as good as Sean Young.
Blade Runner LED Umbrella
That’s more umbrella than umbrella.
My parent’s think my umbrella’s trouble.
A gadget-oriented website should know better: replicants are not robots! They are all-organic creatures, genetically engineered for performing specific tasks. “Android”, yes, since they are shaped like men (“Andros”), but not machines like The Terminator or Robot-Maria from Metropolis. Being organic and featuring proto-emotions is what makes it so hard to tell them apart from “real” humans.
Oh, I know all that. I’m just on a robot kick. And since we don’t even have robots that come close to anything remotely like what a robot should be (let alone androids or replicants) I chose to say robot. Robot. I said it again.
By the way, did you know that Rutger Hauer’s dialogue at the end of Blade Runner was improvised? The character of Roy Batty was just supposed to die without a word, and Rutger didn’t feel that was a fitting end for the character, so he made up the “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. C-beams glittering in the dark by the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain” bit. Remember the look on Harrison Ford’s face during that scene? It was a genuine look of “WTF is he saying, that isn’t in the script!” Anyway, Ridley Scott liked it so he kept it in the final print.
You know, at the beginning of Blade Runner it explains that “The Tyrell Corporation advanced Robot evolution into the Nexus phase — a being virtually identical to a human — known as a Replicant,” so technically a Replicant is a robot — specifically a Robot of the Nexus generation.
And yes, I am proud to be this nerdy, thankyaverymuch.
Yeah, me too. About the nerdy part, word. 🙂
Also in the book “Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep),” by P. K. Dick the replicants were mechanical not biological. They were very “robot.”
I just bought one for $20 from MyVirtualZone.com. I love it!
They probably have that at the Sharper Image.
The Real “Bright Night Illuminated Umbrella” can be found at:
http://www.bright-night.com
These are serious umbrellas, that are really bright, windproof and virtually indestructible.