Question
According to the Blade Runner's press kit, replicants were "A genetically engineered creature composed entirely of organic substance."
If they're not robots, why are they not capable of emotions (obviously shown in the idea of the Voight Kampff test)? Did they make them without emotions on purpose, and if so why, or is there a reason a "genetically engineered creature" can't have emotions?
Answer
Replicants certainly do have emotions - Roy Batty exhibits anger and ultimately sadness; several of them exhibit fear at being discovered and retired.
However, they are relatively underdeveloped, emotionally speaking. Replicants are physically matured and "born" at full adult growth - they don't go through a childhood to socially and emotionally mature like regular humans. The VK test is not aimed at detecting a lack of emotion - it is designed to detect inappropriate response to emotionally stimulating scenarios.
It seems that this emotionally stunting is known to be a problem - one of the reasons for the programmed short life-spans of the Nexus-6 models is because they become more "emotionally erratic" - Roy, Pris, Leon, and Zora are all close to the end of their life.
Tyrell Corporation were working on improving this - by programming in childhood memories - thereby providing some emotional maturity to the fresh new replicant.
Answered By - HorusKol
