The “baseline” scene in bladerunner 2049 was written by Ryan Gosling (2022)
I like this article and like this kind of thoughtful analysis of film.<p>But I don’t like that scene and don’t think it’s a job of good writing. I think it’s cool that Ryan Gosling wrote the scene and that he was able to collaborate with the author and director in that way, but it kind of explains the frailness of the scene.<p>The problem I have with the scene is that while it looks cool, it seems like the dumbest, most ineffective way of detecting if an android is off baseline. It would be simple for a trained android or human to fake the test just like a polygraph and seems easier for an android to control expression of emotion and just match the expectation.<p>I expect a real test would just dump data via a port like our cars’ diagnostic port and quickly run against a trained model for what is conformant behavior vs aberrant (of course testing for manipulation, deletion, or unusual data).<p>This scene replicates the biggest flaw of the movie, it all looks cool but makes no logical sense. And it’s about societal systems and robots so there should be logic or at least attempts at logic. Corporations and fascist governments and religions at least seem to attempt order.<p>The movie seems like an artists attempt to write about robots without really thinking about how things would work. PKD did this so much in the source material.<p>But it looks cool and I enjoy watching so I don’t get hung up on it, but wouldn’t call it out as great writing. I’ve got problems with the original as well but still enjoy it (and it has Daryl Hannah and Sean Young so that’s awesome).