Simulacrum: Encyclopedia II - Simulacrum - Science fiction and fantasy literature

Simulacrum - Science fiction and fantasy literature

Another usage, so far specific to Fantasy and Science Fiction is the android that is specifically intended to impersonate another creature (usually a human being). Many stories that include Simulacra share several common themes:

• Simulacra are always imperfect copies.
• Simulacra are distinguishable from the original, because they are based on an idealized form of that which was copied.
• There is a desire on the part of the Simulacrum to either be more like the original (i.e. Pinocchio), or to replace the original (i.e. Doppelgangers)

In the film Blade Runner, androids built in imitation of humans are banned from the planet Earth, yet return to Earth in search of their creator. In hopes of having their pre-programmed termination undone, one of the androids meets the engineer who designed his artificial eyes and says to him, "If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes." In Blade Runner, the androids are not copies of actual humans - all of whom, in the film, have physical defects - but of idealized, perfect versions of humans. Therefore, the replicants are imitations not of reality but of another imitation - ergo, they are simulacra.

The novel on which Blade Runner is based, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, was written by Philip K. Dick, whose novels often blended the lines between reality and its copies. Dick even published a book in 1969 called “Simulacrum”, which had a somewhat similar plot involving androids.

Commander Data, in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation also represents an example of the post-modern sense of Simulacrum. Data is Sci-Fi adaptation of Walt Disney's character Pinocchio. Disney's character, in turn, was based on Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Science fiction and fantasy literature", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki