{"id":33025,"date":"2016-01-08T10:21:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T15:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=33025"},"modified":"2016-01-08T10:21:22","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T15:21:22","slug":"happy-birthday-roy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/01\/happy-birthday-roy.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, Roy!"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-33029\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2016\/01\/Happy-Birthday-Roy-1024x537.jpg\" alt=\"Happy Birthday Roy-1024x537\" width=\"572\" height=\"300\"><\/p>\n<p>It is a<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cinemablend.com\/new\/Why-Today-Great-Day-Watch-Blade-Runner-104587.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"> striking coincidence<\/a> that I just\u00a0a few days ago watched <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0790729628\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0790729628&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;linkId=DJCMC5V6GWWT7OA4\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Blade Runner<\/a> again, together with my son who was seeing it for the first time. Its\u00a0future is too close in time to ours to seem plausible now, but other than the dates being off, the possibility of genetically engineering something better than robots to do things that we cannot is not at all implausible. And that word \u201csomething\u201d is the heart of the issue the film explores. Just because we create entities shouldn\u2019t give us the right to simply end their lives as we see fit, any more than it should give us the right to enslave them.<\/p>\n<p>As you\u2019ll have noticed in the image, in the movie we see that Roy Batty the replicant\u00a0had a manufacture date of January 8th, 2016. And so you\u2019ll see a lot of people today wishing him a happy birthday.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also a good day to rewatch the movie, if you haven\u2019t for a while\u2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0790729628\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0790729628&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;linkId=DJCMC5V6GWWT7OA4\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?_encoding=UTF8&amp;ASIN=0790729628&amp;Format=_SL250_&amp;ID=AsinImage&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;WS=1&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important\" src=\"https:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0790729628\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is a striking coincidence that I just\u00a0a few days ago watched Blade Runner again, together with my son who was seeing it for the first time. Its\u00a0future is too close in time to ours to seem plausible now, but other than the dates being off, the possibility of genetically engineering something better than robots [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":33029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[1212,1230,2460,5095,7755,10223,10598,10885,10890],"class_list":["post-33025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-fiction","tag-birthday","tag-blade-runner","tag-date","tag-incept","tag-movie","tag-replicant","tag-roy-batty","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Happy Birthday, Roy!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is a striking coincidence that I just\u00a0a few days ago watched Blade Runner again, together with my son who was seeing it for the first time. 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McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-08T15:21:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. 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