The problem is, that with such a limited knowledge that humans like you have, you wouldn't know if you saw a replicant, if it was human. You don't even know for sure if you are dreaming or not. There is not one single experience that humans participate in that could not be experience in a dream. In dreams, doors are doors and tables are tables; you can run and jump and consultwith yourfriends. In dreams, doors are doors and tables are tables; in dreams you can run and jump and consult your friends.
The replicants in 'Blade Runner', based on the book by Phillip Dick, (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep), are created to exactly resemble humans. In San Francisco post WWT there is often confusion whether a humanoid is real or an android. Bounty hunters and others use the Voigt-Kampff test to distinguish humans from replicants. This brings up the question of human consciousness, robot consciousness, and how they are similar and different from us thinking humanoids. The main theme of Phillip K. Dick's novel concerns similarity and difference; sentient robots that look identical to humans, but are not human at all. The central question is whether or not we can spot replicants in order to retire them. Looming in the background is the question: is Deckard himself a replicant? Thinking like a replicant is the way Deckard explores his own consciousness and humanity. Replicants, that is, androids, make Deckard realize that he might not be so human after all. He actually becomes more inhuman than the replicants he is remorselessly hunting!
