More Dredd than Blade Runner

[Sild]

Transhumanism is about evolving humanity via technological means to something greater, better. Beyond human. This is positive development, and thus sees technology ultimately in a positive light as ascension.

It is. And as i've pointed out Cyberpunk is a bleaker, darker, more pessimistic take on humanity's journey down that road. Even so, in many cyberpunk works and even in the Cyberpunk PnP
there are those that replace parts of themselves willingly and freely with synthetic/cybernetic parts precisely to increase their capabilities. So they are, in a way, more then they were before, but in classic cyberpunk fashion, also less then they were before. It's often not pretty, it usually comes with side effects (either social or biological) but it's there.

Cyberpunk as a genre has always been more of a warning of what current societal and techological trends may lead to. As any believable society contains many different components and aspects to it so will the themes that fiction works will explore in those worlds.

Doubling back to Blade Runner, that was exactly what was there.. The conception of the replicants was to be for mankind's advantage but technology as a promise failed to deliver. It gives something, yes, but also takes something else away (or denies completely). Individually, as you've correctly pointed out about the replicant plight, and societally.. Through what it drove them to do/become and its effects as a whole.

 

[Guest 3842833]

The comparison Between Deus Ex and Bladerunner comes from the whole futuristic detective noir vibe I get from both franchises. They also both deal with the idea of what it means to be human.