Basque ethnography at a glance

Frame of the 2007 Final Cut.

This is not Los Angeles, but it is November 2019, the month and the year Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (US, 1982) takes place. The film and its soundtrack, by Vangelis, made a strong first impression on me. Several versions have been released over the years, including the director’s 2007 Final Cut. Just another science fiction movie for some, it truly is more than a masterpiece for me.

Digital technologies, robotics and artificial intelligence have not yet reached the stage shown in the film, but they are here to stay and advance at ever-increasing speed.

Since the beginning of the last millennium and throughout my infancy changes to the world occurred more gradually, but over the course of my life I have perceived an increase in the rate of technological progress. I was born in a rural community where the usual means of transport used to be the traditional wooden cart drawn by a pair of oxen or cows. During my childhood, and ever since, I have been surrounded by animals, both domestic and wild. By contrast, in the dystopian future dreamed by Philip K. Dick, author of the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? the film is loosely based on, real animals are extremely rare and pricey, and thus often replaced by electromechanical counterparts.

Many local dairy farmers already use robots to milk their cows, along with some other minor farm chores, but so far such machines are nothing like Roy Batty, the Nexus-6 replicant played by Rutger Hauer.

When I tell children of today what my life was like as a child, on the very few occasions they decide to take their eyes off their smartphones and give me some attention, I see a mixture of perplexity and alienation reflected on their faces. My true stories about a time gone by must seem fiction to them; there certainly is a whole universe of difference between their life experiences and mine, because they look at me as if I were from an ‘off-world’ colony.

And then I remember the moving and unforgettable death monologue delivered by character Roy Batty: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…”.

Luis Manuel Peña – Ethnography Department – Labayru Fundazioa

Translated by Jaione Bilbao – Ethnography Department – Labayru Fundazioa