This is a Theme in stories that is often concerned with androids, AI and machines in general. Though not in the same way as Ghost in the Shell.

This theme is focused around the ambiguity of consciousness in artificial intelligence. Basically, focusing on questions like:

• Is it possible for an artificial intelligence to have a soul? Be conscious? Self-aware?
• Is it possible for an artificial intelligence to feel? Have dreams?
• If an artificial intelligence has a soul, does that make it the same as a human?
• What is the difference between an artificial intelligence and a human?
• Does consciousness/the soul manifest in the same way as with a human?

And many more that I will gradually add as I think of them.

Though it’s very important to note that mentioning this theme is not the same as exploring it. Though that’s something I’ll explain in greater detail on the dedicated page…let’s keep it in mind here.

This theme is extremely easy to get wrong because, generally, the most popular stories concerned with this theme are also not very well-written. Which is probably related to the creatives not really understanding what it really is.
For example, a common error made by writers is to…just not explore the theme like, at all. This usually comes in the form of implicitly confirming the existence of a soul. More on specific examples later.

The other major issue is that it’s ridiculously easy to label something as exploring this theme (hence why I’m listing a lot of examples that don’t actually explore it) because most people don’t understand what “exploring a theme” actually means.

Though this theme is handled best when ambiguous, that doesn’t mean it can only be ambiguous. You can come to a conclusion at the end of a story anyway…just that you have to properly explore the theme.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is similar to another AI-related theme: Ghost in the Shell. Though they are not 100% the same and, personally, I find the latter a bit more interesting.

Blade Runner is, in fact…a very poor representation of this theme. This is because the main ambiguous replicant (Rachel) is implicitly conscious…as the story doesn’t really show any ambiguities at all.

The antagonist replicants are also not a great representation, because they have explicitly human desires (self-preservation; desire to be human) despite how inhuman they often end up coming off as.

Now…Deckard…is a bit more ambiguous, but he also isn’t. First of all, if you’re one of those people who seriously believes that his status as human/replicant being ambiguous is a core part of the film…then, heh, I’m sorry to say but you are an unfortunate soul. The film (neither the Director’s Cut nor the Theatrical Cut) are ambiguous about this in the slightest. They are two separate extremes.
The Theatrical Cut (and Harrison Ford, if you trust his word) is squarely human, while the Director’s Cut (and Ridley Scott, the evil) is squarely replicant. There is no in-between unless you go into crazy theories.

Now that that’s out of the way…let’s assume that he is a replicant. Then, yeah, the film still doesn’t explore the themes…because, like with Rachel, the film implicitly confirms that he has a soul…is self-aware and all that jazz. He acts far too human to not be a human, basically.

This one is even worse, as every replicant depicted in this film is clearly conscious. Even the AI, Joi, has some kind of consciousness…though there is a very subtle moment that could imply she isn’t conscious. But if you know anything about how humans think, this one moment actually doesn’t mean anything.^A)

A poor example as the game makes it explicit that the moral position “androids don’t have souls” is wrong. Every torture/death of an android is treated as seriously as with a human.

Even the method of gaining self-awareness is pretty laughable.

The term ‘ghost’ is used to refer to consciousness or the soul in the franchise. Here I’ll split it up by individual entries.

Probably not, though it’s ambiguous. Not ambiguous in the theme’s sense…but that there just isn’t enough information.

The Uchikomas are probably the closest we get, but they’re focused on so little that it’s not clear if any conclusion can be reached.

Oh, and the puppet master is definitely not an example of this theme.

Most definitely not. The only artificial intelligence depicted in the film is the puppet master. Like with the manga, the puppet master is explicitly self-aware and thus, likely, possesses a soul.

Though…hrm, I’m gonna have to write a little more on this. It’s ambiguous because we never really get a scan to confirm that the soul is there (which would be read as static)…which means that we can’t actually be sure either way. It’s entirely possible that the puppet master is just a machine who came to the conclusion that they require a soul…but a conclusion like that is probably impossible to reach rationally from the point of view of a machine, implying that it isn’t just a machine.

I guess I might have to eat my words for a second, because the puppet master (at least in the film) might actually be an example of this theme.

Overall? No. The Tachikomas are explicitly self-aware.

Though there is just one moment, though that’s a lot closer to the Ghost in the Shell theme.

Sunny and Vicki are both examples of a robot/AI who could embody this theme. Sunny is explicitly conscious, while Vicki is…not. Vicki is probably the only ambiguous case here…as it’s not clear whether she’s actually conscious or not.

This film is actually a little better at the Ghost in the Shell theme.

An actual ambiguous case and one that’s like…50/50, I’d say. It is not clear who was/wasn’t a machine in Screamers and, even for those where it’s confirmed…we don’t actually know how conscious those machines are…technically.

The main exception is the protagonist’s one-night-stand, who definitely has a moral code…which implies a soul of some kind. Or at least the capacity to gain empathy.

There is something else to point out, which is that these machines evolved deception…somehow. Though it’s also questionable whether the screamers started out as simple or whether they started out as complex. There’s evidence suggesting either possibility.