The Quote That Started It All

Twelve years ago, I started this blog with a quote.

Not just any quote – the quote.

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Time to die.”

Original quote taken from the amazing film #bladerunner

Roy Batty’s final words in Blade Runner weren’t even in the script. Rutger Hauer improvised that now legendary line, like tears in rain and in doing so, gave artificial life a soul. That moment isn’t just the death of a replicant. It’s a mirror held up to humanity, asking quietly: What makes us human?

Is it biology? Or is it experience, memory, awe, grief, and the fragile urgency of time?

Why It Resonated Then and Still Does

Back in 2013, I didn’t know exactly why that quote felt so right as an opening for this blog. I just knew it struck a chord. It felt like something I’d understand more deeply later, which, in hindsight, is often the case with truths that matter.

That quote captured something timeless. Something I couldn’t quite put into words then, but feel now with clarity.

Twelve Years Later: The World Has Changed

Technology has surged forward in ways that even science fiction struggled to predict. We carry supercomputers in our pockets. AI writes, draws, speaks and mimics us. It sorts through our memories faster than we can form them. It answers before we even finish asking. But despite all of this… somethings haven’t changed.

The Deep Human Need to Matter

There’s still that yearning. That ache to be remembered. To whisper into the void, “I was here. I saw. I felt.”

Whether we’re flesh and blood or something more synthetic, maybe that’s the common thread, a kind of soul. Not necessarily in the religious sense, but in the poetic one.

The part of us that marvels at stars. The part that watches time slip by and wants, just for a second, to hold it still.

The Legacy of Roy Batty

Roy Batty only lived four years. Engineered years. But he saw more than most of us will in a lifetime. And in his final moments, he didn’t rage. He didn’t destroy. He saved the man who hunted him. He chose compassion. He chose remembrance. That’s the kind of legacy we should all hope for, human or not.

What’s Worth Remembering?

Futurism often obsesses over what’s next. That’s natural. I’ve spent years exploring those questions too. But maybe we also need to ask: What’s worth remembering? What do we carry forward that makes all this progress mean something? What stories will last beyond the code, beyond the hardware, beyond us?

Looking Ahead, With Eyes Open

Twelve years ago, I quoted Blade Runner. Today, I live in a world it helped inspire. And tomorrow? Maybe we’ll be the ones standing in the rain, half human, half-machine, hoping our moments don’t vanish before someone truly sees us.

If you’re reading this. If you’ve ever paused, just for a moment, and felt time pass or memory fade, then you know what I mean. We’re all trying to leave something behind that won’t wash away.