The more we debate the potential merits of artificial intelligence and advanced robotics, a topic inundating the zeitgeist with weekly leaps in smart technology, the more relevant the 1982 film Blade Runner becomes. Add our addiction to social networking, first-person role-playing games, and every other facet of life involving a "simulated" self, and the film appears to be nothing short of prescient.

I have been a city girl all my life—despite a constant desire for a more exciting life, such as living in a tree or a cave, I never even got a chance to live in the country. I spent most of my formative years in the metropolis of New Delhi, with summer trips to the large, sprawling town of Patna to see my grandparents. Yet even in the country's capital, a city of millions, my life was filled with daily encounters with non-humans.

Even the ones that survive have been / broken, lamed, their limbs amputated, / their features mangled past recognition.