‘What are the implications of the virtual for the human?' provides a brief analysis of contemporary crises in identity as they are related to authenticity. It does this by way of a primarily psychoanalytical reading of four narratives about artificial beings which are representative of (if not definitive within) the genre: 2001: A Space Odyssey, AI, Blade Runner, and Frankenstein. By pitting the human against the artificial being, we are presented with certain difficulties in determining alterity and in determining what these very difficulties represent to us.