The strangers asked Dr.Schreber to imprint Murdoch with the their own collective memories. Instead he imprinted him with a 'training' memory. If Schreber had did what he was told, would the imprint help achieve their desired individuality and avoid their extinction? Maybe I just don't see any meaningful results the Strangers have achieved with their experiment before they decide to shut it down permanently.
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The question is essentially related to this prior question and the answer will certainly involve much of the same answer: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/79283/how-would-individuality-help-the-strangers-survive – Silly but True Nov 17 '21 at 13:28
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1Does this answer your question? How would individuality help the Strangers survive? – Silly but True Nov 17 '21 at 13:31
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No, I don't think individuality is the intended results of imprinting Murdoch with their memories. They might just stumble upon it and make use of it.@SillybutTrue – Kinzle B Nov 17 '21 at 13:34
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1Secondly, an inhabitant with the ability to 'tune' is not something that the Strangers wanted to achieve with their experiments. @SillybutTrue – Kinzle B Nov 17 '21 at 13:59
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Probably not.
According to Dr. Schreber, the Strangers thought they could find the human soul if they learned how human memories work.
DR. SCHREBER: I call them Strangers. They abducted us and brought us here. This city, everyone in it... is their experiment. They mix and match our memories as they see fit, trying to divine what makes us unique. One day, a man might be an inspector. The next, someone entirely different. When they want to study a murderer, for instance, they simply imprint one of their citizens with a new personality. Arrange a family for him, friends, an entire history... even a lost wallet. Then they observe the results. Will a man, given the history of a killer, continue in that vein? Or are we, in fact, more than the sum of our memories? This business of you being a killer was a sad coincidence. You have had dozens of lives before now. You happened to wake up... while I was imprinting you with this one.
JOHN MURDOCH: Why are they doing all this?
DR. SCHREBER: It is our capacity for individuality, our souls... that makes us different from them. They think they'll find the human soul... if they understand how our memories work.
Dark City (1998)
In the final exchange of dialogue between John and Mr. Hand near the end of the film though, Mr. Hand stated that John's memory imprint -- which had been injected into Mr. Hand himself -- simply wasn't agreeable with his kind.
MR. HAND: I'm dying, John. Your imprint is not agreeable with my kind. But I wanted to know what it was like. How you feel.
Dark City (1998)
John responded by suggesting that the Strangers had been barking up the wrong tree all along, since according to him, the key to what makes people human didn't lie within the brain.
JOHN MURDOCH: You know how I was supposed to feel. That person isn't me. Never was. You wanted to know what it was that makes us human. Well, you're not going to find it in here.
(John points to his forehead.)
JOHN MURDOCH: You went looking in the wrong place.
Dark City (1998)
In his audio commentary, the film's director, Alex Proyas, agreed with John, stating that the key to what makes people who they are lies not within our experiences, but within the soul.
ALEX PROYAS: I believe that we have a spirit or a soul, or whatever you want to call it, and that that's who we really are. Our experiences and our past are really not what makes us who we are.
Dark City (1998) - audio commentary
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