Some interesting cyber-punk and sci-fi characters from Dune, Dark City, Blame and Blade Runner. I always liked the little street kids in Blade Runner who speak a language composed of severall ones mixed together.

In Dune, the idea of mind reading is very interesting.

In Dark City, they are after the 'human soul' and what makes us tick. Experimenting with the idea that if you implant the memories of a killer into a normal human, will they act as a killer.

In Blame, the technology has grown so much that the humans are now the 'bugs' that the system is trying to eliminate. So people live in underground societies, hidden from the upper levels of the 'brain' but it's really hard to hide from the more advance technological hunters. In this story, no one knows what is above ground. The main character, Killy eternally climes a cyber punk universe in the hope of one day making it to the upper level; the place that no one has ever seen: in other words the real world.