Are Humans Really That Good?

Although this film is not the reality of what man kind's capability to create has come to, it causes one to ponder what could be done in the near future and even now.    Prior to any great show of robotics the film displays technologies that are decently advanced from what is currently commonplace.  The cell phones are slim and slender looking, the computers are similarly slim, and both have no buttons as all, only touchscreens.  Another thing to be noted on both items is that they do not require even touch at time, only hand motions above them.  One rather appealing piece of technology shown was an electronic canvas for the female protagonist.  It showed the same abilities as the phone and computer, but also other features that would be specifically helpful to artists, which was pretty neat.  The film actually makes the viewer begin to wonder after Martha, the female protagonist, is unwillingly signed up for a program to “talk” to her recently deceased husband.  The software of the program searches through all of the deceased person’s public online interactions; this means their tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, vlogs, and any other social media that could be found without passwords.  With the culmination of all of this information the program designs a textual replica of the deceased person that is able chat with another person in the likeness that he or she would have spoken.  Things like AI chats already exist and they are becoming quite advanced.  In some online chat rooms real people may great difficulty determining the words of a real person from a well programmed and learning AI.  A recent example of this is “TayTweets,” which was a well-conceived idea, but went horribly awry when released into the world.  “Tay” was supposed to learn how humans interact with each other and then talk to others, especially those who talked to her in the manners she derived.  She quickly became a genocide loving racist.  People corrupted her as quickly as they could to see how evil they could turn a learning AI, and succeeded all too well.  The movie later introduces a robot that is so human-like that many would find it real.  If that same or similar software were to be programmed into this humanoid machine then the most likely outcome would be an apocalypse like the Terminator movies.  This is a frightening prospect, and while the robot could already have a preconceived personality it would still be learning a lot from the world around it.  Overall the emotions I felt from this film were curiosity and worry.  I am incredibly curious to see technology like this in the future because of the possible uses it could provide and simply the sheer capability of what it could do from there.  However, that capability then leads to worry because of the horrific possibilities it also could cause.  But I then must take a step back and think, is man as it is now really any better though? So many people thrive on hate and the ruin of others that it is practically intrinsic of humans, so could a learning machine that looked like us really cause more harm than we already do to ourselves? 

Technology's Taking Over

We think technology has come so far already since the 1930's when the computer was invented but "Be Right Back" shows that we are no where near where technology plans to be. I agreed with Martha in the beginning of the video that the husband should have stayed off of his phone more because it was taking over his life and was making their relationship different. Once he died though, the woman changed and she became the one who was too obsessed with all the technology in which she thought would bring him back. This is when technology started to really take over her life. It simply started with just being able to talk to his voice on the phone and then escalated to trying to be the real Ash. In a way technology was able to bring a version of Ash back, but I don't think technology will ever be able to completely make a real human duplicate. It was ironic though because Martha was fine with talking to "Ash" on the phone but once he became "real" and she realized that he will never really come back to her. It suddenly became not okay that he was there in person and she had realized that she let technology do to her exactly what it did to her husband. When it all became too much was when Martha experienced Mori's explanation of the uncanny valley. It was too human like, but was not the man she loved. In my opinion, many people say they would do anything to get back their loved ones after they have lost them, but I think if given the choice Martha had I would not have taken it. I would like to remember the person for who they truly were, not for the person that the internet saw. In the video, Martha had to explain different jokes that they had or ways Ash would have really acted in a certain situation and I would not want to let a robot try to take the place of someone that I love because they could not live up to the person that they truly were. It was not morally correct because they seemed to be cheating death and not dealing with it. It didn't seem like true love to her anymore when the robotic Ash referred to Martha as his administrator. She took offense to that and knew that this whole thing was just a performance for her grief but would never truly help her. Although in the end her child was able to still have a form of her father, that child will still never really know what he was like because there are restrictions and it was still hard for Martha to deal with even years later as she stood at the bottom of the latter. People are constantly wanting the latest and greatest phone or iPad, but when will it eventually be too much?

Be Right Back -Ash

"Be Right Back" starts innocently enough with a young couple, Ash and Martha, moving into Ash's childhood home. During the beginning, Ash can't seem to keep his nose out of his phone and is shown sharing a photo on social media. Soon after this Ash dies, though how is not shown or told.
Martha is hurt very deeply with the loss of her beloved and her friend, Sarah, signs Martha up for a computer program that is designed to mimic a person, threw the decease's social media use, to help with the grieving process. Martha is greatly appalled at the thought of it. However, once Martha discovers she is pregnant, she decides to "talk" with the program to tell the mimicked "Ash" that she is pregnant with his child. This action prices to be a slippery slope as Martha begins to talk more and more to "Ash" and feds the program data on the deceased Ash.
Martha becomes a little too comfortable with the program and when she drops her phone as she was talking to "Ash" throws a "jab," (Martha). Realizing how fragile "Ash" is, Martha becomes desperate and partakes in an experimental part of the program. Martha has a geminoid sent to her home that will replicate the deceased Ash in his physical form.
Martha soon experiences the "uncanny valley" as she dislikes the geminoid version of Ash.
          "You're not you. You're just a few ripples of you. There's no histories of you. You're just a performance of stuff he performed without thinking about it and it's not enough" - Martha.
           "You look like him on a good day" -Martha

This story scares me because I believe we are not far off from the technology that is shown throughout the movie, such as a nurse performing a ultrasound without touching Martha using only a small device on the palm of her hand. An example of how close we are to the technology in "Be Right Back", Martha is able to sign for her geminoid package with just her thumbprint on what appears to be a cellphone. We are already able to unlock our cellphones with only our fingerprint.
Our technology is becoming so advanced that geminoids are already in progress. While they can not do what the Ash geminoid in the movie could do, they can pass as a human being in a coffee shop.
To go back to the quotes I used from Martha about "Ash's" appearance and actions bring attention to human behavior while on social media. We only show the good parts of ourselves and our lives to the world of social media. While it is showing true parts of us, is what we portray on social media the real us.

"Failure of The Uncanny Valley"

      In "Be Right Back" Martha goes through an experience that should not be duplicated in real life, even if the love, which was obviously deep from Martha to Ash, is present. In my opinion, Martha's lifestyle in this film is the defining reason why we need to have true friends that will hear our stories through the thick and thin. This makes the tough times less depressing and prevents drastic actions like the making of a clone of the deceased. The use of a phone to keep in touch with a virtual deceased person is a little excessive. The idea of having a body shipped to you and adding ingredients to make a clone is a little creepy. I think that the uncanny valley reference in this film starts completely real but throughout the film, it loses its authenticity. This is seen with Ash's clones’ emotions, reactions and interactions with Martha. The interactions Ash's clone had with Martha at the end of the film was depressing to see. Martha's expectations of having her husband fully back were completely crushed. In this segment, it was clear to see that nothing, not even a perfect clone can replace the people you love. With Ash's clone, Martha was more of the "man" in the relationship as the clone did whatever she wanted him to do. A scene where the clone loses its authenticity is with the glass on the kitchen floor. A person with glass shards cut through their hands not showing any reaction from the pain of the shards or concern of potential injury is awkward for a human to experience. In the cliff scene, although completely frustrating and saddening for Martha to ask her clone husband to jump off a cliff to bring her back to contentment, one would have to say that this should bring peace, even if slowly to Martha. Knowing that the real Ash is gone and that a clone cannot replace him it brings a message that it is time to move one. However, at the end of the film, Martha reverts back to what got her in the predicament of getting a clone by going back up the stairs to the attic. Although technologically impossible with the distance restrictions of the clone, Martha should have found a better way to dispose of the clone, instead of just placing it in the attic. Placing the clone there does not remove the feelings of Ash, since all Martha has to do is go up to the attic to see him.

Finding the sweet spot of the Uncanny Valley

Masahiro Mori’s principle of the uncanny Valley was developed in the 1970s this was the principle that people or in this case, robots could either be distinguished as being a human or being like a human. This idea is no different than the principles of race, gender or even sexuality. It's important to understand that in order to look into what distinguishes someone as a human in actuality or like a human there have to be lifelike characteristics. The robot for example could be lovable, up until a certain point. There is a point where the characteristics of the human being and robot are distinguishable, at that point the robot is no longer loveable. Bearing this in mind was hard for people to grasp, but as Maury developed these ideas in the system there would be people that would have to build upon his ideas and his principles.  As long as the Uncanny Valley was developed and understood, the principal could no longer be limited to someone passing as a human or actually being a human. This could also be something to think about in terms of race, sexuality, and gender. For example, if someone were to say that they were African-American and male and or African-American and female, because of them being on the birth certificates and documents but then they are able to fly under the radar and say that they're white or Caucasian, or say they're a different gender, then the principal starts to have some broader implications. 

Once these characteristics and distinctions are created and made, the principles of the Uncanny Valley are able to be put into practice, but only, if the implications are legitimately met. For example, class discussion suggested and showed that there were different cases of someone either passing to be someone or something, and actually being that someone or something which related to the ideas and principles of how robots can be viewed as normal to a certain point.  The video of people's stories being depicted as either a male or female originally, and then, having to conform to the changes of their appearances, is staggering and even hard to observe. In one example, a woman had to wear certain outfits that made her look like a man. And others felt as though they were being ridiculed for being a female or having to change to being a female if they were male or changing to a male if they were female. Having this in mind doesn't always seem to work in everyone's favor, but it does work in some people's minds to get rid of the ridicule that they might feel. This can also be related to how people act and how they appear to act. If someone were to say that they were either nice or respectful, or even respectable but they didn't portray these sort of attributes, then there would be criticism and some sort of disconnect. There is a way to define the difference between what is actually nice, respectful, and respectable, and what appears to be nice, respectful and respectable. 

It would not be a surprise to find that people say they are gender or race conforming. But, they tried to change the way that they perceive themselves and try to put on a mask, that doesn't look like them. Simply because that is not who they are. They just want to put on a facade. So that people can actually give them the respect and attention that they deserve, and that they want in society rather than having to get a look of disapproval. Even the robots that we had seen in class, and these images, the ways that they were depicted, looked scary at first, but as you looked closer, you could see that their dimensions were not as scary looking. Distinctions that were made in looking at these images and videos of these robots, were surprising, yet not difficult to look at from a close-up point of view. In short, the Uncanny Valley, and the differences in pretending to be something and actually being something are no different today than they were in the 1970s, which begs the question how can something be perceived in one way, when it is really another way.

Robots and the Uncanny Valley

The concept of the Uncanny Valley has made people uneasy since the 1970's and after taking a look at it, I can totally understand why. Firstly, I think one main reason is because people do not take the time to understand the evolution of robots. We encounter many robots in different forms, as it is, but when we think of robots, most people think of robots as they are in the movie I-Robot. Siri and other smart phone features are robots and with our generation we do not think of it like that because it is hand-held and we control it. With technological advancement of things like Siri, we should expect to have more human-like robots. But do the human-like robots pose a threat to what humanizes us? A couple things that I believe that makes humans human is our ability to reason and to feel. Humans can reason between what is right and what is wrong, but a robot can't. A human can commit a crime and can understand why what he did was wrong and fix it, but if a robot commits a crime, they will not be able to understand why they messed up and will not be able to fix it. So, our punishment for the robot will be to terminate it and not to punish it, like we would a human. A human will be able to learn from his or her punishments because they may begin to feel bad about about what they did. Robots do not have feelings therefore, they will not be able to learn from their actions. If robots started to run our world, as they run the hotel in Japan, it could start to detach humans from work ethics. As humans do less work, certain human skills, like problem solving, will start to demolish. Humans will begin to get lazy and expect the robots to do all the work. What will happen when a robot is not programmed for a certain job and humans have lost their work ethic? The job won't be able to get done and what if that one job is a life altering job, like a doctor or a cop. Will the world start to fall apart? Will the robots begin to take over our world? Will we become the new pets to the robots we created? So, I guess the real question is, are humans creating something to put above themselves?

Be Right Back

This film had me like.....

Watching this film I didn't know what I was expecting, but I know it was not that.  The scariest part to me about watching this, was the fact that this technology is not that far off.  Although I think Martha had a reason for continuing the service and taking it even farther, I do not under any circumstances think this technology should be allowed.  First of all, it is not helping the person who is trying to grieve the death, it is allowing them to cling onto this last remaining piece of their loved one which is completely false.  Also in this case, the daughter now thinks it is okay to first of all keep someone locked away in your attic, and second of all keep a technologic clone of someone who passed away.  Neither of these situations are healthy by any means, and as someone who was so opposed to technology and her husband's cellphone at the beginning, Martha should have realized how crazy this was.  It is terrifying to me to think that people could actually buy services like this in the near future, and it is even more terrifying for me to know that people will buy services like this and they will be completely okay with it.  This false sense of a person's loved one still being alive is not healthy in any way and it is not okay.  Ash's clone is clearly deep in the uncanny valley.  Sure he looks and sounds like him but there is that little bit that still sounds and acts slightly robotic.  I found clone Ash to be extremely creepy, and I don't know if Martha was able to overlook it for the most part because she was still grieving, but there is no way I would ever be able to endure that.  I am glad that towards the end she started to realize that it was not her husband, nor would it ever be her husband, but I don't think locking him in her attic and visiting him with her daughter every weekend was the right way to go about it.  It's ironic how in the beginning, Ash talked about how his mom put all the pictures of his brother and dad in the attic when they passed, and now Martha is basically doing the same thing, only instead of pictures she is storing a robotic clone instead. 

Be Right Back

Below is the short film "Be Right Back," from the acclaimed BBC series entitled Black Mirror. Students should view the film in its entirety before class on Friday and should come prepared with specific questions/comments about the issues raised in it.

[Warning: contains adult content and language. NSFW.]

You can also watch "Be Right Back" on YouTube at this link.

Welcome to Your Class Blog!

Welcome to the blog-home for Dr. J's Spring 2016 Contemporary Moral Issues course! For the second half of the semester, we will be turning our attention to contemporary moral problems generated by the increasingly complicated interactions between human life, on the one hand, and the various technologies humans have created to make their/our life "better," on the other hand.  This site will serve as a forum for students to discuss the lectures, readings, and films we cover in class, raise interesting questions we may not have addressed during our regular IRL time together, make connections between our course material and current real-world events, and engage in an ongoing digital conversation with one another, Prior to this point in the semester, your progress and understanding has been assessed through objective quizzes and symposia.  This is your chance to demonstrate that you also can express your ideas and arguments in written form-- which is, of course, the second (and essential) part of our daily mantra "Read more. Write more. Think more. Be more."

First, if you don't know ANYTHING about blogs or blogging, there are (fortunately) lots of tutorials out there to help!  If you have a specific question, you can usually find the answer to it at the Blogger Help Center.  For a quick YouTube introduction to blogging, I suggest this video and this one.  There's also a "Complete List of Blogger Tutorials" available.  That's the amazing thing about the internet, of course... you can learn to do almost anything with a few clicks!

You can find a link to your Blogging Assignment Schedule in the sidebar to the right, or you can download it by clicking on this link. You will also find a link to the Blog Grading Rubric in the sidebar to the right (also downloadable here), which explains in detail how I will grade your work on this blog.

It's important to know that blog-writing differs from the writing you might do for "traditional" papers in some ways, but not in others. Here are some things to think about as you compose your posts and comments:

WHEN POSTING:

• Do not wait until the last minute to write your post! Students should think of the blog as a community exercise. In this community, Authors are responsible for generating discussion and Commenters are responsible for continuing and elaborating upon it. In order for the Commenters to be able to provide the best commentary they can, it is necessary that Authors do not wait until the last minute to post entries in any given week. Like traditional papers, it is almost always obvious when a student has elected to write his or her blog-post at the last minute, as it ends up being either overly simple, poorly conceived, or poorly edited. Your contribution to the blog discussion is important, so take care to show the respect to your classmates that you would expect them to show you.
• Be concise, but also precise. The greatest challenge of blog-writing is to communicate complex ideas in a minimal amount of words. It is important that you keep your posts short, in keeping with the 400-word assignment format, but also that you do not sacrifice the clarity or completeness of your ideas for the sake of brevity.
• Be focused. If you find that your blog-entry is too long, it is likely because you have chosen too large a topic for one post. (Consider splitting up long entries into two or more posts.) It should be eminently clear, on the first reading, what your blog post is explaining/asking/arguing. Use the Post Title to clearly state the subject of your entry. DO NOT POST ANYTHING THAT DOES NOT INCLUDE A POST TITLE.
• Choose a topic that will prompt discussion. The measure of a good blog post is how much commentary it can generate. To that end, do not use your blog posts for simple exegesis or to revisit questions already settled in class. Good discussion-generators often include bold claims about, or original interpretations of, our classroom materials (lectures, texts, films, etc). Connecting the course material to current events or controversies is also a good way to generate discussion. Pay special attention to in-class conversations, as many of the issues that generate discussion in class will also generate discussion on the blog.
• Proofread. Proofread. PROOFREAD. As a rule, blog-writing is (slightly) less formal than the writing you might do for a paper you hand in to your professor. For example, you may write in the first person, and a more "conversational" style is usually acceptable. However, blog writing with glaring punctuation, spelling or grammatical mistakes not only will be difficult to read and understand, but also will greatly diminish the credibility of its Author. DO NOT "COPY AND PASTE" the text of your post into the blog's "new post" box, as you will inevitably end up with a format that is difficult to read. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the formatting buttons above, and ALWAYS preview your post before publishing it.
• Make use of the "extras" provided by new technology. When you write a traditional paper for class, you don't have many of the opportunities that blog-writing affords. Take advantage of the technologies available here to insert images, embed video or employ hyperlinks to other relevant materials.
• Respond to your commenters. After you write a post, you should stay abreast of all the commentary your post generates. If you are asked for clarification by a commenter, or if one of your claims is challenged, it is the your responsibility to respond.

WHEN COMMENTING ON OTHERS' POSTS:

• Read carefully BEFORE you comment. The biggest and most frequent error made by commenters is also the most easily avoidable, namely, misreading or misunderstanding the original post. Don't make that error!
• Simple agreement or disagreement is not sufficient. There is no word-limit for comments, but if you make a comment on another's post, you are required to say something substantive in your comment. Sometimes it will be the case that you fully agree or disagree with an Author's post. However, a comment that simply states "I agree" or "I disagree" will not count for credit. You MUST provide detailed reasons for your agreement or disagreement in your comment.
• Evidence works both ways. Often, the source of disagreement between a Poster and a Commenter will involve a matter of interpretation. If a Poster makes an objectionable (or false) claim about something that is verifiable-- for example, textual claims, statistical claims, historical claims, claims about current events, or claims about  any other evidentiary matters-- he or she MUST be prepared to provide evidence in support of his or her claims.  The same goes for commenters.  If you want to disagree about a matter of fact, you MUST provide evidence for your disagreement.  Hyperlinks are everyone's friend.
• NO flaming allowed!:  "Flaming" is defined as "a hostile or insulting interaction between Internet users."  Students should be reminded that disagreement, all by itself, does not constitute disrespect, nor does it count as "flaming" However, threatening, intimidating, belittling, name-calling, or otherwise inappropriate and/or reasonably objectionable language does count as flaming.  Engage your classmates on the blog with the same consideration and respect that you would in class.

Although this blog is viewable by anyone on the Web, participants have been restricted to udents enrolled in PHIL220 only. This means that only students enrolled in PHIL220 this semester at CBU can post or comment on this blog. However, please be aware that anyone can read this blog, so students should take special care to support the claims that they make, to edit their posts and comments judiciously, and to generally represent themselves in conversation here as they would in public.

If you're on Twitter, I encourage you to use the hashtag #TechValuesCBU for your tweets related to this course. I've included a feed to my own Twitter profile in the sidebar to your right.

I am very much looking forward to reading your work here over the next several weeks!

Dr.J