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Thursday, March 31, 2016

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.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I agree with many of the things in yout post. It is easy to see how this scenario could occur in real life. I am curious what part of this "scares" you? Is it the fact that there could be robots walking among us in the near future or is it the fear of losing our humanity? Also, i believe ash died in a car accident when he was returning the van. I liked this post and appreciate the quotes you provided to reiterate your point.