A Robot Wrote This

               Be Right Back is a short film that addresses the “Uncanny Valley” situation where people resent a robot or a piece of technology as it is too human. In Be Right Back, the woman’s husband dies, and she is influenced to try a new technology that learns her husband and replicates everything about him, down to the last mole. The problem arises when she sees her husband, but the robot fails to learn all the little details about him that made her fall in love. I find the problem to the woman to be that she wanted her husband back, and the technology in place just could not meet her emotional needs. This opens up a whole different set of problems, as if this is the future, people will fail to deal with their problems and become greatly dependent on technology.
               The other problem I foresee with humanlike robots is clearly demonstrated in Be Right Back. All the woman had to do is say something along the lines of “Ash would not do that.” Upon these words, he would change his behavior to match her desires. He grew a penis upon command and was able to learn how to do it well by watching pornography. The idea of someone being able to learn in a manner similar to the robot in the movie is deathly terrifying. The idea of a conscious-less moral-less piece of machinery built by capitalistic companies is even scarier.

               This technology would be great if it did only what we want it to do. A machine with the ability to talk and walk is one thing, but the ability to master the art of manipulating emotions is a completely different thing. The thought of robots walking around with people and not being able to distinguish them sounds like iRobot or a remake of War of the Worlds. It’s unsettling. On the contrary, if robots could be programmed to benefit humans, there would be great benefits to their scary counterparts. What if there was a robot that looked exactly like a police officer? It would enforce the law in an unbiased manner as it would not have a conscience to learn skin colors. This could end police brutality, one of the greatest social dilemmas facing America today.

               The greatest problem I have with this idea of a human-like robot would have to be the reality they are able to portray. The robot was able to learn and accurately express emotions better than most humans. The thought of these people walking around is unsettling. Also, as in Be Right Back, the robot is used as a means of coping with the loss of Ash. The idea of using technology to cope is great, but this crossed the line. Maybe having a computer simulate some emails to bring her to closure would have been better, but this was unhealthy.

               I believe that the idea of the uncanny valley comes from fear of one’s self. The greatest fear of technology I have related to this video is the fear of being replicated. Just like the fear of being dumped in a relationship or being fired from your job, the fear of someone finding a better me haunts me daily. If someone can make an almost exact copy of me, then I know I can be replaced; I am not as valuable as I once thought I was. One day if they improve the ability for artificial intelligence to interpret human emotion, then robots like Ash Number 2 will no longer end up in the attic. They will replace us in our everyday lives like oil in a racecar.