First, to be able to understand the themes and ideas behind the episode it is crucial to understand the theory of the Uncanny Valley. The theory, written in 1970 by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori, basically states that as non-human objects become more and more human-like, affection from real humans towards those objects increases until a certain breaking point at which human affection towards said objects plummets to the point of revulsion only to eventually increase again. It's the reason you enjoy films like Frozen, and Tangled, but dislike films like The Polar Express, and Beowulf (Too creepy).
The episode revolves around married couple Martha, and Ash. After some slight character development Ash dies in some undisclosed accident. Martha grieves for awhile until she is able to speak to Ash again with a program that mimics his personality by analyzing online activity. First, she speaks to him only through instant message, which seems to relieve some of her grief. Next she enables another feature of the program and can speak to him on the phone. The following scenes are a perfect representation of the uncanny valley, Ash becomes more human-like and Martha's affection towards him grows, she takes her phone on hikes, and even to an ultrasound of their unborn baby. Furthermore when Martha shatters her phone she is distraught because her affection towards to the more human Ash grew. Not soon after she goes to the next step of the program which gives the artificial intelligence a physical body that is a perfect representation of Ash, as Martha puts it, "You look like him on a good day." Martha is surprised by new Ash's soft skin and unreal features, so they do what every reunited couple does, they have sex. However, as Ash now reaches almost total humanity, the Uncanny Valley is also reached, Martha is creeped out by new Ash's lack of old Ash qualities and it results in a climactic moment where she yells at him as he is unable to comprehend the situation. She demands for him to hit her and to fight back and he does not.She says things like, "You're just ripples of him, you've got no history." This is obviously the revulsion stage of the uncanny valley. Finally, years pass and it's Martha's daughter's birthday, so Martha allows her to go up to the attic to see Ash, reaching the final part of the Uncanny Valley, the raised affection after the revulsion. The scene is also a nice parallel to earlier when old Ash said his mother used to put the pictures of dead relatives in the attic.
You know you love me. XOXO, Gossip Girl
The episode revolves around married couple Martha, and Ash. After some slight character development Ash dies in some undisclosed accident. Martha grieves for awhile until she is able to speak to Ash again with a program that mimics his personality by analyzing online activity. First, she speaks to him only through instant message, which seems to relieve some of her grief. Next she enables another feature of the program and can speak to him on the phone. The following scenes are a perfect representation of the uncanny valley, Ash becomes more human-like and Martha's affection towards him grows, she takes her phone on hikes, and even to an ultrasound of their unborn baby. Furthermore when Martha shatters her phone she is distraught because her affection towards to the more human Ash grew. Not soon after she goes to the next step of the program which gives the artificial intelligence a physical body that is a perfect representation of Ash, as Martha puts it, "You look like him on a good day." Martha is surprised by new Ash's soft skin and unreal features, so they do what every reunited couple does, they have sex. However, as Ash now reaches almost total humanity, the Uncanny Valley is also reached, Martha is creeped out by new Ash's lack of old Ash qualities and it results in a climactic moment where she yells at him as he is unable to comprehend the situation. She demands for him to hit her and to fight back and he does not.She says things like, "You're just ripples of him, you've got no history." This is obviously the revulsion stage of the uncanny valley. Finally, years pass and it's Martha's daughter's birthday, so Martha allows her to go up to the attic to see Ash, reaching the final part of the Uncanny Valley, the raised affection after the revulsion. The scene is also a nice parallel to earlier when old Ash said his mother used to put the pictures of dead relatives in the attic.
You know you love me. XOXO, Gossip Girl
2 comments:
Great point,you made about Martha reaching the Uncanny Valley level with Ash2. I did not think of it in that way that she finally got creeped out. That shows how everyone has different creepy tolerances according to the Uncanny Valley scale. Most of the people in my class including myself were creeped out right when Ash2 was brought into the storyline.
I Agree with you. There was a point where Martha reached the Uncanny Valley and it made her go a bit crazy. You also brought a good point about how Ash's mom put old pictures of dead relatives and she did the same by putting Ash 2.0 in the attic as well.
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