"Be Right Back" is So Uncanny!

    Webster describes uncanny as "strange or unusual in a way that is surprising or difficult to understand."  With that definition in mind, we can most certainly find solace in Masahiro Mori's Theory of the Uncanny Valley. The theory tries in earnest to explain the natural human reaction to robotics that varies from indifference to amazement to unsettlement. The more human-like an android becomes, the more positively a person responds, but only to a certain point that when crossed, makes the robot disturbing. He depicts this relationship with a graph.

    The Johnson Addendum adds an extra layer of fascination to the way Mori constructed the graph. In this, she searches and comes to the conclusion that the reason the graph declines on the nonhuman side of the diagram is because the human brain is naturally adverse to deception; likewise, the rising trend on the human side of the graph is due to the brain's aversion to morbidity and mortality.

    "Be Right Back" is a the perfect example of the Uncanny Valley that fits both Masahiro Mori's hypothesis and Dr. Johnson's addendum. It is an episode of the television series Black Mirrors that explores darkness in both life and technology. "Be Right Back" shows the grief and struggle a pregnant woman named Martha experienced after her beloved husband's untimely death. Someone she was once close with (their relationship wasn't really specified) takes notice to her misery and suggests she sign up for something that could ease her pain. Martha refuses, but eventually caves and seeks the service she was offered. She starts having email conversations with Ash that lead to phone calls, and not before long, she orders a robotic replica of her spouse. Initially, she is ecstatic but comes to condemn Ash's android. Eventually, she learns to make it without the synthetic Ash and puts him in the attic like Ash said his mom did with the personal possessions of the dead when they died.
    The theory of the Uncanny Valley—with and without the addendum—is one that is not too difficult to relate issues outside the realm of technology. We have the ability as moral beings to utilize this tool for figuring out other patterns of human behavior. In respect to the episode, the more like Ash the simulation became, the more uncanny he became. Martha found the familiarity of the program more and more enticing from the emails to the calls, even the body in the beginning stages. However, that familiarity soured and turned to disgust after the faux intimacy the two of them shared. This episode is basically the entirety of the non-human side of the Uncanny Valley Theory. We can even use the theory to explain the fascination and repulsion we experience as this all unfolds; we found the beginnings of the episode to be sweet, even heartwarming as she grieved in a way that, while unconventional now, was healthy. The decline in first half of the Uncanny Valley is now representative of Martha's digitally and physically cloning Ash.
    In conclusion, the Uncanny Valley Theory and Johnson Addendum are extremely accurate depictions of the relationships people have with technology. There is a point that things start to head in a direction that seems favorable until it becomes repugnant. The same could also be expressed with the morality of actions, as shown in "Be Right Back." We as people must be increasingly aware of the uses of technology and know that even reasonable products can reach a point of becoming unbearable.