While watching this film, about 3,000 different ideas ran through my head with most of them being something along the lines of what the ****? As the film progressed, a more prevalent idea came to mind with the feeling that maybe today's technology is to blame. When I say this, I mean that maybe without the advancements and constant search to find the next best thing, Ash's wife would have never been tempted in the first place.
The emotions that come along with losing someone so incredibly close to you and especially with the concept of a fatherless child can be completely overwhelming. The grieving process must be unbearable and the thoughts of "what if" will probably exist for a whole lifetime. With these factors at hand, I almost cannot blame or say it is completely out of the question for Ash's wife to seek that satisfaction. While I personally would rather let the dead be the dead, I can understand in a sort of distant, sympathetically influenced way.
At the same time that I can somewhat understand her motives, I feel as though without that source being available, the idea to try and bring Ash back to life, so to speak, would never even cross her mind. She most likely would have grieved and eventually moved on but never forgotten his presence in her life. Once she experienced the little bit of satisfaction she got from being able to talk to her deceased husband, she wanted more in hopes of completely having him back all together. This is where technology capitalizes on humans. The constant desire to have the next best thing and experience the next thrill is leading to something that I believe will not be far off from this exact idea.
Where technology cannot capitalize is the true feeling that a human is not a human without a soul. Whether someone's soul is good or bad is unrelated to the idea that this is simply what makes a human a human. Technology will never be able to duplicate or create a person's individual soul even in regards to cloning. The constant push to be able to do this however is what will keep humans craving and hanging on for more. While I truly believe that technology is a good thing and has so much potential to better human's lives, I think messing with the simple humanity of a person and their birth/death is taking it one step to far.
4 comments:
This post is very well-thought-out and though provoking. The point about Martha reacting normally to Ash dying really struck a cord with me. I focused on the importance of grieving and why it needs to be exercised when someone dies, but I never thought about what it would be like if she never knew that the technology existed. She would have her moment and, eventually, move on with her life and hopefully have healthy relationships with others. You also make the point about technology being addicting and this seems to be Martha's downfall. She has to have more of Ash to keep him there and even when she realizes that the robot won't be enough, she can't quite bear to loose it; in her mind, she can't bear to lose Ash completely.
I believe you're right in the fact that what we do today is shaping our future. We are currently letting technology become more and more human like already, I can only imagine how quick the years will go by until we can do what Martha did, but I think we technology should never come that far along. I know that given the chance I would more than likely take it to talk to my dead relatives, but I believe there is a reason we are not allowed to do that and people are trying to almost cheat life/death. I think this video is something we can learn from and be something that technology should stay away from considering the negative affect that it had on Martha's life. As much as people want to talk to lost loved ones, I think once really given the chance they would regret it and just wish they had let themselves heel in the proper manner.
While the cloning capabilities of this movie showed far greater technology and intelligence than what we have now, whose to say they could not take is a step further? While you may say that we will never be able to clone or create a robot with a soul, the possibility of creating a robot with a personality and self-thinking could be possible in the future. This would then lead me to ask, is a soul really what makes a person or is it there personality and what makes them who they are? Now if that advanced of cloning were possible do you really think you would be able to discern a rational and emotion feel robot from the average human? Would that allow robots to overcome the lack of a soul?
I agree with your idea that without today's need to find the next best thing, Martha may not have been so inclined to experiment with Ash2. The unlimited and overwhelming emotions that come with such a huge loss, especially in her situation, would drive anyone to less likely ways of grieving. The idea of technology providing closure is great, but, as you said, when it capitalizes on that vulnerability, there is a boundary that shouldn't be crossed.
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