In the video “Be Right Back”, the husband of the main character died in a car crash. A friend of the protagonist recommended her to a service that analyzes all of Ash’s posts on social media and talks exactly like Ash.
After she discovers she is pregnant, she decides to respond to an email from “Ash”. She buys into the service and starts to treat Ash 2 as Ash. Ash 2 then decides to step it up by calling her, speaking exactly like Ash would.
She spends most of her time talking to Ash 2, even freaking out when she drops her phone. After spending a lot of time with Ash 2, Ash 2 then decides to “upgrade” her service further. He sends a robotic form to her and instructs her to put the thing into the bathtub. After a while, a new Ash presents himself to her.
This is where my problem lies. She isn’t talking to Ash. She’s talking to Ash 2. It has all the memories and looks of the original Ash. But if Ash 2 goes up to any random person in public, nobody would know that this is not human. From my point of view, what makes Ash 2 and Ash different is knowledge.
The protagonist knows for a fact that Ash 1 has died. She knows that Ash 1 is not Ash 2. But a random person in the street does not know that Ash 1 died. So, any random person would treat Ash 2 as if he was a normal person.
But to people who know that Ash 1 has died, they would be understandably horrified. They know that Ash 1 is dead, but here is Ash 2, an exact replica standing in front of them. If they knew about the service, then they might understand a bit more. but if they don’t, they would either think that they are dreaming, but also that Ash 1 has been resurrected as a zombie.
My secondary issue with this whole dilemma is that with this “service”, death would have no meaning to it. Death, while depressing, is something that is a necessary evil. It helps us as people grow. It helps me as a person grow. Death holds a lot of weight to it. The mourning after a death helps a person become stronger. It is sad, yes. But out of the sadness comes strength.
3 comments:
I completely agree Ash1 and Ash2 are different but I would have to say they are symbolic of each other. Ash2 is ore invested in Martha and has quite the differences if actually comparing the two. Physically, obviously could pass. People who knew Ash1 has passed would think their losing their mind.
I love the point you brought up about death not having a meaning if you could just reactivate their robot self after their passing. It is exactly what you said, sad but you must grow from it. It definitely held Martha back and did not give her a chance to grow just pretending Ash2 was all fine and completely sane. But who knows, the way technology is evolving and rapidly growing that might become the new norm and nobody will want to mourn a death again.
In this film, true artificial intelligence is not covered, rather an impressionable shell much like Tay the twitter bot. In terms of appearance most would be fooled, except for those that knew him, and obviously ones that knew that he had died. However, anyone holding a conversation with him for more than a few minutes would tell he is fake, as he only had positive posts on Ash from online and would constantly be questioning and unsure how to react in certain situations.
Death and then resurrection would indeed stunt growth, for both those around that bot and the bot itself as the bot cannot grow, but instead has to rely on direct inputs and previous online data.
While clearly Ash 1 and Ash 2 are not the same to people who have previously known Ash, someone who did not previously know him would have no idea that it is not a person. Death is a part of life. It is one of the many things that makes human beings truly human. If this service became more widespread, death would not have the same meaning that it had before. Technology, not just robotics, has been changing human life for decades. When it becomes lifelike, basic things such as having children will not mean the same.
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