Ashes to Ashes

Losing someone close to you is one of the hardest things to experience.  People cope with this grief in many different ways.  In Martha’s case in “Be Right Back”, she needed to communicate with someone/something that resembled her deceased partner, Ash.  This something was a virtual Ash, an Ash programmed with the human’s social media presence: his Twitter, his Facebook, etc.  However, he was not the real Ash.

I have not personally lost someone close to me like Ash was close with Martha; when I do, God forbid, I hope I would not cope the way Martha did.  If I had a voice recording or a video of someone I was close to, I would replay the tape over and over again to remember them.  If I lived in Martha’s society, where a computer could generate an actual conversation with my loved one, I do not think I would want to take part in it.  Martha became obsessed with talking to the virtual Ash and even had a panic attack when she thought she lost the virtual Ash.  This obsession caused her to be distant from her friends and family, people who were alive.  The computer is not my loved one and is not real.  The computer could say all the right things and the generated voice could sound exactly like them, but in my heart, I know that they would be gone.  Some people may find this option appealing so they can actually say goodbye, but I do not think I could ever do use a computer generated version of a loved one to deal with losing them.

As of now, I would not want this virtual option to be offered to me; nonetheless, I can see how others may want to.  I have seen how this grief has affected my family members.  My mom recently lost an uncle who had helped raise her and her siblings after both of her parents died.  I think that she would like to talk to him and say her one last goodbye. 

Martha, however, took this to the next level by upgrading the virtual Ash to a synthetic body.  He looked exactly like the human Ash, and at first glance, acted like him, too.  However, to this new physical Ash, Martha was his master and he did what he was told.  Martha wanted the real, original Ash, maybe even a better version who was not invested in technology, but this new Ash could never be him.  Once she realized this, she tried to get rid of him, but he became too life-like and begged for his “life.”

This technology is manipulative and confuses one’s morals.  This virtual person is not a human, but it acts human.  This virtual body is programmed to express emotions, but it is not a feeling being.  This upgrade, though it may seem helpful at first, may cause more grief, as those who are coping with their loss will eventually realize that their virtual loved one is not real, and may not know how to react.