The New Norm

The film Be Right Back was an interesting yet strange film. It elaborated on Masahiro Mori's theory of the Uncanny Valley. In short, it states that the more a robot looks like a person, the more repulsive it appears to us because we can't distinguish it from a person or robot. The story portrayed in the film was truly bizarre. It follows the life of a newlywed couple named Martha and Ash in what seems to be England after they move into Ash's childhood home. 

Things are going fine until Ash leaves to return the rental van. When the whole day goes by and Martha hasn't heard from Ash, she begins to worry since it shouldn't have taken a long time to return the van. She's genuinely distressed when the local police show up to inform her that Ash had passed away in a car accident. She's in utter shock. The day of Ash's funeral is too much for her and she doesn't know how to deal with life without him after finding out that she's pregnant with their baby. To save time, thanks to the many strides in technology she talks to this software that mimics Ash through what he's posted on social media and goes as far as living with a humanoid robot with the same software that looks almost exactly like Ash to cope. She even has relations with it.

She realizes that the humanoid robot version of Ash is not the same as the real him. Every little quirk that made Ash, really Ash, isn't part of the humanoid robot version of Ash. When she can't handle the robot Ash version anymore after an indescribable amount of time, she has it live in her attic as part of her normal life post-Ash. The robot Ash is such a part of her life as to where it's visited by Martha's daughter for what appears to be her 12th birthday like it's nothing. To be honest, I feel like Martha never really coped with Ash's death. She never moved on and accepted the fact that Ash was gone. No matter what Martha did, the robot Ash was nothing like the real Ash. The film portrayed the Uncanny Valley theory through the use of technology and social media. It felt as if the technology to create a robotic version of a person was commonplace or a new norm compared to the technology that we know today since with Martha was able to do it with little effort.

Personally, I feel like going as far as having a robotic version of a loved one is dehumanizing.  I do see the point in having one as a way to grieve for a recently deceased loved one for a period of time but it just doesn't seem right. At the end of the day, no matter what it's not the same having a robotic version of someone you truly care for because there's no human connection between you and the robot. It's just a piece of machinery and it can't relate to the human experience of emotions. The new norm that I noticed through watching Be Right Back was that technology is replacing social interaction between people. It's evident from the times in the film that before Ash died he was always on his phone not interacting with Martha, Martha giving up all contact & physical interaction with people that truly care for her, and today with social media. Everyone is always looking into what everybody else is doing or how they portray themselves on social media. The new norm in today's current society is a little saddening because we're not picking up on social cues, connecting with people in person yet we're doing everything behind a screen.