Thoughts on Be Right Back

The class discussed the question, what would happen if a robot could be made so like a human that it would be impossible to know it was not a human. In this case, the robot would be on the far right side of the uncanny valley. Experiencing the robot would be no different than experiencing a human. As far as anyone could see, the robot would be human.

Humans have been creating likenesses of themselves in many forms. As technology has advanced, the replicas of human beings have become increasingly similar to actual humans. Paintings have advance to photographs and then videos. The film Be Right Back, shows a future in which technology has made possible a replica of a human that is incredibly close to the actual thing. However, the replica, we named him/it Ash 2, lacked two key traits that the human Ash had, memories and sentience. The memories Ash 2 had were shared with Ash, but Ash 2 experienced those memories differently than Ash, not as Ash but from the "outside" like someone observing Ash. So even though Ash 2 tried to mimic Ash, because some information was missing Ash 2 could not act exactly like Ash. Ash 2 also did not have sentience. Ash 2 had no ability to feel hunger, emotions, etc. However as Ash 2 learned from Ash's wife more about Ash, Ash 2 altered his/its actions and appearance to conform with Ash's. Ash 2 still lacked one thing that was never rectified. Ash 2 never had the experience as Ash. Even Ash's wife could not supply that.

So Ash and Ash 2 both appear to be human, but only Ash is human. Ash 2 is non-human, but appears to be human. Ash 2 is far to the right on the uncanny valley, but not so far that interacting with Ash 2 would seem the same as interacting with a human. To create a robot that could be completely like a human would require building a robot that could experience as a human. It is almost impossible to explain how we experience things ourselves. Recreating that experience is quite possibly impossible.

I said earlier that even Ash's wife could not supply the memory or experiences as Ash had them. But what if Ash was still alive. Could Ash supply those memories as he had them? Humans currently cannot communicate with that level of detail between themselves or to any device. Until then, a robot totally like a human may not be possible.