The Ethics of Revival Through Technology

Death has been a thorn in humanity’s side for millennia, and as technology progresses, some believe that the age of mortality will end. This idea is explored in “Black Mirror’s” episode “Be Right Back”. Which tells the story of the young widow Martha and how she sought to mediate her grief via a synthetic recreation of her husband. The narrative goes on to propose the idea that synthetic recreations of life will not be able to replace a living person. Black Mirror often deals with dilemmas in a setting where technology has reached a point in which one must think if it has perhaps gone too far.
Which is precisely the matter at hand, at which point do we decide to sacrifice progress for the sake of morality? This quote from Jurassic Park comes to mind: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.” – Ian Malcolm. Science has already halted certain kinds of research for the sake of morality, but this happened in situations in which it was easy to see where the proverbial “line in the sand” was. Modern ethical decisions must tackle much more complex topics in relation to contemporary scientific developments.
Regardless of the lessons “Black Mirror” attempts to display, some people still seek to push the envelope. One such case is that of Eugenia Kuyda, who developed an AI which mimicked her deceased friend’s personality through a chatbot. Which is precisely the first stage of Ash’s “revival” during the episode. Another development is a goal put forth by Josh Bocanegra, the CEO of Humai, a company that seeks to upload human conscience into an AI and later transplanted to a synthetic body. Again, very similar to what happened in “Black Mirror”, but this proposal could have merely been a PR move to generate attention towards the company.
These companies seeking to expand human life into new realms will not be doing this for free. They will be profiting off grieving families who seek to fulfill their emotional needs following the death of a loved one. And similar to what is already happening now-a-days, they will have heaps of personal data collected through the internet. This is a practice which is far too present to be stopped, corporations have troves of data on a big percentage of the human population. They sell this to advertisement companies that create the ads seen in our daily lives; when did we allow this to happen? This is how controversial developments can slowly but surely seep into society, rendering the changes hard to detect for most. Ensuring that it will be too late to stop them once they’ve been completed. Progress can’t be stifled, humans have always sought to better our conditions, and no matter how hard others try to stop it, ideas are bulletproof.

Additional material:
http://www.theverge.com/a/luka-artificial-intelligence-memorial-roman-mazurenko-bot 
http://www.iflscience.com/brain/company-plans-resurrect-humans-artificial-intelligence-2045-0/