In "Be Right Back" a young woman named Martha lost her husband, Ash, to a car accident. After his death, she discovered a computer program that used all of his online interactions and posts on social media to emulate him. When we lose someone we love, it can be hard to let them go and Martha experienced this. Instead of allowing herself to grieve and to become at peace with Ash's death, she payed the company to send her an expensive robot version of Ash. Many would jump at the chance to make up with a dead loved one or share one last dinner together. What could be so bad about Martha wanting to have her husband back? The problem with this is that having the robot makes the assumption that a human's characteristics and personality can all be recreated in a program and performed by an algorithm. If this were true, then what makes the distinction between humans and robots in the first place?
Another problem with this lies in how the robot receives its information about Ash 1. The robot had no experience with Ash 1 and only used his internet presence to imitate him. Consequently, there is no way that he could've been exactly like Ash 1. Social media is about posting what you want to share with the world. In general, people only show the best version of themselves online. In the movie, the robot even mentioned that Ash 1 only posted flattering pictures of himself. For others, social media could be a way to escape from their own lives. Catfishing has become increasingly common in our society. People use other's pictures and pretend to be a person that is entirely different from how they really are. Ash 1's presence online could've been totally different from how he was in person. The robot could've been just been online Ash 1 and not actual Ash 1.
It could be true that the Ash that Martha was married to and the online Ash were two completely different people. If Ash 1 was different around Martha, there was no way for the robot to know how to act around Martha only using his social media posts. Throughout the movie Martha was telling Ash 2 "Ash would never do that" or "Ash doesn't act like that." The purpose of acquiring the robot was so Martha could still have the presence of her husband, not so she could teach it how to be her husband.
3 comments:
I completely agree, but I believe that humans aren't replaceable, and her acceptance of the idea to recreate Ash was foolish. The results of the replacement were to be expected.
I totally agree with both of you guys. The whole robot idea kind of implies that humans can simply be replaced and that's not true at all. You can't just replace someone. Ash 2 was in fact a lot different than Ash 1 so it didn't work out the way Martha wanted it to.
I agree with all of your statements. Martha should have used Ash B as a way to get over Ash A instead of trying to make another Ash A.
Post a Comment