Human or Not Human?

          After watching the episode Be Right Back and hearing the conversations in class, there is no doubt or question in my mind that sooner or later, the world will consist of androids that will take the perfect form of humans. I'm not saying that androids or other robotic intelligence will take over the world and such, but the distinction between humans and androids will become less and less obvious to society. Right now, androids like the Geminoid DK are in the process of replicating the actions and looks of a normal human, but not quite perfectly mastering them, but in the near future, who knows if society will accept these androids to walk among them or even recognize one on sight. To some, it may create a scary aura to discover that one day you may be talking to an android thinking it's a human. The question here is: Are these androids human or not human?

          In the episode Be Right Back, a man named Ash died in an accident, which left his girlfriend Martha in complete isolation and sorrow. Martha could not let go of Ash, so with the recommendation of her friend, she started to talk to Ash through a software that absorbs everything about Ash that was posted online and uses it to replicate the voice and responses that Ash would give to Martha. Over time Martha uses this to talk with Ash, and later Ash tells Martha about the new upgrade, which Martha immediately takes. Ash becomes the android Ash 2.0. At this point, I immediately thought that Martha had committed a bad choice to bring Ash back as an android. Why? Well, over time Martha was becoming uncomfortable to have Ash 2.0 around because he wasn't acting exactly like Ash.  Martha was becoming insane because Ash was merely just taking commands from her. She wanted Ash to act without being told to act. Eventually, by the end of the movie, it is revealed that Martha had kept Ash 2.0 in the attic for years, and that she gave birth to her baby girl. Although she lets her daughter see Ash once in a while, she is reluctant to see him at all.

          This episode struck me with the question of human or not human? What if Ash 2.0 wasn't made to take commands and was fully complete to imitate Ash perfectly. The episode would've ended very differently. The question of human or not will  always linger in my mind as technology becomes more and more advanced over time. Maybe, just maybe, all of these movies about robots and androids will come to real life, but who knows? Only time and the powerful minds will tell.