Is This Future Happening Now?

In the episode Be Right Back, a man named Ash dies tragically in some form of accident. His significant other Martha is devastated by the news and is even more horrified to learn she is pregnant. Martha is told about a new software that takes all of Ash’s online information and simulates him as if he were still alive. At first she is hesitant but she eventually becomes swept away in the simulated reality she was experiencing. She even went so far as getting an android that looked exactly like Ash. However, the issue with the uncanny valley could be seen as Ash 2 was never enough like Ash 1, but also he was just creepy at times. Slowly Martha realizes how the android isn’t her late Ash at all and it makes her want to get rid of it. Yet about nine years later, Martha is with her daughter and Ash 2 is in the attic and away from her sights. I did think it was ironic how before he died Ash was obsessed with his phone, to the point where he was acting like a robot and even ignoring Martha. But it was through that social media time that he was able to actually become an android in the end.

The obsession and growth of technology within the last decade alone makes the software and android in Be Right Back a not so far-fetched idea. People have been creating androids in recent years to test the limits of technology and possibly influence a new era of robots among humans. But every robot has a certain flaw, its either not realistic enough or it makes the observer uncomfortable. Until someone creates an android that is so detailed that people can’t tell between whether it’s human or not, the uncanny valley will be an obstacle for scientist to try to overcome. But could it actually be done? Personally I think that the incorporation of androids into society can only be achieved if the android acts almost perfectly to a human and if humans get used to the idea of a machine living next to them. But this also raises the concern for whether an android should have a certain right to live? In the episode, Ash 2 was so realistic that it felt like he was his own person at times. At what point does an android leave the factory line and gain its own right to live? That I do not know. But I feel if the machine seems to think on its own and have some sense of self-awareness then it should live. This technology is not far away, maybe we as a society should start thinking about this possible reality.