What I think is really cool is how close we may actually be to developing an Ash 2. With how fast learning technology and artificial intelligence are being advanced a program that can talk and learn for itself might be not that far off. Recent robots are also extremely life-like. If these two things could be put together, a convincing android might actually be possible in the next ten years.
Monday, November 13, 2017
Technology of "Be Right Back"
Technology has been rapidly expanding for years now. Smartphones, television streaming, and even social media were only invented in the last ten years and this trend of rapid advancement shows no sign of slowing down. The episode "Be Right Back" of Black Mirror does a really good job of playing with this fact to create a "near future" scenario. The episode is filled with various forms of technology that is just slightly more advanced than what we currently have. From the cell phones and the laptop, to the fancy drawing board, everything (besides the robot Ash) is set up to look futuristic, but not too much so. This makes it seem like Androids such as Ash 2.0 are not that far off. It really allows the viewer to look at how something similar to the events of the episode could actually happen in their lifetime.
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I agree that it is interesting, but I wonder if the technology is developing faster than we can consider the implications of our actions. The morality of developing near-humans, as well as the real-world effects, need to be strongly considered.
I would like to understand your thoughts on the moral and ethical motifs that were evident in the episode. For future reference, it is important to contribute to the blog to start a discussion about the ethics of technology not just summarize the plot or setting. You could have easily discussed the metaphysical crisis we are know comprehending of technology being able to recreate, animate human beings. It is though a solid point you made that technology is progressing very fast. I wouldn't be surprised either if we have an Ash 2 in next 5 years.
I feel like we might actually have a convincing android in a shorter time span then ten years. As Dr. J. mentioned, the Geminoid Project seems to be fairly far along and I wouldn't be surprised if a "convincing" android could appear within the next 5 years instead. They do already have the life-like appearance down pretty well and already some pretty advanced AI systems like IBM's Watson. If they could put the two together like you mentioned, I'd say the android would be pretty convincing.
I totally agree with you that androids like Ash 2.0 will soon come into existence in the real world within the next 5 years or so. With the advancements of technology, there is no doubt the development will become any difficult. If you think about it, who did the episode from Black Episode come about. Obviously, someone had to come up with the story-line. Someone had to visualize how the futuristic technology would look like.
I do agree that some of the technology in the episode is slightly more advanced than what we have now but there is also technology in the episode that is less advanced than what we have now. For example, the van that Ash 1.0 got in an accident with could have been a self-driving car by then. In the next few years, most vehicles will be self-driving, especially delivery and rental vehicles like the on Ash 1.0 was driving. So this episode does a good job at introducing this idea but as we progress through the years every aspect of life will advance not just the common technology like cell phones and computers.
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