The Rise To Censorship.

In Season 2 of the show "Black Mirror," the first episode "Be Right Back" has the lead character, Martha, lose he husband, Ash, in some type of incident. Instead of grieving and trying to move on, Martha finds out about a service that gives a robot the voice of her late husband and eventually his body too. She tries to replace the original Ash with this android, thinking everything would go back to the time before the incident. When she did this, I found myself mad at her and even a little disgusted at the thought that anyone could just get replaced with these androids.

During the time when Android Ash was living with Martha, I found myself having goosebumps and cringing. I wasn't feeling scared at the fact that their could be androids living with humans, but I was scared of the fact that these androids could be used to replace political rivals or people that spoke out on certain issues. For instance, if there was a certain author who was speaking negatively about his/ her government, the government would just assassinate the author and replace him/ her with an android that would show the government in a positive manner. Our right to the freedom of speech would be hindered because everyone would be too afraid speak out and have the chance of being killed and replaced with an android. This would allow the government to censure anything they want without any type of consequence, making them an effective dictatorship. In the video game "Fallout 4" an organization called the Institute made human intelligent androids that they used to replace people of power or importance that they abducted and killed.  The Institute abducted and replaced adults and children too. From this they were able to gain political power and gain the nickname "The Boogeyman." Watching the episode "Be Right Back" reminded me of the Institute and gave me a chill through my spine. What would stop people or governments of power from replacing anyone that didn't agree with them? 

All in all, seeing the android version of Ash caused me to shudder because I thought of the replacement method that would be used with the androids. People who did not get along with the government or people of high power would be assassinated and replaced. This would cause people to stay silent and dismiss there right to free speech, eventually leading to a dictatorship full of censorship.