In Black Mirror's S2: E1 "Be Right Back," the episode confronts the android's qualifications to be human. For instance, the show raises concern whether or not androids are truly human and hints at the impact of this new technology. During episode 2, the main events of Ash-bot's life were depicted in a range of nine months. Although he has the thinking capacity of a fully grown adult, he is still considered as a newborn in the world. This idea leads to the question what would happen if Ash-bot had a longer time to gain more personal experiences. I believe he would learn how to replicate simple human behavior, exhibit a stronger independent consciousness, and feel emotions.
He had already shown signs of each of these qualities after he gained a body. For example, Ash-bot demonstrated his learning capability of simple human behavior when Martha explained to him an unfamiliar jargon, "throw a jeb." He used it twice in the show. The first time he used the word jeb, it was forced in the dialogue; however, the second time he uses it, the word was smoothly inserted in the conversation. With his grasp of understanding, he could correct any mistakes that made him seem uncanny if given enough time. Two issues arose when Ash-bot laid in bed to "sleep." Initially, he did not shut his eyes or pretend to breathe. Martha commands him to replicate this sleeping behavior, but she isn't satisfied with the authenticity. One possible way Ash could solve this problem is to practice sleeping. Since humans repeatedly practice certain actions over and over to get better, androids should have the capability to do this as well.
In one of Marsha and Ash-bot's fights, Ash-bot goes against Marsha's command to fight her and explains his inaction with "I don't hit you." This scene demonstrates that Ash-bot has some sort of independent consciousness. Similarly to how babies are entirely dependent on others, Ash-bot originally was dependent on Marsha. Now his consciousness is beginning to take shape and can be further developed where he wouldn't need Martha. One hiccup to this idea is that he must stay in a certain proximity from his birthplace and Marsha's location. However, androids could be programmed differently or given permission to leave the owner's proximity in order to solve this issue.
The lack of emotions displayed by the Ash-bot was one of the greatest turn-offs for Marsha. Obviously, Ashe-bot was intelligent, but sometimes knowledge-based intelligence creates a blank cover for others to see. Often, smart people have trouble not displaying a stoic face. Similarly to these people, Ash-bot needs to become smarter in his emotional intelligence. In the show, he could express different facial expressions, but there was no real passion and feeling in his body. Emotions and a real consciousness go hand in hand. If his consciousness could be developed further, Ash-bot would be able to exhibit real emotions that he chooses. With these human-like qualities, Ash-bot would seem more like a real person.
Freedom is one of the most significant words that defines humans. In today's world, humans can act with real emotion and consciousness; however, they can choose to display robotic-like qualities. Although they execute these unemotional and repetitive actions, they aren't considered as a real robot. For instance, we often say "so and so is acting like a robot." It's because they have the freedom to display qualities of a human or a robot that they are truly human. This concept brings up the question if androids had true freedom, could they decide not to masquerade as their designated human and still be considered as a real human?
3 comments:
In the beginning of your post, you said one of the things you believe is Ash-bot could eventually learn to feel emotions. I am going to counter that claim. In my Psychology class we learned this theory of emotions which has two qualifications to the question: how do you know when you feel an emotion? The qualifications are a cognitive label and a physiological response. I believe Ash-bot would only ever be capable of learning the cognitive label aspect of emotion, meaning he would learn what 'anger' or 'sadness' or 'joy' looked like. He would never truly feel these emotions, only act them out to express a point in the corresponding situation. Ash-bot would only be able to feel emotions if he had this physiological response. He would need a sort of limbic system and an endocrine system to release chemicals and hormones into him. Perhaps one day it will be possible for a robot to feel emotions, but first we would have to figure out how to code a limbic system and an endocrine system into a computer, not to mention how to code the hormones and chemicals. For this reason I don't think Ash-bot will ever be able to feel emotions, but that's not to say that no robot ever will.
Your sentences regarding a physiological response and a cognitive label relate to my statement "Emotions and a real consciousness go hand in hand." The emotions match the physiological response and the real consciousness mirror the cognitive label. In your post, you stated: "The only time Robo-Ash acts fearful, the keyword being 'acts', is when Martha tells him how the real Ash would respond." I agree with you that Ash-bot isn't experiencing any emotions but just displaying a fearful face, which supports your argument. However, these lacking features would be fixed over time by upgrading the android. It would be similar to how Martha upgraded "Ash" from email to video and video to body. Each of those stages was tested by volunteers and any mistakes were corrected. Ash-bot is in its experimental stage and lacks certain features that would make it seem more human-like. These upgrades could be like you suggested with the addition of an endocrine system and limbic system. Ten years ago, it was crazy to think nearly everbody would have a smartphone in the future. However, the growth of technology exponentially advances and the last scene in the episode, we see Ash-bot around seven years later. In these seven years, Ash-bot would have had plenty of time to perfect his cognitive labeling, and the world's advancement of technology would have fixed the the philosical response that he initally lacked.
@Sean Williams I honestly totally forgot about the possibility of upgrading, but I agree that it is possible for technology to bridge that gap between technology and emotions. I do feel like it'll be awhile though, of course that's just a guess. For all we know it could be next year!
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