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Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Be Right Back: Is this practical

I know we've all lost loved ones and have wished that we can get to see them one more time; well in the Black Mirror episode "Be Right Back" that wish has become a reality. After losing her partner a woman gets an android look a like to "cope" with the pain of losing her loved one. The question I believe should be looked at before we began developing technologies for this is: is this truly healthy and is this form of "coping"  actually helpful or more so harmful to the human mental state. I personally believe that this is a not a healthy way of coping with loss. It doesn't give you a chance to to truly deal with the loss and mourn like you should because technically the person is still there. The more damaging part I believe is the attachment that grows with the android. In the begining of the show the young lady broke her phone that she was using to communicate with her "deceased" loved one and had a horrific breakdown in the middle of the doctors office. The attachment grows unhealthy because you're attaching the feelings you once had with a true human being with an object that can not reciprocate those feelings and is just as likely to "die" which can bring back those feelings of stress and depression. Sending you back to that mourning stage and constantly recycling the process. You begin to associate these human characteristics with it but yet they are not a human so there will be moments when they act in "inhuman ways" or "unlike" you're loved one and in those moments you will be triggered and will act out in rash ways. In the episode the young lady attempts to force the   android to commit an extreme act and does not go thruogh with it due to the feelings she had attached to it. Although it may seem good that she has prevented this act it also shows that she has attached feelings to this android and this could eventually damage her mental well being later on. So no I do not believe that this is the most practical way of dealing with loss.

1 comment:

Kristen Howard said...

Taylor, this is a wonderful insight about whether or not this technology should be used to deal with the loss of a loved one. I also agree that the use of A.I.s for coping with grief is a unhealthy comping mechanism. As you said, it prevents the use from fully coming to terms about the loss of said someone. I also love how you brought up how it could affect the mental health of the user. You also provide valid examples of the unhealthy relationship between the widow and her "fiance".