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Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Arisen from the dead.

"Be Right Back" is a commentary on the ways technology can affect the grieving process. But it also shows that their is no such thing as sacred space on the internet and that technology is as addictive as any drug in production. Martha had a near panic attack when she dropped her phone after the ultrasound. She shut her own sister out to talk to an AI that was supposed to represent Ash. She became addicted to the same thing that she would be abandoned by Ash for. The problem that Martha soon realized is that when she "brought Ash from the dead", he was not Ash. He was bits and pieces, but not the real thin. He had no unique personality, could not act beyond his parameters, and did not really think for himself, just on what Ash uploaded. In some form, he was a zombie. He was not what Ash was. A shell of his former self. Yet, Martha was so obsessed with this thing that reminded her of who she actually loved, she could break away from it. So she kept it, just to keep the addiction alive. Much like addicts cannot go away because they are too weak without it, Martha couldn't handle being without Ash, and pictures and voice recordings were not enough. She needed something physical to hold and see. So she keep him in the attic. Symbolic considering that Ash's mother kept the pictures of his dead father in the attic. She only wanted to see him when she wanted to. He just stared at the walls all day, because that was his order. He wasn't a human, he was a slave. This was a perfect example of how robots are not always the best alternative to solving problems. It can be nothing more than what it was designed to do. It has no consciousness. It has no free will. It was about to jump off a cliff because he was instructed to.  Human consciousness is a beautiful thing. It drives the world forward. Without it, we could not possibly have progressed to the point of arguing about the practicality of robots. Robots wouldn't exist with human freedom. So for this purpose, just let the grieving process take place and don't try to bring them from  the dead.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree with you Matthew

Katherine T. said...

"Human consciousness is a beautiful thing."
I couldn't have said it better myself. One thing that we must realize in the debate on artificial intelligence is that it can never fully be the same as human consciousness. Even with the "learning" AI that scientists have created, it won't be the same as human intelligence. I don't believe that these androids could differentiate between morally right and wrong. They would have to act based upon how they were initially programmed to act, and morality can be heavily opinionated at times. Because of this, it seems highly unlikely that AI will be capable of human-level consciousness anytime soon. Creating a replica of a lost loved one wouldn't be the same because of this very factor!

Unknown said...

Your view on the matter is the same as mine, you did a great job in describing how you felt about the matter. When you say that only humans can have a conscious is true at the moment but what if we find a way to give other things a conscious. That is when we will begin to get into moral issues, which I hope doesn't happen in our life time, but it most likely will.

Unknown said...

i agree with what you said. There is no sacred space on the internet. everything is accessible, and you can't hid from anyone. I also like what you said when you mentioned that that robot wast really Ash. He can act like it had have all of the same looks, but its completely different than having a real person with you.