The Uncanny Valley and "Be Right Back"

The episode titled, Be Right Back of black mirror was the most unsettling one I’ve seen yet. In the episode, Martha loses the love of her life and ends up trying to substitute him with technology that mimics him. It personally made me uncomfortable the entire tire way through. I have more questions than answers on the morality of this whole situation, so in an attempt to settle my own mind, I’ll answer the questions I have.

1.       Is this ethical?  I can’t say that replicating another person is ethical and this episode is a prime example. Beyond ethical I don’t think that replacing Ash with a robot was helpful to Martha’s mental health. In the end she ended up doing many things that even she said the real Ash would never approve of. In her refusal to move on she dishonored the memory of Ash by putting his robot replica in the same attic his mother used to hide her memories of death in. Ash said he hated that his mother had put away memories of his father and brother in that attic, and Martha did the same thing. That had to create some internal conflicts for her. Without sounding asinine, she should have just tried to move forward.

2.        Should this kind of technology be available? I think this would have the same consequence for many people. While I can say this would be kind of cool for a history museum or something of the like, I can’t agree with the forming of this. There are things that technology should not be able to do. I wouldn’t be comfortable with technology not only entering the Uncanny Valley but “Moving in, building a house and starting a family” like Kayla said before. People shouldn’t mess with the unnatural like this. It’s asking for trouble. People are an irreplaceable commodity. No matter how much someone knows about a person, they can never exactly replicate them. Everyone is original

3.       Will I continue to watch Black Mirror? I think Professor Curtis chose the perfect show. This whole series makes me reflect on the current situations in society and I’ll most likely finish the series after I’m done with our final project.