White Bear

In yet another unsettling sitting of the sandbox psychological torment that is Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror, played out the events of a disoriented and unnamed young woman who appears to had been attempting to take her own life via drug overdose. As she walks around the house that she awakens in, there is a strange symbol appearing on all of the electronic screens and a strange frequency along with it.

Walking outside, there are several people recording her and refusing to speak to her. Throughout the entire neighborhood, she receives the same reactions before a masked man with the same symbol appears and reveals a firearm and begins to shoot at her.

She makes a run for it and quickly meets another young woman that helps her escape the masked man. She endures another kidnapping, being tortured, and strange new "hunters" chasing her. More confused than ever she manages to escape it all. To add to the dilemma she endures memory shocks of a particular event in her past triggered by objects and words i.e White Bear. She believes she has a daughter she must find. The young woman explains that in order to change everything back the way it was she must help her destroy this transmitter signal. At the transmitter control room, the hunters catch up to them and they finally capture her.

The entire thing was a hoax.

Everyone was in it on her, including a live audience. The reason as she is explained: she is being shamed and forced to relive her being tortured and filmed as she once helped her boyfriend in crime torturing a young girl by not objecting to his actions and even filming the incident. She is brought out to a crowd and publicly shamed before having her memory wiped and reliving the torment all over again.

Brooker is spoonfeeding  themes that have been at center of philosophical debate for centuries to a Netflix audience in a package that even the most shallow of viewers can digest and yield some form of critical satisfaction. In believing one has derived the 'secret' meaning of this ordeal, we arrive at the dispositions of discipline and punishment. If we can at least agree that these are the central motifs of the drama, then philosophical inquiry may take its course. It invites us to ask ourselves

*      What is justice?

*     What is discipline?

*     Who deserves justice? Who deserves punishment?

*      What is punishment? Where is the line between punishment and torture?

These inquiries are core pillars in Plato's The Republic and overall society. Personally I believe individuals who are punished should be conscious of their punishment. It is up to us as viewers, and philosophers in that respect, to draw the line.

WATCHit Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mCJS-zCu4tt-4CIE3Qe0UwWd6fW3_k017Ds8iaFjte4/edit?usp=sharing

White Bear

 White Bear was an interesting episode of Black Mirror about a woman and a punishment. The episode follows a young lady's terrifying new life. Her crime was recording a young girl's death with her cell phone, her punishment is to be tortured on daily basis while others record. Her memory is erased of course so she suffers through the same confusion of events and submission to help that the poor girl probably felt. This episode raised one main question in the classroom.

Did she deserve that punishment?

In my opinion no not really...at least not in the mindset that she was in. I understand the thought "If she was left in her regular mindset she wouldn't be apologizing out of understanding, she would apologize just to make it all stop." That's fair, I get it I do, but if you erase a person's mind and force them to relive that event over and over only to announce that it was all fake and that they are murderers doesn't really set well. The would understand how the girl felt, of course, but would she really remember the murder?

I know last time I said that the mindset didn't really matter because you would still be you under all the layers. But it is just something cruel to have your mind painfully wiped daily until you're a compliant pile of fear. I know that without the memory wash the woman was bound disobey the rules of the game and not play along, but at least that way she would understand her crime.

Why make all of her flashbacks sweet? Why let her believe that she had a great relationship with the child? You succeeded with the things you've already had. I don't agree with the video at the end to rely the message that she helped in a murder, like why drag it out so long. What people have so much time that they can just sit around all day waiting for an accomplice in a murder to run by so that they could get three seconds of make believe footage. I think the best why to have handled it would have been the first run when she's out of the house and then people are recording her and then straight to the glass wall thing where they throw there rotten tomatoes. Leave the brain washing hanging up in the closet, that way she could actually learn from her mistakes.

Black Mirror: "White Bear"

In class on Monday, we watched another episode of Black Mirror, this one pertaining to the subject of discipline and punishment. In the episode, titled "White Bear", a woman with amnesia wakes up in unfamiliar surroundings with not much more than a flickering tv with a strange symbol flashing on it and a photograph of a child she assumes is her child. When she makes it outside of the house she woke up in, she notices people in similar houses watching and filming her with their phones. To her surprise and dismay, the people filming her do not come to her aid when she calls for help. Then a masked man appears wielding a shotgun and chasing after her. That is when she ran into a girl, Jem, who was unaffected from the signal and helped her escape from the madman. Jem also explained why all the other people were just filming and not helping; they had been hypnotized by the same symbol that was flashing on the tv screen earlier, and her goal is to destroy the transmitter located at "White Bear" to put an end to the signal effecting everyone. As the episode progresses the unnamed woman starts to have flashbacks, which become more and more frequent, and she slowly gets the feeling that there is something wrong with "White Bear". At the climax of the episode, it is revealed the whole thing had been staged. The amnesiac woman is actually named Victoria, and the photo of the girl that she assumed was her daughter was actually her victim. As she is held captive, Victoria is forced to watch videos of her victim and is told the full extent of what she did. "White Bear" turns out to be a reference to the victims toy that she disappeared with, which became the symbol of the search for the girl, and then the name of the "justice park" that holds Victoria captive and makes her relive the same horrific day over and over again.
This is an extreme form of cruel and unusual punishment. Not only is Victoria subjected to every atrocity that she subjected her victim to, but her memory is wiped at the end of the day so she has to relive the exact same day, experiencing the terror and shame anew everyday. Not only does this "justice park" hold her captive, but they make a profit from it, selling tickets to guests who play the unhelpful bystanders who film her. Instead of being put in prison or sentenced to death, Victoria's punishment is to experience the fear that her victim did. Although it is fitting, it is still fairly extreme. This form of punishment--one emulating the crime--is not common by any means, but perhaps as portrayed in Black Mirror it might become a solution to felonies in the future.

The Linear relationship between White Bear and the profitable Private Prison concept

    The concept of cruel and unusual punishment is not an uncommon trait in the episode 'White Bear" and the private prison concept that is prevalent in America in present-day society. Both assumes an authoritarian position as a means of undermining those affected. In both scenarios, it would be both the prisoners and the amnesic woman who are suffering from the "cruel and unusual punishment" systematic mindset of those in the authoritative position. For example, most private prisons are for-profit. The for-profit prisons tend to lack and remain deficient in necessities for prisoners such as basic hygienic products or a lack of ethical food and water. In "White Bear," the amnesic woman's position is no different albeit more embarrassing due to the more cruel punishment she receives in comparison to prisoners in a private prison system. She is constantly stressed out as she is awoken due to the lack of memories and the lack of concern from the spectators.

     Although most private prisons are not as humiliating and inhumane as the Justice Park experiment in "White Bear," they are still unethical in many ways. People are still not permitted to commit crimes within the jailing confines, but the guards will look away if it does not benefit the prison as a whole or themselves. However, the amnesic woman suffers a fate worse than the prisoners; she is forced to experience a mixture of public humiliation and scarring events due to her position as an offender to society in the public's eye. Even as her memories are wiped day after day, her responsibility is stripped as her previous conscience is different in the sense that they are entirely different persons. One is aware of her crimes against her supposed daughter which has either been suppressed or repressed, and the other one is forced to experience an eternal hell as long as the experiment continues unbeknownst to herself until the end of the day. Both systems are unethical and should not be viewed lightly in society. Instead, it would be a less grimacing sight if both systems were developed to be less shameful and profitable, and focus more on the rehabilitation side.

White Bear

In “White Bear,” Victoria wakes up in a house unable to remember anything about her life. A white symbol appears on her television screen and she finds a picture of a young girl, whom she assumes is her daughter, in the living room. She begins to explore her surroundings and notices that people are under a “spell.” They refuse to answer her questions and only take pictures and videos of her. She later encounters a girl who informs her that the white symbol has caused most of the population to behave that way and tells her that she plans to destroy the transmitter. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that Victoria is a criminal. Victoria and her fiancé, Ian Ranick, abducted a little girl, tortured, and killed her in the woods. While Ian managed to avoid going to jail by hanging himself, Victoria was found guilty and forced to relive her crime every day of her life.

The white teddy bear is an “enduring symbol for the hunt of the little girl,Jemima” and how the “White Bear Justice Park” got its name. The title “White Bear” could also refer to the way Victoria was treated; like an animal, a bear. At the start of the episode, a masked man,a hunter,chased her and tried to kill her. Then she was paraded around the park in a cage-like an animal and humiliated. She was used to entertain the crowd. People took videos and pictures of her (People take pictures of animals in captivity-e.g. Zoo, circus). Also, at the end of the episode, when members of the park are instructing members of the audience on how to behave, one of the rules is to “keep your distance.” They are told that she is a a dangerous individual, and told to think of her as an “escaped lion.”

This method of punishment is not effective as it does not allow the criminal to reflect on his/her action. In class we discussed personal identity and punishment. In this situation, Victoria is not a person as she is unable to make radical decisions. She is stripped of all her human qualities and becomes a “startled animal.” Also, she is not the same person she was when she committed the crime, and therefore should not be punished. At the start, she is not able to remember who she is or what she did. By erasing her memories, they are changing a person. She is not able to reflect on her actions and understand why she received such punishment.

Is it justice or punishment?

     When watching "White Bear" we see a woman who was put through a simulation. When the actor, Jem, met the main character, Victoria, she explained that certain people were affected by the transmitter and the ones that were not affected became the "hunters and hunted". As they traveled through different sceneries and situations, Victoria wondered why no one would put their phone down to help them, she was so disgusted that she yanked a phone out of a visitor's hand. When they finally arrived at the White Bear Transmitter she began to feel uneasy and this was where it was revealed to her that this was actually a punishment for her. Victoria looks shocked when she found out what she supposedly did, then paraded around so people could video her. She was taken back to the apartment and given electric shocks to her brain that made her forget so the cycle could start over again, day after day.

      The simulation was supposed to be a punishment for the women and make her feel remorseful for just standing and videoing the death of helpless Jemima but was the park used for the pure enjoyment of the visitors of White Bear Park? Victoria seemed to not have any recollection of this horrid crime until she was told what happened, so is this actually a punishment? Her memory had been wiped, so are we punishing the same person?

White Bear

    In class we watched a series called "Black Mirror", episode called "White Bear". It was about this woman who helped kidnap a little girl with her fiance and killed the girl while she recorded it all. She had to re-live the same day over and over while she is haunted and recorded by random people with no memory of who she is or what she did. This place called "Justice" park is where it's all happening for other people's entertainment. She is imprisoned there for other people to watch her suffer everyday and she has no idea that this is happening. 

    In my opinion, that is not justice, it is a cruel and inhumane way to treat somebody. If they wanted "Justice" for what she did, they could've went to court and tried to sent her to jail instead of making her live her days with no memory of the crime she committed while entertaining others for their own amusement. They turned her life into a theme park for other others to watch and that is a cruel and awful way to punish somebody. The spectators and people behind the "Justice" park seemed like they're just as bad as she is.

White Bear

        In the episode of Black Mirror, "White Bear", there was a girl who was being punished everyday for a crime that she had committed. The crime that she committed was recording a little girl getting burned while her boyfriend was burning the little girl, eventually killing her. The whole story was basically a form of revenge. The people would pretend like they were getting killed, and like they were trying to kill her. When they were pretending like they were trying to kill the main character, instead of the people helping her, they would all get out there phones and start recording her. Basically, they were trying to make her feel like the little girl that she had recorded getting murdered. Everyday they would erase her memory and do the whole thing over again. I wondered how long they had planned to do that. Who has the time to do that EVERYDAY? Of course the girl was wrong for doing what she did, but torturing her every single day doesn't make them any better of a person. The only thing I could think about when I saw the host of the show cross out another day on the calendar is "Do you have a life?". Why would someone want to spend everyday of their life making someone else miserable. My other question would be, what kind of government did they have? How did the government allow them to keep this girl just to torture her? Was this supposed to be her form of prison? If I were the people who were the actors I would at least ask for a break on the weekends because they literally had to be there ALL day long. You would also have to pay me a lot of money to just throw my life away like that because that's basically what they were doing.

White Bear

At first, I was very confused when I watched the episode of white bear. In the episode, the woman was being  tortured by basically the whole town. They called it “the white bear justice park.” They were getting justice because the woman kidnapped and killed a child and got it all on video tape. However, I don’t believe it was true justice.

First of all, I don’t understand how they could determine that the “justice park” was supposed to be true justice. Who decides those things? Do they not have a government? To my understanding, they do this to her every single day. However, they don’t have the right. What she did was wrong but at some point there has to be a boundary for “punishment.” Plus, everyday they expect the same thing from her. I would get tired of reliving the same day and getting the same outcome. If I truly wanted justice from that woman, I would figure out a new method because that one doesn’t seem to be working.

Second, a great point was brought up in class about if their idea of punishment was really punishing her.  I don’t think she’s really being punished. I just think she’s experiencing pain because everyday her memory is erased, so to her, nothing even happened. If she had to actually deal with what happened for the rest of her life, maybe it would be punishment because it’s something that would stick with her long term. Then, she would have had time to genuinely think about how her actions affected others as well as herself.

White Bear: Is it really Justice??

      In this episode of Black Mirror, "White Bear" , a woman is seen waking up and seeming very confused on who she is and where she is. She begins to explore and as she is exploring people are seen videotaping her. She is still confused and eventually finds some "alliances", who"help" her find hiding places. Then eventually they turn on her and she finds out who she is and what she has done, which is kidnapping and videotaping a murder of little girl. She continues to replay this over and over again each day.
   All of this takes place in White Bear Justice Park. The question I ponder on is " Is it really Justice?". I feel as if there is no justice being shown or given because she really doesn't have enough time to think about what she did and comprehend what the purpose of this stuff was. Also, from my christian view the people inflicting this torture on this woman are wrong and are on the same level of sinful as she is . They have no lawful right to do this to here.

White Bear

Basically, this video is based off of the kidnapping and tragic murder of a little girl. The video is revolved around the kidnapper who watched and recorded her fiance kill this little girl. However, one day, the woman wakes up and doesn’t even remember anything that she did. She is not aware of her wrongdoings at all. She only gets small glimpses of a little girl happily playing, who she thinks is her long lost daughter. To be punished, everyday she is forced to relive this crime in Justice Park.

Forcing this woman to relive this day repeatedly is not a punishment. I think that this act is just a form of abuse. She isn’t being punished. This nothing but torture, and she doesn’t deserve it. Yes, she was wrong, but I don’t think she deserves to be tortured for her sin. She wasn’t even able to have time to think on her actions. She was just immediately forced to relive this crime.  The place where all of this occurred was called “White Bear Justice Park.” I think that it was called this because it was somehow supposed to get justice for the little girl. However, I don’t think that the cast succeeded at doing so. I believe that this was just a way to force the woman go through hell on Earth and had nothing to do with the girl’s justice. The video, instead, focused more on “punishing” the woman. Overall, the goal of making the video was not achieved in my opinion.

Hell on Earth

          This week in Theories of Human Nature, the topic of discussion was, in my own words, the idea of justice and "cruel and unusual" punishment. In class, we watched an episode of the series "Black Mirror" titled "White Bear." In the episode, a woman who played a role in the kidnap and murder of a little girl is forced to re-live the same day over and over. Throughout the day, she is hunted and recorded by strangers and not once is she offered any help. Every day that she wakes up, she has no recollection of who she is or the crime she has committed. The facility in which she is forced to re-live the awful nightmare is considered a "Justice" Park.

         In my opinion, this act of justice is wrong and unconstitutional on many levels. It is morally wrong. For starters, the woman has no recollection of the crime she has committed or who she is; therefore, she has been stripped of her responsibility for the crime because she is no longer the same individual. By taking matters into their own hands, the creators of the park have destroyed the job of justice. The woman has now become innocent and her responsibility, in my opinion, is transferred to those who have stripped her of it. Forcing her to re-live the same day over and over and feel the same humility and guilt is, basically, creating an individualized version of Hell on earth. 

          I believe that the Justice Park is an extreme act of cruel and unusual punishment and is a very inhumane form of imprisonment. True justice should be exercised in the courts and uniformed between like crimes, not turned into a theme park and used as a form of amusement for spectators. In the Justice Park, justice was turned into a source of profit. The actors as well as the on-lookers that encouraged and participated in the facade are no better that the woman they initially intended to punish.

What are the limits of punishment?

What are the limits of punishment?

Last week we had the opportunity to watch a short film called WhiteBear. The plot of the film involved a group of individuals whose purpose was to make a young woman suffer for the crime she committed against a little girl. Reflecting on the scenario, I do not agree with the form of punishment that was given to the woman, which involved a repeated day full of chasing and threatening. Throughout the day, the woman was confused because her memory was erased to increase fear. However, the treatment she receives is unhuman because she is being deprived of her general rights such as freedom. For instance, the group in charge of the justice park refused to let her free and would make her repeat the day without regret thinking that she deserved to suffer. Another thing is that as humans we cannot judge or punish each other because we all have committed an immoral act at some point in our lives. Moreover, the justice park is not accomplishing its goal, which is to make the woman regret her actions because every day her memory is erased and therefore is unable to reflect on her past behavior.

Analyzing the punishment towards the woman, made me think of the limits on punishment. For example, in many states, capital punishment has been eliminated because is considered cruel and ineffective as the criminal is not offered the opportunity to reflect on his/her acts. However, others think that whoever kills deserves to be killed. This form of thinking is the same one that members of the justice park shared and in the end, they were causing more suffering. Therefore, I think the goal of punishment should be to change the behavior of the individual for good without causing suffering. In the case of the woman, she was constantly reminded of her bad actions and ridiculed for them, but was never guided to the right path. Furthermore, the goal of a real justice park should be to recover individuals by having them do exercises of reflection.

Overall, punishment should not be perceived as a negative act, but rather as a positive reinforcement that is used to make an individual better. Unfortunately, as humans, we quickly want to use violence to get rid of violence, instead of peace. By watching this film, I realized that everyone deserves a second chance in life and be part of society again. 

WHITE BEAR

               White Bear was based on a kidnap and murder of a little girl. The woman being featured was the aggressor. What seemed like some world wide mind game that she was the only one free of was actually a punishment for the crime she committed. the new punishment for crime according to this video was human wide humiliation of a person. this " justice park, " was created in order to serve justice for the murder of the little girl. the point of the show was to manipulate the woman's actions in order for her to suffer in the same ways her and her fiancée made the little girl suffer when they were killing her. the people at the justice had their phone out and recorded the woman's every move as she tried running away from the villain of the video. they tortured her by ignoring her. and pretending like she was being prosecuted to die. everyone ignored her screams and cries for help. which is exactly what she did to the little girl. she recorded her fiancé killing her and burning her.
             this method of punishment seems ineffective to me. society is trying to take justice into its own hands, ignoring the fact that there is laws that serve us for punishing murders, rapists, and thieves. in this case, the women is not really suffering because the director wipes her mind clear after each episode or show. she does not have the chance to really think about what she did. she does not have the chance to regret it. she does not have the chance to suffer. she just suffering in repeat for something she does not even know of because her memory got wiped clean. it is honestly really sad how this form of society would actually work. it not even the same as an eye for an eye because the criminal is not receiving the same pain as the victim. so I do not agree with this fundamental belief of justice and order. in my mind, this society is not making anything better with a justice park. the parents do not even have a form of peace available to let go and forgive because they are constantly watching how their daughters aggressor is treated on tv.

Justice Parks' contribution to Society

"White Bear" demonstrates a new method of punishment which involves as many people as possible in the humiliation of a single person. They are called justice parks, and not only do these parks strip an individual of their privacy in suffering the punishment of their crime, they also strip the person of their memory, making their punishment useless.
Punishment for a crime should be a time of rehabilitation for criminals. The ultimate goal should be to reform them into productive members of society so the society overall becomes stronger, not weaker. Justice parks do the opposite of this. Erasing the woman's memory -which they must've thought through very well because the audience doesn't even know her name from start to finish- removes any opportunity for her to reflect on her crime and become a better citizen. On top of that, publicizing her crime distracts the people from more important things like self-improvement, widespread homelessness, starvation, global warming and the like.
But let's consider this. How they punished this woman is a reflection of what happened to the little girl; they punish the lady by putting her through a series of life-threatening situations and have people record it with enthusiasm. The little girl was recorded by the woman in the same manner when she died. It's an eye for an eye tooth for tooth situation. The main flaw is, like I've said before, this woman is denied the opportunity to contemplate her role in the murder and become a useful citizen to society once again. The punishment is all in vain if she doesn't get to reform herself into the productive citizen I know she can be.
Besides, this justice park is making a huge profit from "punishing" this young lady, so why would they care if it's proper rehabilitation? Sound familiar? In all honesty, the Justice Park is no different from American prisons. Sure, the people that run the institutions genuinely believe that they are doing inmates and society a favor, but so did the actors of Justice Park. If we aren't careful, our justice systems could soon turn into a real-life "Justice Park."

White Bear

The episode "White Bear" is about the punishment of a woman, Victoria, who watched and recorded as her significant other tortures and kills a little girl, Jemima. The punishment the officials deemed necessary was that she should be trapped in "White Bear Justice Park" and have people chasing her and trying to kill her and then spectators recording everything that's going on. At the end of everything, everybody resets it and wipes her memory and she relives it.

I don't think Victoria should have gotten punished the way she did, if she should have gotten punished at all. Let's take a moment and think about how wasteful their "punishment" is. They built a whole park dedicated to one woman's crime. There must not be much crime or anything for the officials to past that. 

A little while after Victoria wakes up, she finds a picture of her and her significant in a picture frame and then a picture of the little girl. The placement of the picture of Jemima makes Victoria think she's Jemima's mom, but she doesn't know. Once she gets out of the house, she sees people filming her and she's asking them questions, but nobody is answering her. Throughout the whole episode she asks questions, but nobody answers her and if they do they are not straight answers. That's torture, but I guess it's like what the girl's parents went through. They would probably ask detectives and the police force questions, and they wouldn't get a straight answer.

This should never happen to anyone by any means. Who knows how long they’ve been doing this to her. We only see the calendar for October. The fact that she has been going through this repeatedly and people are paying to see this, and people are getting paid to do this is just despicable.

It’s not like she forgets everything, they still leave pieces in her mind. I don’t know if they are manufactured memories or real memories. If they are real, what if she builds up enough memory to know what is going on and to know how to beat it or what if realizes what is going on and kills herself somehow? What are they going to then, do they just destroy the whole White Bear Justice Park, or do they find a new criminal? Or what if one day she wakes up and she takes those pills and doesn’t even makes it out of the house? How do they know she is going to do the same thing every day? 

White Bear

         At the beginning of "White Bear" we see a disoriented young woman waking up from her sleep. It's evident that she was strapped to the chair she was in and supposedly tried to commit suicide because of the many pills scattered on the floor. As the story progresses we see her in a frenzy trying to remember or understand what has happened since she was "sleep". She is unaware why the town people are constantly recording her while she is screaming out for help. At the end of the story we see that this is all a big game and they are making her relive a crime. Those supposedly helpers and killers are in actuality actors playing a role and those town people recording are regular civilians who paid to basically torture this woman.
          As the audience watching this, I was absolutely confused into why people would want to pay and witness other individuals harming another human being. The actors present this video of the woman and her finance kidnapping a young girl. This kidnapping went viral and it was a world wide search party for the finding of the little girl. The video tells that the woman and her finance tortured and killed the girl all while recording the whole event. Now the woman has to face the guilt and embarrassment of committing this crime in front of many people. We also see the men carrying the woman right back to the same house as earlier so they can shock her in order to erase her memory, all because they are going to continue to repeat the same actions over and over again.
          First off, those actors are not God or the law system. They had no right tormenting that woman all because of the crime she committed. Secondly, how do I know that she actually committed this crime. All I could know is that they staged this whole thing and the woman actually did nothing wrong, because the little girl actually looked happy and was smiling in all of the videos presented. This whole story was very sad to see once I realized that they were risking the woman's health and sanity all because of money and viewers.

Punishment

What is it to be a person?

I never really thought about having to answer a question like that and I was thrown for a loop when I realized that the question did not have a simple answer that I could just come up with on the spot. Physical aspects, emotional aspects, and rational aspects alongside a capacity of each, this is what makes you a person? It makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking. Having to follow legal laws and expect punishment if you do not?? Having to follow moral laws and expect punishment if you do not? Is that being a human?

What is it for 'a' & 'b' to be the same person? and the Leibhiz's Law of Identify

Now I honestly do not know if it would be great or terrifying to escape the wrath of jail just by getting a haircut or changing your way of thinking from ten minutes ago. Material continuity (hair and clothes) and mental continuity (same person if same consciousness) describe the things that make up who you are, but also leaves the question that if you change some of these things would you still be the same person. That is a good question indeed. I believe that you will still be the same person underneath all of those changes. It does not matter how many times you change your mental set, there will still be triggers that can bring you back to yourself. I don't people really change, some people are just better at hiding under all the layers that they have smothered their real selves with.

Who deserves to be punished?

Those who have committed a crime. As simple as that right? Wrong. Of course. You have to think of the rational capacity; the mental state the person was in when they committed the crime, and their understanding of fiction and reality.

What is the goal of punishment?

The main point of punishment is so people would not do the offending thing again or 'Rehabilitation' right? Well separation is a form of punishment that could also qualify as a main point of punishment. So to make this less confusing, "separating is the punishment and separation is the goal of the punishment". Keeping the prisoners separate from the rest of the world, the goal of this, will most likely teach them that they miss the outside and force them to do the right thing next time they are free. In realtiy, this does nothing but drive more people insane and used to being cooped up so when they are finally set free they commit more crimes to go back to the routine they knew. Separation is a way of keeping jails full.

What is Discipline?

In class, we discussed two different forms of discipline, discipline-blockade and discipline mechanism. Discipline- blockade consists of a higher power such as a king or other ruler who has direct power and control over a group of individuals. For instance, Michael Foucault uses the black plague to illustrate this form of discipline. He mentions that during the time of the plague, citizens were required to stay home and were constantly watched by guards to ensure that they did not have contact with the contaminated individuals. In addition, healthy citizens had to report their name, sex, and age and a copy of this information was sent to officers, who were in charge. Moreover, the individuals who were assigned to inspect the houses of the town citizens were searched before leaving the house to ensure that they had not stolen any materials. After four hours of the inspection, citizens were allowed back in their house. It can be implied that the citizens of the contaminated town were aware of the rules and of who was in control. However, discipline mechanism is a more indirect in that individuals do not know exactly when they are being watched. Bentham proposed an idea called panopticon that serves as an example of discipline mechanism. A panopticon consists of round building divided into sections. The different sections have space to place prisoners, students, and mental patients. In the middle of the building, there is a tower where a guard stands to watch over the habitats. However, unlike discipline-blockade, the individuals are not aware of the times the guard is looking over and as such they must constantly be aware of their behavior.

If we compare these two forms of discipline, we can understand that there is no right way of creating a good conduct in an individual it all depends on the situation. For example, in class, we discussed how we tend to follow a stop sign rule even when the police are not around. The reason for this is that we have internalized the rules and as in the panopticon we never know where the police might be hiding so the best option is to always act moral and follow the norms. However, it would be difficult to use the discipline-blockade form in the case of the stop sign, because it would be impossible for police officers to be at every stop sign to see who follows the sign.

Therefore, is important to understand discipline and know what form of it necessary and effective according to the situation. In addition, there should be a limit to the level of discipline applied, because if individuals feel like their freedom and rights are being oppressed then discipline can ironically cause rebellion and chaos.

Concept of Power

In Michel Foucault's chapter titled Discipline and Punishment, he discusses the concept of power and how it is exercised in society. He introduces the concept of the panopticism which he describes as a network where power is centralized around an all-seeing eye. He also introduces the concept of functional mechanism panopticon, where power is decentralized. What stood out to me is the similarities that these concepts have to the Illuminati conspiracy theory. The conspiracy theory revolves around a secret organization known as the new world order, which supposedly is has a lot of influence in world politics and media. How power is organized with the new world order is decentralized much how it is described in functional mechanism panopticam. I do not believe in this conspiracy theory but it is interesting to see how both ideas are similar. A major example of the panopticam in our lives is how the government is always monitoring us, especially when it comes to law enforcement and technology. To be specific, most people would go beyond the speed limit on a highway if they were certain that a police car would not be checking the speeds of cars; but because of the knowledge that are policemen scattered at different points in a highway, people choose instead to drive under the speed limit. On the other hand, this goes in deeper on the topic of undocumented immigrants. Most of us undocumented immigrants are careful and aware of their own situations for tasks that would otherwise be risk-free for everybody else. These tasks include driving, going to an airport, and opening the door to strangers, since at any moment we know that an ICE officer could be there, and could start to ask us questions to which if we answer wrong, end up in a deportation order.

Foucault uses the panopticon to illustrate the concept of power and discipline. Designed by Jeremy Banthon, the panopticon is a building with a central tower surrounded by cells. Individuals contained in the cell would be under constant surveillance with the only source of light coming from the tower. This design allows the supervisor to see everyone in the cells but does not allow the people in the cells to see the supervisor. Here, “visibility is a trap.” A prisoner can always see the tower but does not know whether he/she is being watched. Therefore, all prisoners must act as if they are being watched in order to avoid any form of punishment. This form of panopticon discipline produces a homogeneous effect of power. An example of this is the relationship between ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcements) and illegal immigrants. ICE is the watchman in the tower and illegal immigrants must act as if they are being watched in order to avoid deportation. They follow all the rules (e.g. traffic laws-avoid getting pulled over since most do not have a driver’s license) and live “in the shadows.”The presence of surveillance cameras deter people from stealing or violating traffic laws. If people feel like they are being watched, they will be more likely to follow the rules.

Discipline and Punishment: Panopticon and Panopticam

During class in the week of November 13th to November 17th, we discussed Michel Foucault’s two categories of control. The first, discipline-blockade and the second, discipline-mechanism

Discipline-blockade is defined as being a sovereign power; it is controlled externally by others. For example, a plague town is sampled as being severed from the surrounding towns and thus easily manipulated by outside powers with little to no independence.

Discipline-mechanism is depicted as being internally controlled thus being more independent than discipline-blockade. This method of power is visible, but unverifiable. A more concrete example can be sampled accurately through Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon. A panopticon was a prison designed around the prisoners being constantly observed and surveillance on a constant basis. Discipline-mechanism is more in-line in modern society more so than discipline-blockade. For example, the surge of CCTV cameras in public places allow individuals or accidents to be observed without knowledge of the observer. A more unconventional example in present day is the Panopticam project. Bentham’s skeleton is preserved on the campus UCL as a statue with a wax head equipped with a camera able to view the spectators of the statue. Eerily similar to Bentham’s panopticon project, it showcased a form of uncanny valley to onlookers of the statue. This achieved the sense of dread the prisoners would feel in the panopticon design, but on a larger scale. Most viewers of the still-life statue of Bentham were either not aware of the camera or were unaware of the purpose of a camera within the statue. This still creates an aura of uncertainty with the visibility of it.

2 Categories of Control/ Panopticon

The two things that stood out to me this week were the 2 categories of control,and the panopticon. Even though the panopticon, in a way, is apart of the 2 categories of control, it still holds a different kind of meaning to me. So the first category of control was the discipline-blockade. In a discipline blockade we learned that there is a centralized power. So what that means is that there is someone, or a specific group of people that make all of the decisions for one whole economy. We also learned that it was a sovereign control which means that no one from outside gets to interfere. With sovereign control, the leader can decide to let someone live or to make them die. 

   The second category of control is discipline mechanism. That brings us to the panopticon example. Foucault viewed the panopticon as a symbol of the disciplinary society of surveillance. Within the panopticon, visibility is a trap. No one can see anything except for what is in their designated area. Each individual is seen but cannot communicate with each other, or the person who can see them. An example of what we learned that could possibly be a panopticism example is surveillance cameras. With surveillance cameras, we know that there is possibly someone watching us, but we can't see them. This panoptic discipline atomizes and disindividuates power. It also produces a homogeneous effect of power. Its effects are homogeneous because whether the building is used as a school or prison, power operates in a certain way within it. The prisoners can always see the tower, but they'll never know who is inside of the tower. In a way I feel like this could be a harsh punishment depending on what the prisoner has done. To have the feeling of someone watching you, but you don't know for sure, is really creepy. If the prisoner did something minor like stealing a donut from the corner store, then I don't think that this type of punishment is necessary. 

Punishments Of the Mind

Punishments are various in extent and in being. Who gets to be punished and to what extent should people punished for what crimes. And more so who gets to decide on those punishments. The easy answer would be those with power, but in trying to configure that "easy" answer a thought came to mind: How did those with power get their power and how is that power being used to punish? As I thought in and out of discussions with my peers, I couldn't help but to think about how the fear of punishment has honestly become the most powerful "being" in the world. The fear of being punished by someone or something (What exactly those somes are we don't even know) dominates and controls. We act accordingly because we think about the consequences that would occur if we didn't do it. We think about the possibly of being caught by some enforcer of some kind and the punishment they may deem appropriate. 

In that way of functioning, as people we lose out sense of self in a way. We relinquish our true freedom in order to accept a subconscious takeover of our mind by punishments. The connotation of the word punishment is harsh, it is striking of fear and is used to scare us into compliance, and it’s not individualized it broad it makes us all comply because no matter who you are whenever you think about doing something you think about the consequences. When you think about the consequences, if they’re bad, you automatically think about the punishment that can follow. No matter how freeing or harmless the action may seem to the individual, if it is deemed punishable by those in power then the individual pulls back because the action, no matter how it feels, may not be worth the consequence.

Punishments may not be physical, maybe the actual societal punishment is the fearfully driven enslavement of our minds.

The discipline-blockade model vs. the discipline-mechanism model

This last week in class, we discussed Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish", more specifically the section covering Panopticism. In this section, Foucault introduced the concept of power and the two categories of of control. Foucault's idea of power is that it is not sovereign, but it is more like a network or a field. He also says that individuals do not necessarily hold power, but it is more of a "power node" that a single person can hold. Following that, he says that power cannot be abolished but it can be transferred or rearranged. Power also created locations of counter-power within the systems where power is present. As for the systems of control, Foucault offers two models. The first is the discipline-blockade where the scenario is a plague town. In this scenario, the whole own and the surrounding areas are locked down and kept on strict separation from each other, with the threat of death for anyone who breaks the rule. There are also syndics who are each given a division of a town, and monitor each and every home, to ensure that the inhabitants of the homes stay indoors or face the penalty of death. In this system, there is constant surveillance of the townspeople by the syndics, who record and report everything to the intendants (who monitor the syndics), who then report to a mayor or magistrate. The discipline-blockade displays a power that is centralized with a control that is soverign. Power is administered from outside, with the people who do not hold a sovereign power knowing and feeling the control and order that is being forced on them. For the second model of control, the discipline-mechanism, discipline is more internalized. The example given for this model is the Panopticon. Originally designed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the Panopticon was intended to be a building, with a tower located at the center with separate quadrants all coalescing into a circle around the tower. In each of these quadrants would be a separate building, group, or subject (if the quadrant is intended to be something like a prison cell or a classroom), with the only light source coming from the tower. And in this tower, because there is a constant source of light coming from it, it is impossible for the people in the quadrants to know if they are being observed or not, and so may act as if they are always being watched. This form of discipline is more decentralized, more internalized, produces a homogenous effect of power, is visible but unverifiable, where the subjects may not consciously know that they are being controlled.

Personal Identity and Secret Surveillance

Monday's conversation was in regards to personal identity and what makes a person. What really stood out to me that day was the fact that changing any part of your material or mental continuity makes you a completely new person, and you can't charge a person for a crime someone else did. I have an objection to this. When we punish someone, we should only consider the part of that person that prompted him or her to commit the crime and neglect any other part of that person. If hair color has nothing to do with a robbery, then don't incarcerate a person with the same hair color as the robber. If the robber's thievish personality has something to do with the crime, then this is the person that should be locked up, regardless of any changes to their material or mental continuity.

Although the panopticon's architectural structure is no longer prevalent in modern society, the resulting psychological effect it had on inmates is similar to the psychological effect that today's discipline mechanism has on everyday citizens.

While still on the topic of punishment, I want to consider how society monitors bad behaviors. The topic of the preceding week bought up a very good point: we are always being watched. In modern society, people are constantly being monitored by the authority, or so that's what they want us to think. In this panopticon surveillance system we are ruled under, we never know who is watching or when they are watching us. In fact, we often times forget the prospect of being watched because we never know if we are watched until we get caught. However, all the rules that we follow becomes internalized; they become a part of us since we are so used to follow them in order to avoid being caught. I believe this is a very strategic way of ensuring that everyone follows the rule. Following the rules becomes habitualized and ceases being a matter of doing what's right and not doing what's wrong.

Foucault's "Discipline and Punishment"

This past week we discussed Michel Foucault’s “Discipline and Punishment.” One particular example was the idea of “panoptic discipline.” Panoptic discipline is when you have one person, “the eye,” who sees all and knows all, but the people the eye sees cannot see that the eye is there because it is visible and unverifiable. It’s like they don’t know they are being watched. I didn’t realize it until the actual concept was brought up in class, but there are many examples of panoptic discipline around us in our everyday lives.

The government itself implies panoptic discipline. We are always told that the government can see us, and they know what we’re doing. They have all this power because they set the rules, and we’re expected to follow them to keep society in order. But, do we really know that they’re watching us? We follow the government’s rules because that’s what we’re supposed to do and it’s what we think is right. No one is standing over us 24/7 to babysit our actions. What if we completely went against the rules and acted like the government had no power over us to punish us for our wrong actions? I’m pretty sure there would be chaos, and our economies and societies would be in shambles. Therefore, I kinda like the idea of panoptic discipline especially when it pertains to the government. I believe it’s part of why our cities and homes are in the conditions they are in now. Without people thinking the government is watching them, they would do much worse.

In class this week, we discussed Michel Foucault’s concept of power and the categories of control, the images of discipline. The two categories of control are discipline mechanism and discipline blockade and discipline mechanism. Discipline blockade is like a plague town, which has centralized power, and imposes order and control from the outside. On the other hand, discipline mechanism is like a panopticon. A panopticon has decentralized power, and imposes order and control from the inside. Examples of panopticons would be hospitals, schools, and prisons, Discussing these images of discipline made me realize that we actually live in a panopticon. Until now, I never really thought about what what we lived in besides a democratic government.  Then, when we talked about how prisons are set up like panopticons, I really began to realize that we live in a panopticon. When we discussed the illustration of the inside set up of the prison, it was said that each of the prisoners in each cell was being watched by someone in the middle. However, the prisoners were not able to see whoever is watching them. This made me understand how panoptic discipline is visible and unverifiable. The stop sign example really fascinated me when discussing this topic. The fact that even when there’s nobody else at a stop sign, people still stop out of habit, knowing that the police could come out of nowhere and give you a ticket. I really never really thought about this scenario when thinking that “someone is always watching.”

concept of power; foucault

Foucault believed in a penopticon form of power. the type of power means that there is a central power or that a whole revolved around power. penoptic discipline is visible and invertible: it automizes and disindividuates power; produces homogenous effect of power. examples of these powers are hospitals, schools, and prisons. our government could even be an example. take for instance stooping at a stop sign. its a federal law to stop at a sign, for your safety and the safety of others. if you run it, you'll get pulled over, resulting in a traffic ticket or violation. we now have the instinct to stop at them now, because that rule has been engraved into our brains, it is visible and invertible. illegal immigration can also be a form of penoptic discipline. immigrants who are here illegally have learned over the years how to live under the radar. no tickets, no law violations. it understood what will happen if you get caught, so an immigrant knows what shouldn't be done. its like theres a central power to the kind of fear, and the power is ICE. the department that specializes enforcing immigrant laws. this is an example of visible and invertible discipline too. I think this concept is very accurate. I know first hand how it is to live as an immigrant, some of my family has had to live that way. stopping at stop signs, or an traffic law is engraved in to my mind every time that I drive anywhere. that's sort of how the world is, or our country. even when America first got settled in. the first thirteen colonies were ruled by a central power, called a movement blockade, which was Britain. Puerto rico is under a movement blockade because although it is not a state of the united states, it is still a part of the nation.

Discipline and Punish: Michel Foucalt

           This week in class, we discussed the 2 categories of control: discipline-blockade and discipline mechanism.



     Discipline-blockade is  a centralized/sovereign power. It imposes order and controls from the outside. An example is a plague town. It was exiled and controlled by outside powers.
    Discipline mechanism is a decentralized power. It imposes from the inside; Object of information, not subject of communication. For  example, one of the big examples we discussed, the panopticon.

 Real world examples of panopticons are prisons, mental hospitals, and schools. Panoptic discipline is visible and unverifiable and  automizes and dis-individualizes power much like the world does to the people/cultures not of the right kind. It amazes me that we are living in a panopticon, but it is something which should've been seen a while ago. We can't see who is controlling us but we know or think we know it is the government. 

     

"Discipline and Punish"

             This past week we defined what it is to be a person, who deserves to be punished, the goal of punishment, discipline blockade, and discipline mechanism.
             A person has to have a capacity of being rational, emotional, physical, but I will like to add that they should be self-aware and a moral compass. The people that should be punished are those who have a rational capacity and/or committed a crime. The purpose of punishment is to correct what you did wrong, so what is the purpose of giving someone life in prison if it is meant to rehabilitate people?

Example of Discipline Mechanism

            Discipline blockade is the first image of control.This kind of sovereign power and is controlled from the outside. The example that was given was a colony. When America was controlled from the outside by Great Britain, it was easy to sever the and gain independence.
           The second image of control is discipline mechanism and it is present in today's society. This is power controlled from the inside and is visible and unverifiable, automatizes and disindividualize power. There were several examples given of this control and how power can be controlled from the inside. The stop sign example shows us the unverifiable and the disindividualize power. Even if you know that no cars are approaching you will still stop because of the consequences of being pulled over and getting a ticket. Then there is the example of the government monitoring webcams, text messages, emails, etc. We know that they can not monitor everyone at once, but we know that they do it so it has an effect on everyone's actions. I found it interesting how power organizes itself because we internalize our own actions based on the consequences.

What's Wrong With Order?

          The topic of class this week was discipline. More specifically, the topic was "Discipline and Punishment." Most of what we discussed were the ideas of Michel Foucault, which I found very reasonable. To me, his ideas all made sense. The thing that I agreed with most was his statement of how, in today's society, power is homogeneously distributed.
          The most relatable example of this distribution of power is the stop sign example. Personally, I stop at every stop sign I encounter; however, it's not necessarily for safety reasons s much as it is out of my own paranoia. I have this strange fear that if I run a stop sign, even if I don't see any other cars coming and it's extremely late at night, a cop will come out of nowhere and pull me over. At first, I didn't really understand the connections that were being made in class until this mentality was brought to my attention. Therefore, I'm not actually being controlled by a certain governmental authority or individual officer, but instead by my own internalized disciplines.
          Though authority does control society in this way, I don't see anything wrong with it overall. I don't think that there's anything wrong with distributing power this way as a means to maintain order. I believe that, in a lot of ways, society NEEDS to be controlled. Too much freedom can lead to chaos, anarchy, and many injustices. Not to say that we don't suffer injustices now, because we most certainly do, but it could be a lot worse if people had the power to individually exercise their own wills.
          At the same time, every power should have its limits whether it be of person or of government. In my opinion, the line of power should be drawn when it begins to impose on the freedom, safety, or equality of others. Also, the line of discipline should be drawn when it begins to jeopardize the life of any person, innocent or guilty.

'Be Right Back"

I guess it's safe to assume that Be Right Back is one of the most controversial assessments of ethical practices we've discussed this year. I don't say that just because there was a robot that posed as a human in the most hair-raising of ways, or because said robot mimicked sexual acts via learning through porn sites (though I must say that was a bit hysterical). I say that because when you watch Black Mirror and evaluate the episode "Be Right Back", there rises this question of how much of our emotions play into our moral reasoning. As people, regardless of how much we may try to convince ourselves that we don't make all or important decisions based on emotions, we do in fact let our emotions be a factor in every aspect of our lives. In Be Right Back, we see how Martha's resolve to not invite this imitating technological Ash into her life is swayed by her emotional states. At first, after his death, she refuses the idea because thinking of Ash is simply too much, but then as she discovers that she is pregnant she becomes vulnerable and caves to her emotions. She becomes attached to a digital Ash so much that she invest in a robotic life like one. However, once the robotic Ash comes into her life and the actuality of the situation becomes present we can see her emotions start to change as the magnitude of the situation she's put herself in has become evident and that's when a key question comes to mind for me:  How do we deal with acknowledging that sometimes we let out curiosity and our emotions have too much power? When do we acknowledge that we made the bitter realization that we were wrong too late? I think that those questions are the reason that Martha tried to kill the robot, and I think that those types of questions could be the reason why at the end of the episode she stood motionless at the bottom of the latter. Her moment of weakness, her moment of not yielding herself to control her emotions and let Ash go, landed her with a robotic problem that'll last forever.

Be Right Back

        In the short film "Be Right Back," the main characters, Martha and Ash, are a young couple. We can tell by the actions of Ash that he is really tech savvy. He relies heavily on technology throughout the beginning of the film. Martha even throws things at him in order to get his attention. When Ash went away on the business trip, I feel like he was probably texting and driving and that's how he got into an accident. When the police show up to break the bad news to Martha, she was devastated and became extremely depressed.
        In the long run, Martha soon discovers that she is pregnant. When she finds out, she remembers the app that one of her friends recommended to help her through the grieving process. The app allows her to talk to Ash and it even has his actual voice. When she talks to Ash she realizes how much she misses him and she wishes that there was some way that she could physically see him. That's how she discovers that there is a way for her to upgrade. When she finally meets the "new Ash" she later discovers that he is nothing like the real one. He doesn't really have any emotions, and he does things as he is demanded.  He is not a REAL PERSON! He couldn't show the type of feelings and emotions that the real Ash had. I think that she realized that you can't turn someone, or in this case something, into something that it's not.
        Finally, she has her daughter. Instead of telling her daughter who Ash really is, she keeps him locked up in the attic, and she allows her daughter to go up and visit him on the weekends. I think that this was the best way for her to grieve. She came to realize that the new Ash could never be the old one, and that she was going to have to cope with it.

The relationship between the uncanny valley and "Be Right Back"

Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror has a variety of ideas with the mindset of of invading one’s comfort zone by gradually easing the viewer into the episode; in “Be Right Back,” he manages to create this same level of gradual discomfort throughout the episode starting with the casual and uplifting introduction within the first ten minutes of the episode. After Ash’s death, his “revival” proves to be an important factor during Martha’s pregnancy. The artificial intelligence attempting to mimic Ash was realistic and proved to be advanced even with limited knowledge on Ash himself and how he interacted with his wife. The introduction of Ash as a tangible being, however, proved to be the downfall of Martha herself.

The relationship between the uncanny valley and “Be Right Back” is evident in Martha’s relationship to the recreation of Ash as an AI. Although “Be Right Back” was set in a time further than society today, its values remain true. Martha had indulged in the realization of how eerie the artificial can be. His mannerisms in his speech, how he presented himself to Martha, and even how they interacted with each other intimately differed greatly from the original Ash. The constant “Is this not something Ash would do?” further diminished her immersion and invoked a sense of a company attempting to get user feedback on its product. The principles of how one determines whether it is human or not is dependent on how one is able to relate with another being, whether it be living or artificial as a means of depicting the uncanny valley aspect of “Be Right Back.” In Martha’s case, she was not able to realize it until the supposed final stage: a material realization of Ash. She attempted to see it as a perfect recreation of Ash, and failed to do so as it progressed. In her comparison with the Artificial Ash and the original Ash, Martha fails in accepting the Artificial Ash and instead places him within her own uncanny valley which in turn does not bode well for either party, but it allows Martha to accept her grieving and move on past the incident of Ash’s death.

Be Right Back

In the Black Mirror episode "Be Right Back", the controversy of androids with built-in artificial intelligence is examined as it may be an issue in the near future. The episode revolves around Martha, whose boyfriend, Ash, has passed away in an accident. As she is grieving a friend of hers recommends signing up for a service to "assist" with the process. This service is an artificial intelligence that goes through the social media and text messages of a deceased person and learns their mannerisms in an attempt to imitate that person as if he or she was still alive. Martha is hesitant at first, but when she learns that she is pregnant, she gives in and begins to talk with the artificial intelligence. She then upgrades the service from just a voice on a phone to an android that resembles Ash almost perfectly. This is where her discomfort with the service begins because this is when the android begins to not imitate Ash very well; he responds in ways Ash wouldn't. For example when Martha argues with the android, the android does not argue back as Ash would. This proves that the android simply does not have the same emotional qualities as a real person does. The android only had a glimpse into Ash's personality through social media, but does not have information to the personal details of Ash, like the mole on his shoulder. The android can only come close to resembling a human being but cannot be a human being as the android also depended its actions and emotions on it's administrator, Martha. In the end, Martha lives life while hiding the android in the attic since she was not able to grieve properly.

"Be Right Back"/"Geminoid DK Mechanical Test"/The Uncanny Valley/The Turing Test:

This week at the expense of Professor Curtis, the class indulged into an eerie tale of not supernatural, but machine doings, which surfaced questions about what's to come with an AI future. The themes in mind were presented by an episode of Netflix series "Black Mirror" Season 2 pilot episode. In this viewing a woman, Martha, becomes involved with reanimating her deceased husband, Ash. To make matters worse, she discovers that she is pregnant with his child. Through an anonymous service, she orders a prototype android that takes his form and surface personality. But problems arise as Martha takes him, or more properly, it, too intimately. Aside from the hard-to-watch "horrors" of modern life, this series opens with a grotesque poke at thought, I'll give it that much. Aside from the obvious illegitimacy of such circumstances, the forces at play here are very real.

Just take one look at a science and technology news website like IEEE Spectrum, or MIT's Technology Review. It is easy to see how wrapped up we are with making what was once a fantasy, a reality. The principles of morality and humanity must work hand in hand with those of scientific method and technological innovation if we are to create a newer, better world.

I'm thinking about at what point can a computer become life? The earth itself, can be thought of as a computer. I think soon the philosophical questions of what makes something sentient, rational, and human will be revisited.

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Inspire and educate oneself

AI: the FAQs

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608911/is-ai-riding-a-one-trick-pony/

Cyborgs ethical?

https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/ethics/the-ethics-of-using-brain-implants-to-upgrade-yourself

Be Right Back

As technology advances we grow more and more uneasy. In "Black Mirror: Be Right Back" we see how technology could possibly effect us in the near future. The main characters of the film Martha and Ash are moving into their new house. You can immediately see how much Ash uses his cell phone and how oblivious to his surroundings. The next day Ash has to go out by himself but never returns. Ash most likely was being influenced by his phone will driving and had an accident. Martha is devastated and at the funeral a friend of hers wants to refer her to something that may help her move on.

The friend referred her to a program that takes all the desired persons traits to act as if he was still alive. Martha is skeptical at first but cant handle the pain and gives in. She begins to talk to it and it soon gets out of hand. She soon has a robot that looks exactly like Ash walking around the house. She enjoys it at first but it soon shows it cant completely replace Ash as an actual person.

"Be Right Back"

Watching the Black Mirror episode made me understand why some people may or may not want artificial intelligence. In the episode, the robot would pass the Turing test. Ash 2.0 would be able to pass as a human to one of us because we didn't have a close relationship with him, but to his administrator, Martha, he was nothing like the real Ash. Ash 2.0 walked and talked like a human being, but he didn't react based on emotions and this would eventually drive Martha to feel as if she was helpless or maybe even crazy. She expected him to be something that he was not.

When watching the video about Sophia Robot, it is uncanny to find out that she is the first robot to gain citizenship in Saudi Arabia. Over the years they have been cracking down on immigrants. It takes an immigrant about 6 months just to get a visa. Which is outrageous because actually, humans have to go through a process. Many women are also upset because the robot does not wear the traditional headwear. 

Artifical Intelligence today is in the uncanny valley because of inventions like Sarah Robot and many others. They will never be conscious beings, they may be able to pick up on certain social cues, habits, and hold a conversation, but they will never be human. Artifical intelligence will never be able to respond willingly, freely, or impulsively. 

Be Right Back

In “Black Mirror: Be Right Back,” Martha and Ash move into their new home and the following day, Ash dies in a traffic accident. Martha is left devastated. During the funeral, her friend informs her of a new service that allows people to communicate with their deceased family members by using information on the internet and common social media sites. At first, Martha rejects her suggestion but after finding out that she is pregnant, she decides to talk to “Ash.”  After talking to “Ash” for several days, she is informed that there is another “level” to the service; a robot that can be programmed to look and act like Ash. After purchasing and activating the robot, “Ash 2.0,” she notices that it does not act appropriately in some situations. For example, she points out that “Ash 2.0” is not aroused when touching her breasts. The real Ash would have been turned on by this action. It is only when she commands “Ash 2.0” to “turn on” that they proceed to have sex. Martha then grows frustrated with the robot as it is not human enough and places it in the attic.
Although Martha was not in a state to make the right decision, by interacting with “Ash 2.0” she hinders the process of forgetting Ash. Instead of letting her emotions dictate her actions, she should’ve coped with the situation on her own (without the use of the program). Also, there is one scene that brings into question the safety of such technology. After Martha becomes upset that “Ash 2.0” will never be like the real Ash, she orders the robot to leave her house. “Ash 2.0” is stopped and Martha tells him to hit her. Such technology must be programmed to protect humans and follow orders that do not harm the owner.

"Be Right Back"

          As we enter into a discussion about how advancing technology can be used to help us in not only our physical aspects of our life but our mental and emotional aspects as well. However, these aspects can lead to more morally questionable circumstances such as the one presented in the short movie “Be Right Back” in which a young woman who loses her husband becomes attached to a robotic manifestation of him. Throughout the movie, we see the progression of wonder to excitement to disgust at him and herself. While it is normal for her to be experiencing a strong sense of loss and desperation right after his death, this is sensations is sharpened infinitely once she discovers that she is pregnant with his child. If this had not happened, then perhaps she would have been able to cope.
Her attachment begins with just having conversations with a voice that has the same tone and mannerisms that her late husband, Ash, had. The voice can pick up and learn new phrases. This kind of technology is not unbelievable considering we have such services in our society today in the form of Alexa or at home Google services. They can speak to us and recognize our voices and faces. They can pick up on new bits of information like when we leave the house, who we live with, and our daily habits. However, where her attachment stop being as believable is when she brings a robot that embodies Ash’s appearances and some of his personality. At once, she is no longer as comfortable around him as she was with the voice that she was speaking to earlier. She ends up having sex with him but there is no emotion involved. He has no natural thoughts or actions; all of them are calculated and automated and she quickly begins to realize this. It is no longer enough for her because it is not enough of Ash.
          When she can no longer stand his presence, she tries to make him jump of a cliff. When he almost does it without any kind of argument, she tells him that the real Ash would have fought and been terrified and like a switch, he was begging her for his life. In this instance, a robot was able to manipulate her into doing what he wanted even though that is what she wanted from him. This is dangerous because “robots” and other technology is designed to be helpful and make life easier. This robot, instead, seemed to take control over her life which calls into question the morality of her relationship with robotic Ash.

Video from Wednsday

 The black mirror video we watched on Wednsday about Martha and her husband was peculiar in a fascinating way. It was like watching the future and a vague similarity to technicality today. Morally wise, the video was very frustrating. We all experience death throughout our life, some of us being more emotional, don’t know how to handle it. In this case, Martha didn’t know how to handle ash’s death very well, which led her to take consequential decisions. I believe that her pregnancy had a huge role in her desision making. Her hormones made her more emotional and susceptible to the idea of being able to talk to him. I know this from personal experience. He died before she knew that she was pregnant. This made her want to tell him, even thought telling him meant telling a robot. It’s not sinister in a gostly way, but it’s sinister in the idea of how realistic the robot sounds and how human like the robot is. She was way more attached to the voice than the robot though. It was obvious that she felt like it was really him when she talked on the phone, unlike the robot she bought. If those robots were to exist today, I think many people would not be mentally healthy. The robots are easy to manipulate, they do whatever the owner wants them to. Ash’s robot clone refused to hit Martha when she yelled at him to, but whose to say that it won’t listen to a man. Maybe he refused to hit her because she was a woman, and he was a “ man.” If it were to be told to hurt someone or a crowd of people, it might listen. This would lead to an increase of terrorism around the world. The creation of these robots would be detrimental to society as a whole, not just a single persons health. Martha was in a way attached to the robot, and she didn’t want to get rid of it because she would feel as though she was killing ash or loosing him all over again. That would be the reason she kept him hidden in her attic for years and even let their child interact with him.

The uncanny valley

     During class this last Monday, we started the discussion about the "uncanny valley" and covered several examples as well. Firstly, the uncanny valley is described as an uncomfortable feeling that one gets when something (such as a robot) resembles a human being but is not close enough to fully pass as one. Such an example would be the robots in the videos shown in class, which looked fairly human, but their actions and motions were easily labeled as robotic. Another example would be Toshiba's Aiko Chihira, an android given the job of being a receptionist in a department store in Tokyo. In Aiko's case, several customers of the department store admitted that they believed she was human when they first saw her, but that is not the case for most of the humanoid androids out there. As seen in the graph in class, with the x-axis ranging from no resemblance to humans to complete resemblance and the y-axis going from being disliked to being liked, there lies in a dip at around the 80% mark on human resemblance. This gray area of things being human-like but distant enough from it is where the uncanny valley phenomenon occurs. Things that fall into the category of the uncanny valley are usually very unsettling, such as the video of the singing android, Tara, in "I feel fantastic".
     From this discussion of humanoid androids, we stemmed into talking about the Turing Test; a test which proposes that if someone can not tell if a robot is human when interacting with it, then it should be treated as human. For most of the examples given in class, none of the androids would have passed the Turing Test. However, technology is getting closer and closer to producing androids that could potentially be confused for being human, and therefore pass the Turing Test. Media and television shows have featured plots thats revolve around the uncanny valley phenomenon, like in the movie Ex Machina, or the episode of Black Mirror shown in class on Wednesday, "Be Right Back". Big steps have already been made in incorporating androids into society. A prime example being Sophia, an android manufactured by Hanson Robotics, who is the first robot to be given a citizenship.
     As scientists and engineers continue to work on moving away from the uncanny valley, the more progress is made and the more frequent these advanced, humanoid robots are found in our society. We could potentially be moving toward a future where androids are as commonplace as our smartphones, but with citizenships and rights of their own.

Aiko Chihira
"I feel fantastic"

In the episode "Black Mirror: Be Right Back", the two lovers , Ash and Martha, moves into a house together. Ash leaves to do something while Martha stayed at the house finishing her work. She calls him but he never answered and soon finds out that Ash died. She is greatly upset by his death and her friend tries to tell her about a new service that'll let her talk to her deceased boyfriend. She didn't want to do it but her friend signs her up anyway saying that it will help her feel better. She wasn't going to use the program to talk to him until she found out that she was pregnant. She wanted to tell him that so she started talking to him through this program and Ash tells her about a better way to help her. She agrees and ended up receiving a robot that she activated in the tub and it looked exactly like her late lover. She was happy at first but started noticing the differences between the robot Ash and the human Ash. She started getting frustrated with the robot Ash because although he looked like human Ash, he showed barely any emotion and doesn't act exactly like the Ash she knew. As time flew by, Martha's daughter grew and the robot Ash now lives in the attic but Martha doesn't seem happy for him to be there constantly reminding her of her late boyfriend. On the other hand, Robots like Ash 2.0 resembles a human quite well and can learn things like an human. Although robots like Ash 2.0 needs help learning, they shouldn't be treated differently from other humans.

 
    Before I go in-depth about the advanced mechanics which is referred as the “robot”, let me just give an analysis of “Black Mirror: Be Right Back”  The characters Martha and Ash are deeply in love with each other and move in together to a house in the countryside. On the next morning, Ash drives the van they hired for the relocation back to the rental, but he has an accident and dies. During the funeral, Martha's friend Sarah tells her about a service to help grieving people to recover, creating a virtual Ash to communicate with her from the information available in social networks and Internet. Martha cries to Sarah and does not accept the idea. However, Sarah subscribes Martha to the service and she receives and e-mail from Ash and has an argument with Sarah. A few days later, Martha learns that she is pregnant and she does not succeed in contacting her sister Naomi. She responds Ash's e-mail and they start a relationship through e-mail first and through cell phone later. One day, Ash offers an experimental and expensive service to Martha and she receives a synthetic body identical to Ash. When Martha activates the clone, she finds an identical Ash and they have sex. This episode brings light to the recognition of robots. For starters, humans and robots do not function similarly. Humans take in information and emotions using a brain and bodily functions but the same cannot be said about robots. They do not contain the bodily functions that helps it function the way humans do. One thing I can say is that the robot (Ash 2.0) was a good imitator. With that being said, robots like Ash 2.0 shouldn't be denied their humanity.