"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.

-

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

It's a Robot so It Doesn't Know

The series, Black Mirror, has an episode titled, "Be Right Back." In the episode, a woman's, Martha, significant other, Ash, goes out and never comes back because he dies. At the funeral, one of Martha's acquaintances tells her about this program that allows you to communicate with a lost loved one. She uses it only to tell Ash that she is pregnant, but it ends up going as far as her creating a version of Ash that you can touch, feel, and talk to, but he's not a human because he's a robot.

The way Martha was able to talk to "Ash" was through email or text, then it moved up to a phone call, then she was able to allow it to see what she saw, then she received a robot. How the robot got to be Ash was first the company that provides the service gains access to all of Ash's social media and they developed a system, so the robot could talk like Ash. Every level of communication means the more information Martha had to send to Robot Ash so it could act as much like real Ash as possible.

No matter how much information she gave it, she couldn't give it Ash's brain and conscious so there would still be some things it would do that Ash would not do. Like when she told Robot Ash to get out and it did, Real Ash would not just get out and do what she says Real Ash would stand up for himself. Even once it left, Robot Ash couldn't go a certain number of meters away from the activation site without his administrator.

The whole idea of having a robot is dangerous. You don’t know what the robot is capable of. In the episode, Robot Ash could switch everything on and off--everything and not feel anything. He doesn’t feel any emotions. I guess that isn’t weird because he is a robot and not a human, but I guess there isn’t anything wrong with it, so it can remind you that it is not the person you are trying to make it be. However, there could be a glitch or a "glitch" in the system and it could turn on you at any moment; because it's not a human and it doesn't have a heart and it doesn't feel emotions it wouldn't feel any remorse about it.

The Hindrance of Artificial Intelligence

In the episode of Black Mirrors titled "Be Right Back," it brings to light the invention of artificial intelligence. In a futuristic world, yet a very plausible future, a woman, Martha, loses her boyfriend, Ash, to a fatal car accident. At the funeral, Martha learns from a friend that she can still communicate with Ash even though he is dead. She eventually finds out that she is pregnant and decides to take part in the program to communicate with Ash. Martha progresses to the next level of the program which, in a way, brings Ash back to life through the embodiment of all digital traces left of him into a robot that looks like him.

This image serves as an example of the robots' resemblance to humanity.

           I believe that the first mistake made in the creation of the robot that mirrored Ash's appearance and calculates his words/actions is the assumption that you can recreate a person based solely on their digital footprint. We, as humans, tend to not be exactly like our social media selves. There was a strong possibility that the Ash that was created from the digital footprint could, in essence, not have been Ash at all. Martha could have gotten a completely different person than she intended. She could have found herself in a home alone with creation that was entirely foreign to her.

           I also think that artificial intelligence is a very dangerous thing. I don't find it dangerous because it's a human look-alike that's machine, or because of the strength the robot can be given, or because of its wide-ranged ability to gather information. The part that is alarming to me is a creation that reflects the image of a human that is capable of portraying emotions at the control of its own will. The manipulation of emotions in that sense makes it easy to manipulate born humans, which is dangerous if such robots are to interact with humans in the real world without their knowledge.

           In conclusion, I believe artificial intelligence is a revolutionary creation and represents an exponential development in how far humans have come with technology; however, it is dangerous and requires strict controlling to avoid corruption, misuse, and the manipulation of the human race as a whole.