Extending Life
When watching the “Be Right Back” episode of Black Mirror, it brought me back to my initial reading of 17776. This episode made me wonder if sometime in the future, human life/the appearance of it could be able to be extended. In this episode, it was almost like Ash’s soul carried on living through the AI body. This is so as Martha found a sense of twisted comfort with him. In addition, Ash was able to still use his words (from the internet) to speak as he would’ve. After our in class discussion, I went back to my dorm and reviewed the notes I wrote down for 17776 which reminded me of my questions I wrote for this Black Mirror episode.
One quote that I noted from 17776 was that “even if life is forever, each moment of it is a miracle.” I believe this is seen through the Black Mirror episode as it is a technological miracle, or just a super advanced creation, that what Ash left behind was able to control an AI body. This is hinted at throughout the episode with how amazed Martha is that the bot looks and speaks like Ash almost exactly. Ignoring the human features like needing to breathe or blink that he lacks. Another quote that I highlighted from 17776 was “the end of the world is immortality.” When the episode of Black Mirror ended, I asked myself if Martha is almost now a bot herself. I felt that if she needed this robotic Ash to carry on after all these years, that she has to have lost humanity within herself. I feel that this loss of reality is shown when she is about to go upstairs into the attic and the wall panel that she painted over (showing Ash’s height markings) was no longer painted over for a few moments. This instance showed me that she is stuck in the past and in a way, immortal but still living.
I feel that “Be Right Back” episode of Black Mirror connects to the themes in 17776 greatly. As seen in 17776, people continue living because they have no other choice. In “Be Right Back” the Ash robot continues to be present because he hasn’t been deactivated or destroyed. In addition, this episode made me wonder if the company responsible for the AI Ash has a way for the bots to be deactivated. It seems likely that they give the consumer no information on what to do to get rid of it as they want it to stay “alive” and for those grieving to never disconnect with it. What do you think?