Final

G.E. Genuine Empathy

The greatest gap separating human intelligence from artificial intelligence is fluidity and expression of thought. Computers can do what they are built to do and named for doing. They can compute large sums of information at a rate a human brain could never do. However, computing information at lightning fast speeds and reporting on that information in the most concise and correct way is not very human at all. When communicating, humans ramble, make a dozen errors, get reminded of something else, and get distracted by their emotions or other motives. The Most Human Human examines a multitude of differences that separate artificial intelligence-type computers and humans in a conversational setting.

The most difficult part of creating artificial intelligence that recreates human intelligence will be creating a program that is self interested and is able to navigate and weigh the importance of underlying thoughts and desires while collecting information from it’s environment and applying it to the A.I.’s worldly pursuits. Mimicking these desires and motives would not be difficult considering a computer can be programmed to express that it wants or desires a worldly thing or feels a human emotion. However, getting a computer to truly desire to procreate or form an intimate relationship with another being is a much more difficult task.

Relationships are built on the ability of two beings to relate to each other and share common goals and desires. In many cases, the two beings of the relationship pursue their mutual desires together. If we ever succeed in creating artificial intelligence, our greatest challenge would be creating something that we can relate to and that can relate to us, thus forming a relationship. On the other hand, if we create an A.I. with a sense of self and personal ambitions that we can relate to but cannot relate to us, then we did not create artificial human intelligence; we created a highly intelligent sociopathic machine. Sociopaths are distinguished by their inability to experience human emotions and feel empathy toward others. This inability to empathize does not stop sociopathic humans from mimicking human emotions for the purpose of gaining trust, capital, and influence for accomplishing their personal pursuits. Simply because an A.I. program can respond with astutely fabricated reflections of human emotion, does not mean that it can experience and empathize with those emotions or desires. A highly intelligent being without empathy is dangerous. Empathy is what makes humans human.

Fake Smile

The idea of fabricating an artificial personal reality to replace a more bleak reality is not uncommon today.  People enter into catfish-type relationships with reckless abandonment to mend the wounds of loneliness. Although it feels real and roughly fills a missing piece of your life, falling in love in the context of a catfish relationship or embracing the more futuristic refurbished personalities and bodies of the deceased is equivalent to chasing a mirage. It looks real and it feels real, but it’s a reflection of the truth. In the case of Ash’s resurrection from the dead in Black Mirror’s “Be right Back,” Ash is not same after he returns. He is a collection of memories and letters, not a working growing biological being.

John Locke’s Of Identity and Diversity claims that reality and identity are built around the ability to see something in different places at a different time with a cohesive natur. Ash in his return serves as an elaborate photograph of Ash, not a recreation. Locke also writes on the substance of a spirit and defines it as, “having had each its determinate time and place of beginning to exist, the relation to that time and place will always determine to each of them its identity, as long as it exists.” The piece that Ash’s doppelganger is missing is the slope of growth and development that Ash had as a human. His replication in terms of his growth and development is a plateau version of himself. This is frustrating, because the mother of his unborn child cannot grow in love with a plateau. She can only maintain the their relationship in a stagnant state, indefinitely.  

Life gains its value from being a colorful and elaborate experience encapsulated by a finite amount of time. Enjoyment and value does not come from an indefinite experience. Many of the moments that are most cherished by people include experiences they know they may never experience again. They enjoy the moment because it is finite, because it is all they are given. The pain of loss is brutal, but mending deep emotional wounds with false hope is more detrimental to the mourning process than it is beneficial. Ash should have been left to rest and cherished, rather than duplicated into a pseudo-phoenix with a fake smile.