Tag: Blog

Embodied Virtuality

The separation of body and mind is shown between embodied virtuality. A perspective that human bodies or forms are controlled by electronic minds. The main way to view this concept is from the term posthuman. Hayles defines posthumans as, “a common theme of union of the human with the intelligent machine” (Hayles 2). It is essentially the way physical bodies combine with computer minds.

Body and mind are clearly separated, mainly seen in Black Mirror, where a synthetic body was recreated to look exactly like a person who had died. The body was exactly the same, but the mind was clearly not the same. A person’s mind is not solely based on the social media that they post or what they have on electronics. People have more emotions and thoughts that they do not portray on the internet. The view of the posthuman shows that computers can have the same functionality of humans. Posthuman views say, “There are no essential differences or absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation…” (Hayles 3). It shows that computers can appear to be human without any notice, however, computers may be able to look like humans in the form of cyborgs or androids but it is impossible to create a conscious being from a computer. Computer programs are restricted to how they can process things, for example, in Black Mirror, Ash was recreated but his mind was recreated from things that he had online, he didn’t have any of the true human emotions or free will that normal humans have, even though he looked exactly the same.

Although computers have become more complex in their ability to mimic human brains, it is impossible to recreate human minds. Posthuman perspective is limited to the way machines try to become humans. Machines are not to the point where they can copy human emotions and understand human interactions. They also are limited to their programming because they do not have the free will, which is an essential part of the human mind. Human minds are too complex to be recreated, mainly because they are developed differently from each person.

Android emotions

In Chapter 17 after Rick and Rachael went to bed together, Rachael shared her thoughts with Rick the next morning. She said, “We androids can’t control our physical, sensual passions. You probably knew that; in my opinion you took advantage of me,” (Dick, 197). However, as the chapter will explain Rachael did not seem angry at all. On the contrary, she appeared to be cheerful and it closely resembled the happiness that would emanate from another human. Also, I found Rachael’s statement of how she commented on how sad Rick looked as he thought about how he will stop being a bounty hunter after the Battys.

Both when she shared her opinion of how she was taken advantage of and how she picked up on Rick’s emotions, it closely resembled how a human would react to both situations. My question is that can Rachael’s ability to understand Rick’s expressions and emotions so well be a sign that androids to a certain degree, may empathize with others? Or can Rachel’s understanding simply be labeled as mere intuition or something of that sort and nothing more?