Be Right Back : Humans, Artificial Intelligence and Dasein in Black Mirror

Abstract

The present article aims to analyze the relationship between the human being and artificial intelligence through the episode Be Right Back of the dystopic television show Black Mirror, currently exhibited by Netflix. For this discussion we will bring forth the contrasts between the thoughts of Martin Heidegger about Dasein and human nature, and studies derived from the perspectives of Alan Turing about artificial intelligence and humanity, besides the visions of post-humanism and transhumanism, as well as their implications in the relationships between human beings. It is also an objective to discuss the presence of otherness in an artificial intelligence. Hence, it is asked in this article how it is possible to understand the otherness found between Martha, the protagonist of the episode, and an Artificial Intelligence which is created with the function of substituting her dead fiance, Ash. For this study we will part from assumptions on the question of technique found in Heidegger’s conception of Dasein and Being, opposed to the technique worldview as a way of being that rules post-modern thought.