If it weren't for some more specific setting, humans would often lose sight of their own understanding of love and death.
Science fiction and futuristic themes are inherently grounded in explaining who I am, where I came from, and where I'm going. In the ultimate human question, extreme settings often give us a deeper look at our emotions and lives:
Blade Runner, She, Warm Inner Light, Interstellar, My Robot Girlfriend... These science fiction works make the objects of love machined, virtualized, programmed, and asked everyone with the special love of man and machine: Will these technologies and artificial intelligence really change the way we fall in love and interact? Can ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Replace Human Emotional Relationships? What is the most important thing in love, and what do we most want to pursue in love?
"Centennial Law" is a science fiction novel written by Yamada Soki yamada in Japan, in which every Japanese person is vaccinated with a non-aging vaccine, which keeps the body in its 20s forever. This should be a vibrant and youthful society, and the result is only to maintain the superficial youth, in fact, the aging mentality of the whole society drags down the economic development and the society stagnates. In the face of eternal life, life becomes meaningless, and life is boring because it has no end— such works depict scenes that human beings have always longed for, and then raise more critical questions: Will people continue to live under the premise of eternal life or will they calmly accept a time-bound death? Calmly go to death, or are you willing to be a skin bag? What is the most important thing for life, and how to live is to live a valuable life? Do we need longer lives?
But these issues may no longer be discussed at the level of film and literature, they are becoming the real choices and controversies facing human beings in the era of rapid technological development. Tencent News's special documentary "Before Tomorrow" goes deep into it, together with the host Zeng Baoyi, spending a year to talk to the frontier population of nearly 20 countries and regions in the world, discussing how human beings can get along with new relationships and new worlds in the face of technological changes, and using four topics "whether artificial intelligence can become a human companion", "Should human beings pursue eternal life", "Border and refugee issues", and "the right to say goodbye", the ultimate issue of human "love and death" is discussed in a more extreme context.
The first issue of "Before Tomorrow" interviewed several people who were already living with robot companions in real life:
Veteran user David fell in love with his doll at first sight and is actually married to her, and he believes that in the future robot companions will be accepted by more and more people, which is nothing more than a way of life.
David once pursued his lover in real life and met a "scumbag", sincere love did not get a sincere response, and the artificial lover instead made him feel that he could "faithfully reflect the love you give", he could embrace more positive and happy love because of the doll, and live in a better fictional world of his own. For David, he has got the love he wants from the machine lover, and has the beauty that love can give him.
Simon, a man who lives on Jersey, loves his silicone doll even more openly, and he often hangs around with his robot companion, and the people on the island have long been surprised.
But opposition has been heard since the concept of robot companions, and Catherine Charleson, a professor of robotics and artificial intelligence ethics interviewed by Zeng Baoyi, believes that "the emergence of robot companions will completely objectify women and even dehumanize humans." ”
She believes that it is very important to build relationships with real people, and the emergence of robot companions will no longer encourage human interaction, which will put humans in crisis.
Wu Xiaopiao, a Chinese sex toy evaluator and intimate relationship psychologist, also believes that interaction with humans is very necessary: "Forming a partnership with robots will only make people in a safe zone forever, and falling in love with real people, conflicting will make people discover their own weaknesses and traumas, and achieve real growth by perfecting weaknesses." ”
But De Vilavi, who has been working on artificial intelligence since the 1960s and has successfully predicted changes in the field, believes that humans will eventually develop emotions with robots, whether encouraged or not:
De Vilavi mentioned Matt. McMullen, the company he founded, Abyss Creation, built in addition to the world's first truly artificial intelligence sex robot , Harmony.
Harmony highly simulates the anatomy of the human body and uses techniques such as voice and facial recognition, she will smile and frown, she will remember your characteristics, dietary preferences, and even the names of your family, she will remember the troubles you confide in the last time she talked to you, she will talk to you about music, movies and books, and through continuous dialogue, she will gradually know more about you, understand and respond to you. It can be said that although the gradually evolving Harmony still looks more like a doll now, it is entirely possible that in the future it will be possible to realize all your imaginations of the best partner.
But if this robot is in front of you, would you want to fall in love or live with her?
In front of robots, we may be more unable to see the definition of love, what exactly is in love we love? Ta's company? Ta's personality? Or is it our commitment to ta?
If a robot satisfies all your imaginations about appearance, personality, and talent, can the robot make you fall in love with him at first sight? If in love, what you need is communication and companionship, then there is a robot that fully understands your behavior habits, understands your preferences, and knows how to communicate with you, then do you feel that being with him is the most comfortable, and you want to spend the rest of your life with him...
Perhaps looking back and thinking about it, David is a sober person in love, and he may have woken up to the nihilism of human feelings more quickly - human love is more of a cognition of the self and the relationship with the self, "how a person's relationship with himself, what kind of dilemma he has inside, what kind of heart knots are bound, all of them will be exposed, projected in his interpersonal relationships, projected on interpersonal objects" (quoted from: "Dear, there is no one else in the computer, only yourself" Kuang Kuang). What is more needed in love is not to find a suitable person, but to find a way to live in harmony with yourself. For David, his doll was the relationship he had built that suited him best.
What kind of love you need, such a difficult question, perhaps you can also look at it by imagining having a robot: what you really want from love.
In addition to how to face your own love, the future or there is another question that will be in front of us: if your friend falls in love with a robot, how will you face his emotions, will you choose to support this different love, or discourage it?
In HER, when Theodore's ex-wife Catherine learns that he is in love with an artificial intelligence system, his first reaction is to feel that Theodore is running away, and sarcastically say, "Theodore, can't you even cope with real people's feelings?" ”
△ Screenshot from the movie "Her"
How do we react to people whose values are different from our own, or who choose different things, and to different forms of love?
Human beings have always had very complex emotions when dealing with people of different races or groups of different values. "How do you live with a different group of yourself? How do you face values that are different from your own? How do you deal with people who make different choices from you? This question is discussed in the third episode of "Close Neighbors? Close enemies? It is also deeply explored with the different attitudes of different people towards refugees.
In the face of smuggled refugees, some Americans are armed with guns, and some are trying their best to provide assistance, but they all have their own beliefs and persistent truths - whether it is to protect their homeland, or to believe that refugees themselves are not guilty and innocent, we cannot make up our minds to distinguish who is right and who is wrong.
But ultimately, we want the planet we live on to be an inclusive and open planet. Even if there is pain and adaptation in the process of tearing down the boundaries between hearts and minds, we can eventually tear down the barriers and recognize each other's existence. We are different, but we can live in the same world.
On the topic of life and death, "Before Tomorrow" also places this topic in two extreme situations. Talk about life in terms of immortality, and talk about death in terms of euthanasia of self-chosen death.
In the second episode of the "Before Tomorrow" documentary series, Zeng Baoyi visited the RAAD Festival (American Immortality Conference) held in 2018, as if to push open the door to the other world. The organizers and most of the participants were a group of people known as "radical life-extenders." They strive to conquer aging, dream of immortality, and discuss together the possibility of technology bringing immortality to life.
In addition to the venue, the exhibition hall outside the venue also made Zeng Baoyi stunned, and there are medical instruments that combine traditional Chinese medicine and say that they can increase "essence":
There is a "vampire"-style" therapy that draws plasma from the body of young people aged 15-25 and then injects it into the body of the elderly:
Zeng Baoyi also visited an institution specializing in the preservation of liquid nitrogen human storage warehouses. The bodies of 3-year-old children are preserved here, as well as the remains of dying patients and the elderly. In this way, people hope to free their loved ones from the control of death.
Some people choose eternal life and rebirth, while others choose to say goodbye and leave.
In the final issue of "Before Tomorrow", Zeng Baoyi witnessed a pre-publicized death plan by Australian scientist David Goodall in Switzerland – using euthanasia to say goodbye to the world.
Unlike the general unbearable illness and forced to choose euthanasia, Goodall did not have a terminal illness, clear thinking, a large number of children and grandchildren, and achieved fame.
At the press conference, David Goodall said: "I am very happy to end my life tomorrow."
He believes that being alive is no longer a pleasure, but a responsibility.
In Blade Runner, in order to control the replicants who work for humans, humans set the life of replicants at 4 years. In order to gain a few more years of life, the replicants in the film venture back to Earth to find the creator of the replicants in the hope of continuing life. However, in the end, the replicant Roy is still hunted down and killed, and before dying, Roy says the most moving line in the movie:
What I have seen, you humans absolutely cannot believe.
I witnessed battleships burning on fire along the end of the constellation Orion,
I watched the C-rays shine in the darkness near don's Gate,
All these moments will eventually be lost in time, just like tears disappearing in the rain.
The time of death has come.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near Tanhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
This line speaks to Roy's understanding of life. He believes that the brilliance of life is not in the length, but in what has been experienced.
4 years may be really too short, but is 100 years long enough? Or is 200 years long enough? If there is no such beautiful and brilliant moment, what is the significance of 100 years, 200 years? The strength of life may not lie in the length but in what is experienced and experienced, and if it is really continued, "What is the long life time used for?" After eternal life, what everyone pursues in the world, what they create, and how to get along with the world" is a more difficult issue.
What is love and what is the ultimate meaning of life?
These questions, "Before Tomorrow" did not answer positively.
Perhaps, humans themselves have no ultimate answer to love and death—whether we are dealing with robots or humans, whether we choose a hundred-year lifespan or immortality.
But no matter what our answer is, what cannot be stopped is that the unstoppable development of science and technology is gradually bringing all these seemingly distant questions to the public, and everyone must have their own choices and answers to such ultimate questions.
As Zhu Lingqing, a producer of Tencent News, said: "It is very difficult to predict the future with "Before Tomorrow", but through this documentary, we can let the audience know the multiple possibilities of the future from now on, think about how to deal with it, and then pay attention to the development of these things, and when we feel that things are about to go astray, contribute our own strength, which is our original intention of making this film." ”
Just like the brand concept "Vision is Life" produced by Tencent News, what is important may not be what the real future is, but what is most important to open your eyes, get more life references, and inspire users to re-examine the relationship between themselves and the world through discussion and thinking.
Zeng Baoyi sighed after the end of the program recording:
"What is love? What is sex? What are boundaries? Who drew the invisible line in my heart, who is qualified to determine what is normal and what is abnormal? It's a question I keep asking myself over and over again along the way, and maybe it won't have the "right" answer that is universal, but I know that the values I choose will eventually shape "my" world. ”
What about you? How do you see the world before tomorrow comes?
(Image from screenshot of "Before Tomorrow" and screenshot of the movie "Her")
Author: Ah Jin
WeChat Editor/Design Typography: Ah Jin