Summary Of The Movie 'Her'

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As the years have gone by, humans have become more and more in-tune with having technology around them. There are cellphones with SIRI, Paro the Robo-Seal, televisions that flip through channels on command, and smart cars that drive themselves. This kind of technology where humans can interact with and speak to an artificial intelligence is becoming ever so common in today’s world. However, no matter how much humans enjoy talking to their smartphone or fawning over the adorable Paro, this kind of interaction is not a human-human basis of comfort. AI should not be developed to form human-machine relationships because it is does not show true physical human affection and, at the end of the day, it does not provide people with their need for emotion …show more content…
Emotion is an intuitive thing for us, for machines it is not. In the movie “Her”, directed by Spike Jonze and staring Joaquin Phoenix, there is an almost prophetic sense of how the future will be as technology continues to grow. Theodore, the main character, is melancholic and sensitive and has become somewhat withdrawn since his separation from his wife, Catherine. Nevertheless, he invests in a computer software system called OS, and meets the operating intelligence who calls herself Samantha. She is designed to adapt and evolve over time and Theodore becomes fascinated by her ability to grow at such an astounding speed. The two bond over discussions on love, life, and everything in between. Theodore is quickly charmed by Samantha’s ability handle hundreds of tasks and still be available to him. She proves herself to be interested, curious, supportive, encouraging, and demands nothing from him. He begins to treat her as a social being rather than an Artificial Intelligence. This simply adds to the guess that our “social responses to them will change” (Speigel 3) and “Her” is a perfect example of this prediction. Still, however, there is the fact this is not a human-human bond; this is still just a man and his …show more content…
At this time, Theodore becomes visibly more happy and assured and his job writing love-letters is affected positively. But, we slowly come to see that there is one integral part missing from their bond: touch. It also proves the study of Stanford professor Clifford Nass when he said that “when given the slightest hint that something is even vaguely social, or vaguely human — in this case, it was just answering questions; it didn't have a face on the screen, it didn't have a voice — but given the slightest hint of humanness, people will respond with an enormous array of social responses including, in this case, reciprocating and retaliating” (Speigel 2). Catherine, the separated wife of Theodore, accuses him of being unable to cope with emotions. It becomes clear to both Samantha and Theodore that their lack of physicality has begun to put a strain on their connection. Seeking to remedy this problem, Samantha suggests that they use a girl who will simulate Samantha but Catherine’s accusations still haunt Theodore and the plan fails in the