Lecture 13: Affective Machines: Her and the Question of Real Connection

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:17]Hello everyone. I welcome you all in the 13th lecture of the course understanding AI through literature and popular culture. I am Dr. Amar Singh. I am assistant professor in English at MMB in Banaras Hindu University.

[00:00:34]Now in this particular lecture we'll cover certain objectives. First we will continue from our previous lecture on headphones to see how a film her emphasizes the notion of technology as a companion.

[00:00:50]Next we will see how gadgets such as earphones and operating systems can be used to express and experience emotions.

[00:01:02]Then next we'll also discuss how virtual and real connections overlap and how virtual connections can sometimes feel just as authentic as physical ones.

[00:01:18]So this particular film her that we are about to discuss it came in 2013.

[00:01:24]It was directed by Spike Zones. Uh, and it tells the story of a man who falls in love with his computer's operating system.

[00:01:35]The fact that her managed to bring a non-human actor to the forefront is a triumphant achievement. We do not watch many films. We do not get to see many films where a nonhuman actor is given prominence and that to say we can watch films that deals with animals but mainly it does not happen that we get to see nowadays such films have started to come where technology is playing important part but here an operating system has been made an important character pivotal character uh as that of the protagonist uh Theodore Samantha, an operating system named OS1, captivates Theodore, the systems purchaser, with her sense of humor and caring attitude. In the course of conversing continuously with thousands of buyers simultaneously, Samantha falls in love with 641 of them, which is heartbreaking for Theodore since Samantha is not solely his. Now this is a tactful play uh in the era of consumerism where companies they basically sell you this idea this dream that the things that you are purchasing uh are basically catered to your needs and are designed and tailored uh to to match your frequency. So at times it happens that people they get uh too much associated and emotionally connected with the objects that they buy. Uh in this case in the film uh we see that the protagonist Theodore he gets u in love with the operating system because the he believes that the operating system is able to understand Samantha is able to reciprocate the kind of love that he has always like or he had always sought for.

[00:03:30]Uh but the moment he realizes that Samantha is not solely his but is also used by many other consumers and out of which she's professing love for 641 of them it becomes a heartbreaking situation for him.

[00:03:48]Now in contrast to the headset in the fantastic planet something that we discussed in the previous lectures the earpiece used in this film serves as a bridge between Theodore and Samantha. So in the previous lectures we saw how a device like headphone with its uh semispherical orpherical shape it gives us the sense that uh it symbolizes knowledge itself. It becomes or to humans it becomes knowledge itself. But in this film such is not the case. In this film it is basically a conduit a vessel through which uh Theodore is getting connected with the operating system. Uh so the earphone or the headset in this film uh is not acting out as the knowledge itself. Instead it is acting as a bridge.

[00:04:38]In some ways the film plays on both fantasies about cyborgs. There is a vision of absolute grid control which is similar to the tower of babel in which everything regardless of its diversity is controlled by a central authority and add in addition it envisions an environment in which people do not fear the concept of joint kinship with machines. So if you remember the lecture on cyborg related to Donna Haroway we discussed about how cyborg is basically the idea of cyborg is basically presented in two terms in masculine terms and in feminine terms. So in masculine terms there is this absolute uh grid control idea goes where everything can be managed and controlled much like in the star boss sense uh you know from a center. Uh here the idea of tower of babel is presented.

[00:05:35]Uh as the story goes that people uh they decided that they will create a tower whose height will reach to the heavens.

[00:05:43]So when they started erecting the tower uh the god of universe Yahweh he became enraged because people never sorted his uh opinion uh neither they asked for the permission. So uh he became angry and he went ahead and he wrote Babel on the tower. So people started sort of understanding different interpretations bringing different interpretations of the term Babel and uh uh finally the whole project was dismantled. It stopped uh and uh the tower didn't get erect. So uh this whole idea of cyborg uh when seen through the masculine terms it again brings back this idea of having a grid control to have one unified sense of power and knowledge uh you know through which everything else can be managed. But on the other side, if we see through the feminine aspect, through the feminine lens, it also presents the idea of joint kinship, which we are able to see in this film where humans are not different from machines, but they consider machines to be a part of an integral part of their own life. So, a joint kinship with machines. According to Helmouth Plesner, a German philosophical anthropologist, a body can exist in two distinct modes. First is the lived body and the second one is the physical body. Now to uh clarify what this idea is about uh I would just digress here a bit and discuss about uh the play Dr. Fosters. Uh if you people have read the play you know uh what happens uh there that there is a person named Dr. Fosters and I'm discussing not Guyote's play but Christopher Malo's play here. So what happens in the play that there is a person a scholar named Dr. Fosters, John Fosters and um he he's not satiated with the knowledge that he's having. He wants to know everything. So what he does that he starts practicing black magic and he basically gives up his soul to the devil and he asks for 24 years of service of Mephestophellis after which his soul can be taken by uh by the devil. So throughout the play what happens? We see him going through a range of emotions where at one moment he feels despair that he has done wrong and he shouldn't have given his soul to the devil and he uh seeks for forgiveness from God. On the other side then we see that uh suddenly he changes his mood changes and he starts enjoying the life again and metofellowis enters and distracts him with all sorts of uh wealth glory fame.

[00:08:38]Uh so what happens with Dr. Fosters that he's actually living through moment to movement and this is the crisis of modern man Dr. Fosters to whom we can say that he basically presents all of us all of the modern humans uh that instead of seeing the uh picture in totality we live through moment after moment and although we experience different kinds of emotions all the time at one moment we become happy at another moment we become uh sad and that's what we even do when we scroll through uh social media we scroll through reals or or we uh surf through internet what we are actually doing is to find some kind of distraction. So at one moment we when we are watching uh some real we become emotional suddenly next second we watch something humorous and we become joyful. So we are living as a lived body instead of a physical body that basically uh consumes itself within the frame of time and space and it it has a meaning in totality. again um as uh Robert Browning he mentions when about Rabbi Benzra when he has this dialogue with God where God basically says to Rabbi Benzra that don't be sad that you have become old uh think how fulfilling your life has always been uh and I am there with you. So God basically says grow old along with me the best is yet to be the last of life for which the first was made. So life has a meaning when you see it in totality. But instead what is happening nowadays with especially with modern man that we live through moment after moment with live uh emotion after emotion and we are not able to integrate it uh the meaning of it uh with how things have things went by and how things are about to happen in the future. So the body the lived body uh is experienced from within through sensation, perception and emotion.

[00:10:47]Our sense of self experience in space is influenced by how we live our body.

[00:10:53]Being aware of left, right, center, up, down positions that define the immediate experience we have in space. As a result, it is static, rooted in the present moment and subjective to the individual. Whereas on the other side, if we look at the physical body, the body as it exists objectively in the world, measurable, observable and subject to scientific laws. Plesner says this body exists at an arbitrary point in the relative directionality of continuum of possible processes which implies that it is part of an ongoing flow, a dynamic entity with motion and momentum that can be understood through physics and mathematics. means it has a physical aspect, a physical sense uh and you understand you you basically associate it with the other entities of the world instead of feeling isolated.

[00:11:56]It is dynamic and it is interconnected with the ongoing processes of the world.

[00:12:02]So if you see in these images you'll find that in the first image he's Theodore is window shopping in the film.

[00:12:09]In the other one, you can see that he's sitting with the operating system like uh with with the computer where operating system is getting upload uploaded and he's waiting for Samantha's voice to appear. And the third one you see he's playing video game where he's interacting with digital avatar. So in all these moments you can see he's uh expressing himself in a similar manner.

[00:12:32]He's feeling isolated. He's feeling alone. Uh he wishes to have some sort of connection. uh and he has a certain anguish on his face.

[00:12:42]So in her the protagonist Theodore lives largely through mediated experiences, through screens, through devices and through artificial voices. His experience of himself is that of a lived body. He experiences emotions and bodily sensations on a daily basis which is loneliness, nostalgia and affection which we we can just like see uh through these images. Um however he lacks a connection to his physical body as part of a continuous process in the external world that of others physical contact genuine human relationships and meaning.

[00:13:24]So what happens when he meets or when he encounters Samantha which is the AI it gives him a sense of flow of being in time and of having a narrative once more. But we have to also consider that although he meets Samantha this experience of like being converted to the physical body is more of a virtual experience for him almost as if she has intro reintroduced and I'm using she here because in the film that of a feminine it's a female voice. So um here's a gendered aspect of AI as presented in the film. So almost as if she has reintroduced momentum into his existence providing a sense of movement and continuity however artificially to his lift body something similar to Plesner's physical body.

[00:14:15]Now during the opening of the film a shot shows him speaking emotional lines as if professing his love for his beloved. Then zooming out from his face, the camera reveals that he's working in an office with other professionals drafting letters for customers. So what is happening that he basically works for a company called beautiful handwritten letters.com and his job is to write letters for people who are not able to express themselves maybe beautifully. uh they do not have the language the kind of uh emotional connection that needs to be made the coherence the unity that needs to be made in through their writing. So uh they have basically sublet the job to these people who basically try to thread the narrative of their life and agents like Theodore and Theodore himself who is among the best agent in the company they write letters for them. So among the best agent agents at the company, Theodore's words speak directly to the heart. He is a man who feels too deeply, too close and desires to be loved. But when it comes to confronting the reality of a relationship tet, he withdraws. So although he can write for others, but when it comes to himself to face his own emotions, uh he basically withdraws.

[00:15:36]Can someone who fears having a real relationship express such profound feelings? the answer may lie in society's conditioned memory. So when we see Theodore performing so well, he's dictating the letter as if like he's living the moment of the couple or you know he himself has uh lived those moments. Um the there's comes the question as to how he is able to replicate their emotions. So the thing is that our society has conditioned as such that now we know everything. We know how to express love. We know how to express anguish because we we have witnessed those things through literature and more after with the coming of cinema. We know the patterns uh even if we haven't encountered such emotions or such moments such events in our life we know once we face those situations we know how to react to them.

[00:16:34]So is happening the same thing is happening with Theodore where he's able to express those emotions as if he himself has lived through them but when it comes to his own emotions and confronting his own uh like the events in his life he basically shrinks and he cannot face them. So gestures are everywhere from carpenters skilled hand movements utilizing a saw to the bodily expressions of courtship. So everything is basically uh known to humans. Now uh if like if one has to work as a carpenter so there there are sort of definite movements that needs to be performed uh as a skilled person. And if you uh master that art, you can you can perform as a carpenter. Uh the same thing happens with courtship. If you know how to approach to a girl, to a woman and how to quote them, how to talk to them, uh even if like you haven't done or performed those task ever in your life, but you have encountered those things through literature, through cinema, uh the possibility is that you can perform well uh during your own courtship. The organization of the body's movements into culturally coded manners is a matter of learning to cope with the material environment as well as becoming a member of society.

[00:18:03]With the introduction of moving images, the body gestures started to get systematically recorded, distributed and standardized and new additions and mutations are added into the cannon. So what this basically is saying that we are familiar with the gestures we like we have seen them in in the form of pictures in the form of moving pictures and maybe with time if new patterns emerge they also get recorded and we get to become familiar with them as well.

[00:18:36]Accordingly human behavior is already manipulated and programmed like seamanthas. So much like a script like uh the script theory that goes with AI that artificial intelligence once it will have the script of or it is it is fed with the script of human behavior uh it will basically know everything. So in the same manner humans are also manipulated and coded by seeing the performance of these gestures through literature and cinema which means humans are human intelligence is also very much coded.

[00:19:11]It can also be seen in Theodore's practice where while dictating his letters, he keeps photographs of the couples he writes for establishing the narrative of their love uh lives by connecting the dots as if watching a film. So even though he feels what he says, it is only a simulated response driven by the culture that governs human behavior.

[00:19:36]Using the concept of situated knowledge, Dona Harvey describes how technology extends human sense perception by enabling the collection of data from diverse source for analysis rather than creating a single impression. So what is situated knowledge? Think of a doctor.

[00:19:52]If doctor has to diagnose a disease, so like they will ask for different kinds of test. So by seeing the reports of say of MRI of X-ray of blood report then the doctor goes makes the diagnosis and comes to a conclusion. So this is what situated knowledge is that to to reach to an assertion one can take different parameters different kinds of readings and then can produce maybe some kind of assertion some kind of answer.

[00:20:25]As a consequence, knowledge can be acred from a variety of sources, bringing with it different perceptions for consideration. Theodore experiences this when he purchases an artificial intelligence that is based on human knowledge and incorporates human information into its understanding. As a humans, what happens with us that basically we are sort of rationalized without by our bounded rationality. And when I'm saying uh we we are rationalized by bounded rationality. It basically means that uh we have limited knowledge uh we have a limited purview through which we can uh make any sort of deduction. But such is not the case with artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is not bounded by limited knowledge but it it can much like in in terms of situated knowledge it can acrue it can have different parameters of knowledge from diverse uh readings and then it can reach to that assertion. Humans also do that but AI has an enlarged scope when it comes to getting the source of different kinds of information.

[00:21:40]However, the same cannot be said of an AI that runs through all available information before submitting a flawless conclusion.

[00:21:49]Now, um according to Jean Paul Satra's proverbial stance, man is free, man is freedom. What he's basically saying that uh humans are uh never uh they are never bound by uh you know uh by things that are beyond their control as it is believed to be as it is as it is normally supposed uh that everything is fixed and we are merely performing our role in this life and once we do that our task is done. Jean Paul Sart he he has a very different stand on this. He believes that man is free. Uh he attempts to resolve the existential dilemma that humans face which is that it is their actions which determine how their lives will be developed. So he says that the our decisions our actions are responsible of how we are going to shape our lives uh rather than just blaming it on some something else something which is transcendental something which is beyond our control. Such is not the case. There exists no a priority to which they can cling for guidance. I say that which is like Sartra says here I say that man is condemned to be free. condemned because he did not create himself yet nonetheless free because once cast into the world he's responsible for everything that he does and we see that happening in the film where Theodore he's living from moment to moment and uh uh and he is the one who is actually making the decisions he is the one who does not want to have real human connection he is the one who invests himself into a virtual world uh with the artificial stuff. So, Theodore cannot blame that things are not in his control or by watching the film which is basically a bland utopia. What is a bland utopia? A bland utopia is basically a tale where basically nothing happens. No drama happens. So, in this film there is basically no drama. We cannot uh blame any outside entity uh as governing you know Theodore's life.

[00:24:01]Theodore himself is making every bit of decision in his life in the film.

[00:24:07]The anguish is visible on Theodore's face when he traverses alone amid the crowd or asks his device to play a melancholy song which he continues to skip to next to find the appropriate song that could match the frequency of his sadness.

[00:24:24]To facilitate this type of behavior, the culture promotes a capitalist mentality in which everything becomes a commodity.

[00:24:31]So this culture also promotes this kind of behavior where it wants us to believe that we are not free but we and it basically asks us to make decisions on our own behalf by presenting us uh with uh an ecosystem of which once we become a part uh you know they will have a grid control and we will be making uh decisions which they wants us to believe that we are free although we are making the decision decisions of buying of using and we can make ourel free from those commodity but then it's basically a circle in which we like get into the loop and uh there is no escaping after this. So this culture, this capitalist mentality is promoted by by this culture.

[00:25:21]Not only things but person himself, his energy, skills, his knowledge, his opinions, his feelings, even his smiles.

[00:25:28]Everything is commodified.

[00:25:31]The ad for OS1 intrigues Theodore because it depicts the character with a look of anguish, lost and confused as it echoes the questions to viewers of who they are, what possibilities exist out there for them. Suddenly what happens like all the characters who are watching the the advertisement of OS1 including Theodore suddenly there's a flash of light on their face and their faces like in the advertisement it changes from anguish to to smiling faces. The ad then claims to sell an intuitive operating system that presumably will understand its purchaser.

[00:26:13]This is a man and by this it also means here Theodore and it also means the all of us. So this is a man who has completely turned away from all things real and surrounded himself with all things virtual. They're not only an integral part of his life but they have influenced him in a way that he does not wish to face the weight of real emotions once they have served their purpose.

[00:26:38]So Eric from he basically defines this new man man as such. Uh this new man is somebody who transforms all things into things including himself and the manifestation of his human faculties of reasoning, seeing, hearing, testing, loving. Sexuality becomes a technical skill. The love machine feelings are flattened and sometimes substituted for by the sentimentality. Joy, the expression of intense aliveness is replaced by fun or excitement. And whatever love and tenderness man has is directed towards machines and gadgets.

[00:27:18]The whole man becomes part of the total machinery that he controls and is simultaneously controlled by. So what this modern society does to human that it turns humans into into a mechanical entity that we become much like machine.

[00:27:33]So everything that we have uh including the emotions that we reflect such as seeing uh love loving all kinds of senses uh they become a kind of a technical skill for us instead of having them spontaneously or reacting to things spontaneously. They become a skill for us whether we are able to reflect love, whether we are able to emote love, uh whether we are able to feel anguish or not. So feelings are substituted by sentimentality. Sentimentality which is like the lower form of emotion. Joy replaces uh or is replaced by uh by fun or excitement that instead of feeling the real joy the the sense of wonder we look for the instant fun much like in instant coffee we look for instant fun in our life. and uh thusly we all become or we we are slowly becoming mechanical.

[00:28:32]So in the film what happens that Samantha slowly realizes that Theodore is getting detached from her. So to solve this issue she believes that because she's not having a physical body she arranges a person uh there are people as it is shown in the film that there are people who are giving themselves up uh to maintain the relationship or to bring the you know or to bring new lease of life in the relationship of operating system or AI with that of real humans. So Samantha arranges a woman and she speaks through her to Theodore while wearing earphones. Uh she will she means the woman whom she has hired. She will mimic Samantha's gestures as if she were her. So what happens? Theodore realizes that what he's doing is not with Samantha but with a real woman and abandons the idea of continuing.

[00:29:31]Uh and the reason behind uh this is that he's not uh getting along or he's a little perturbed and disturbed by Samantha. Uh the reason goes that he's disturbed by his wife's allegations that he has always been unable to tolerate real emotions and now that he's escaping through his makebelieve relationship with artificial intelligence. As Samantha attempts to assess what is happening with him, she exhales as if she is breathing. Since she does not require air, Theodore questions her as to why she performed that action. He notices the mist escaping from the ma manhole as she exhales. So while he's having conversation with Samantha, Samantha is basically performing much like any normal human. She as if like she's breathing. So she inhales and exhales. So while she's doing so, Theodore also looks uh you know towards his surrounding and suddenly he sees that the mist is coming from the manhole. So it gives this impression that the manhole or this the surrounding is breathing actually but it is not.

[00:30:37]It's it is merely a simulation. The shot shows that Samantha is a lifeless being and just like the mist coming out of the manhole cover does not make it alive.

[00:30:47]The same stands for Samantha who simulates living beings but cannot be one.

[00:30:54]U I would be ending this lecture with this particular quote by Stefan Golani and Daniel Wella in their book virtual existentialism where they talk about virtual subjectivities and the actual subjectivities. Uh virtual subjectivities are fundamentally rooted in actual subjectivities and there is a definite hierarchy between the two.

[00:31:14]Virtual worlds are experientially and existentially subordinate to the actual world and virtual experiences can be considered a subset of actual experience. By this understanding, the existential structures that we can develop and establish in virtual worlds are ultimately meaningful and valuable only in so far as they acrew meaning and value within the projectual structures of the individual's existence in the actual world. So whatever we saw in the film or we see or we experience through this film that a man has fallen in love with artificial intelligence there is nothing wrong there. Uh people can have uh or can they can experience um in a virtual world they can have those experiences in the virtual world but the virtual world can only uh gain some meaning or it can have some meaning if the rules that we are applying in that actual world has meaning in the real world itself. If somebody is getting in in a virtual world, say a person is playing a video game and in the video game he's becoming too violent and he's doing a lot of things uh which one shouldn't be doing even in the real world. One can question the psyche of the person. So the the things that we experience in the virtual world they do have meaning or they get meaning because they have c certain substance and certain meaning in the actual world. So whatever we see Theodore experience in the in in the film is not false. A man can fall in love with artificial intelligence. We do experience some kind of emotional attachment with with the technology that we use with the objects that surround us. Um and they have meaning be virtually and act in actual sense as well.

[00:33:00]So with this I would like to stop here with a few questions.

[00:33:05]In the future, do you expect people to develop emotional relationships with their AI assistants? And if so, should it be considered normal or should it require some human intervention?

[00:33:17]Next question. Human AI relationships can be viewed as having many negative aspects, but are there any positive aspects that can be identified as beneficial to humans? And last, a device such as a headphone or earphone was portrayed as a symbol of knowledge in the film The Fantastic Planet. Whereas it has become a means of bridging humans with artificial intelligence in order to gain insight into emotions in her. If you were to think of any other examples of this device framing itself differently, what examples would you provide?

[00:33:53]Thank you.