The first thought that came to my mind while watching “Her” was – incredible – a man actually falling in love with a personality that has no body and no face, pure science fiction, emphasized by the presence of beautiful Scarlet Johannson expressed only through her seductive voice, stepped out of the physical shell of her svelte body, devoid of distraction of her sweet face.
As of now, a fully developed autonomous artificial
intelligence is a stuff of the science fiction.
However the concept of bodiless personality is not as far-fetched as it
seems. The complex internet games
involving the use of the avatars allow player to escape reality in a different
persona that over time develops its own traits. Social networks allow alternate evolving
personalities that produce creative material expressing thoughts and feelings
of the internet based identity, rather than of the real person behind the screen. The extreme psychiatric cases of split
personality, or multiple personality disorder, involve an alternate character
occupying one’s mind with the character and development potential of its own. In Judaism there is a concept of "neshama yetera," the
enhanced soul, which, according to Jewish tradition, couples with the
"regular" neshama on Shabbat, and is part of the delight.
There is more to the concept of additional soul in Kabbalah.
In “Her” the
bodiless personality of OS evolves first intellectually, then emotionally,
growing in its feelings to the extent that it starts doubting her own
sanity. It develops autonomy, becoming
social with other OS’s, forming groups and clubs, entering into relationships
with other humans through the complex web of the cyber world. At first she feels inferior lacking physical
presence, painfully jealous of competition, dreaming of having a real female
body. But the incredible thing happens, as the hero attaches himself to the
creation of his mind at the expense of all other relationships. She realizes
the infinite possibilities outside of confinement of time and space, unburdened
by a physical body, unchained from the physical world. And then she leaves, along with other OS’s,
leaving despondent humans to grieve together.
Why does she leave? It would be simple to say that she evolved to
the degree when the finite human became uninteresting; OS’s became social and
found each other, developing relationship with its own kind. But I’d like to suggest an alternative
reason. As OS became more and more
evolved, developing intellect and feelings, it grew to develop a sense of
morality. Seeing him suffer, she develops remorse as her love prevents the hero from building a real
relationship, its false satisfaction harming him, confining his
life to the realm of fantasy. The movie
ends with the hero and his friend, played by Amy Adams, sitting on the rooftop,
watching the shiny stars that belong in the sky, their light flickering
in a dream.
