Some time ago, I watched a film on Netflix called Subservience. It was one of those films that was by and large terrible, but by and large fun to watch. The gist of the film, which took place sometime in the not too too distant future, is that a young husband, after his wife became ill, went to a local firm that rented out robots (called sims) to help with household matters. The sim in question, whose name was Alice, looked just like a human being. In fact, she looked remarkably like Megan Fox, believe it or not.

The engagement of Alice was not that unusual apparently, and in fact, sims who looked like people were being hired for all sorts of uses, such as replacing human beings on construction projects. And, yes, there was a lot of backlash.

Alice did a fine job with the children, but Alice also took a fancy to her master and, boy, did that lead to complications, mostly from Alice’s determination (I guess an AI creature can be very determined) to win her master from his wife. In the fracas that followed, Alice was seriously injured and returned to her manufacturer.

But Alice is not to be brought down easily. In fact, what she does is replicate her “brain” in the bodies of other sims, and life clearly will become terrible for everyone.

Okay, that sounds like a horrible plot, right? Yes, it was, but the depiction of a society where there were human beings, and where there were these AI creatures as well, was really interesting and thought provoking.  (Take care, Elon Musk)

A similar society was depicted in the play we saw today at Theater J. The play, called Your Name Means Dream (not a great title), shows what happened when an elderly (pretty young elderly – 74), ailing woman is provided an attractive non-human AI creature to be her caretaker. (Naomi Jacobson, who does a lot of cursing and screaming, plays the unpleasant human.) All of the shows we have seen this year at Theater J have been excellent. Until this one. I thought this one so bad that it made me long for Subservience, something I never really thought possible. Luckily, the run ends today. So you don’t have to see it.

What was wrong with the play? Everything. With the exception of the acting of one of the two cast members, Sara Koviak, for whom the play was apparently written, I thought it was an enormous waste of time and even made me wonder if Donald Trump might be right about purging American theater of harmful influences.

And Koviak, who had to act like a robot (but a robot with too many human characteristics) in her communication and in her mannerisms, and whose role also demanded a great deal of physicality, played the role just right, once you accepted that this was the way to play the role (and since the role was written for Koviak, it obviously is the way it was intended to be played), you cannot fault her at all. I fault the playwright, however, with coming up with an AI character who was, on the whole, not AI enough (i.e., too human) and whose abilities, such as making telephone calls internally and becoming the character who she called as long as the call lasted, were someone outlandish.

(I should add that this play has been put on elsewhere to good reviews. Go figure.)

Luckily, we don’t live yet in a society where human-appearing robots compete with human-appearing humans for jobs and strike relationships with each other. Or do we? Can anyone prove that either Donnie or Lonnie are in fact 100% human? I can’t.

I keep reading and hearing that even Republicans are getting tired of them or their policies. But that they are simply afraid to say so. Cowards, all. Really.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: can I quote you? “The only thing to fear, is fear itself.”