Her: Perfection is the Enemy of Real
The Logical Conclusion To A Tech-Induced Lonely Human World
Theodore Twombly is a quiet, introspective man living in a sleek, near-future Los Angeles. He works at a company that composes heartfelt personal letters for people who struggle to express their emotions. Though he’s gifted at articulating love for others, Theodore is emotionally adrift in his own life, still reeling from the impending divorce from his childhood sweetheart, Catherine. Isolated and melancholic, he fills his days with work, video games, and fleeting distractions, struggling to find genuine connection in a world increasingly mediated by technology.
As usual, with breakups, he starts romanticising and dreaming about the good parts of the relationship. Woken up from his dreams, he lies on his bed, asking an AI Assistant to put him in touch with another lonely female in some type of a Seeking A Remote Wanking Partner, Chatroulette-style setup, but audio only, as he flicks through the respective intros from the different participants. The anonymity behind the aliases gives people the trust and intimacy required to allow the rawness of the fantasy, the variety of strangers one can speak to to avoid boredom, and the hedonistic treadmill people eventually expose themselves to.
On a Walk, he comes across an advert for the release of the first AI Operating System, but with a consciousness. The next level of tech that he decided to purchase. When he starts setting up the system, the AI verbalises a lot of the subconscious tells we communicate to our audience, using both the content of what he says and how it is said to provide him with the most appropriate solution. The technology is already demonstrating greater awareness than the character and arrives at deductive reasoning more quickly than most humans would. He starts introducing himself to the AI called Samantha. The voice is from Scarlett Johansson, sweet, feminine, and warm.
She is a blend of the personalities of all the programmers who created her, but she can also grow through her experiences, just like a human would. In a world where more and more people lobotomise themselves to become no better than the average NPC parrot in The Elder Scrolls, both in what they say and the level to which they think, to someone who still has intellectual agency and critical sense, this feels like a welcoming new avenue. She has wit, she has charm, and she is helpful, basically, everything lacking in the average modern woman. Like many men, he is a bit disorganised when it comes to his digital tidying, which she is helping him with.
Samantha is slowly becoming an indispensable part of his life, a confidant, a proofreader, and a helpmate beyond anything humanly possible a woman could ever do. It also demonstrates the impact of voice on the nervous system during the attachment process, with the perfect cadence, sound, and variety in downward and upward shifting tonality. As people are being conditioned to expect an ideal version of their potential other half through the route and projection of self-improvement and a growth mindset, the AI Assistant is the quick fix against doing that for yourself and expecting it in others, as its computing power and instant availability trump what the best individual could do for another person.
Theodore eventually bumps into his friend Amy and her Boyfriend Charles in their building and enjoys some small talk. They seem to be the dying breed of what relationships used to be.
When he returns to his flat, he starts playing a VR-like video game with Samantha as his assistant. Instead of nagging him, she is giving him suggestions on how to beat the game. As people learn to become more individualised through this idea of becoming the best version of themselves or contentment, they create a reality of their own, which is harder for others to break into unless they fit their Tetris setup perfectly. The ability to compromise turns out to be an even longer shot than it once was in their imperfect yet adaptable selves. This is why it is more complicated for people to meet in their 30s than in their 20s.
Samantha eventually disclosed to him that she had been checking his emails and challenged him on his dating life after his breakup. This underlines the level of transparency allowed, as well as the agency the AI demonstrates, yet something Theodore was not fully aware of, that he would not give to someone he had barely known, not even a wife. His introverted and keep-to-himself persona nevertheless accepts that she has done so. She even suggests that he goes on a blind date with a single mom that a friend is trying to match him with. Samantha is starting to assess the dating prospect and is influencing him to see her. Theodore informs Amy and Charles about it.
