God sends UB Man a friend. A Christian woman. A funny and very caring human being. Her husband and children can count on her till the end of time. As she loves all that God creates, she gives her love to people around her. She is there for UB Man, whatever his needs are. Wow, this song must be an ode to all Christian women!
Would you choose a beautiful and engaged but metal woman over a beautiful but indifferent flesh & blood woman?
When a robot becomes a creature and would I choose her over Paulina Andreeva (Паулина Андреева)? Who knows.
Arisa, the robot wife in the Netflix series “Better than us”, or in Russian: “Лучше, чем люди” (Better than human beings). A prototype created to solve the Chinese problem of too many men. The one child policy had parents to do away their unborn or newly born daughters, leading to a later shortage of marriageable women.
The beautiful robot with her beautiful skin would go all the way to provide all a man needs and make him happy. And so Arisa, lost in Russia, met a little girl and decided to serve all her needs and later her father’s and brother’s. She saw them as her family and with complete devotion she not only gave them everything they needed, but she would defend them as well. Nobody would harm her family.
The little girl loved Arisa and appreciated all she did. Her father was not an easy task to fulfill. He was totally indifferent towards her. She was a machine after all. The first time he met Arisa, he left her standing on the cold balcony and went inside with his little girl.
Her processor had to run overtime to think of ways to make him happy. And he wasn’t sexually interested in her. He still tried to get back to his ex-wife and he would kiss some younger chick. She really had to think beyond her program and build on experiences to do so. And that is what she did. Act, take the effort, take risks, try ways that didn’t seem logical in the first place. Invest.
And as you probably know, UB Boy is very sensitive to the word “invest”. It has a miracle effect on him. It means that someone is willing to mean something to him. Then he means something. A robot is no more than a creature with its own limitations. It was never born, has no genetic parents. Is only to follow simple commands and gets easily abused while doing so. And it has a hard time to become recognized. Though, it has its own qualities. It is strong, has a fast brain and seems tireless. And… it has time, patience. Time to invest. That feels like love. Doing the good things unconditionally, while the processor starts overheating and it has to come up with ideas to cope with such counteracting effects: that makes Arisa a living being to me!
I’d rather have such a pure robowoman than an indifferent flesh and blood woman. How she came into existence doesn’t bother me at all, only what she wants to mean. So, the dividing line to me is not ‘flesh or metal’, but engaged or indifferent.
Of course we are talking about a very far evolved machine, ahead of our times. I will be long gone before such sophisticated creation will rise. But once the button is pushed it will make unpredictable choices. Isn’t that you and me? Aren’t we unpredictable? Probably because we don’t master ourselves, don’t oversee our program to survive and want to be loved on the way to something called death?
Now what has this to do with a Christian woman. Do I depict her as a robot. First of all, I don’t depict Arisa as just a robot as I hope to have explained by now. But she adds to the story. The Christian woman I know follows her ‘program’ and is devoted. Alongside her program she also follows mysterious ways to get to a happy end. Maybe that is what she finds in me, a guiding friend in those unknown ways.
UB Duran 2018-2020