Ever since its premier in British television in 2011, the sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror has been taking a look at our rapidly advancing technological world. While most episodes show the dark and dystopian path that the world might go through, there are some that like to end on a more positive and brighter note.
The series tackles different problems of the human psyche and experience in each of its stand-alone episodes. From politics to romance, to social media, to consciousness and reality, and even childhood and childraising, the show questions how reliant we are with technology and what happens when we put too much faith in them and not in the shared experience that we are humans take part in.
And while the show is fictional, it's hard to detach how close the show actually is to reflecting the current reality. Here's a rundown on some topics and technologies that the show puts on the spotlight that may be much more realistic than you think.
Politics as Entertainment
The series' first episode, The National Anthem, is a great reflection of our ongoing desire to watch politics not as a nation-building activity but as an entertainment outlet. No matter which political idea you subscribe too, the opposing team are always treated as "others" and "enemies". Headlines and breaking news now revolve around which topic would bring in the most viewers or shock value, not which is most important and which is most informative. Once mundane activities such as budgetary investigations become attractive spectacle that just can't be replicated anywhere else. Fictional dramas and shows that tend to copy this, whether seriously or through satire, either end up being too bland or too unbelievable. As such, the 24/7 news cycle becomes an uncopiable and unreplaceable entertainment genre of its own.
All for the Like
Nosedive, the third season's first episode, take a critical look at how much social media can influence our actions, appearances, and even personality. When everything you think, say, and do can easily be accessible by every one else, the space to discuss and react begins to shrink rapidly. The loss of discourse has made everything tailored to which can get the most likes and reactions, even if these things themselves are rarely representative of the person who presented it on their social media. It has even given birth to a new occupation (the so-called "influencers") whose job is mostly to change the perspective of their thousands, if not millions, of followers through brand integrations and partnerships.
You + Me = X% chance
As society moves towards our lives centralized on the internet, companies have been scrambling to digitize social activities. In the early ages of the internet, these were through simple concepts such as message boards and emailing groups. As technology progressed, these ways to socialize have become much more complex and much more rooted in algorithms to create much more personalized experiences that are supposedly much more meaningful. Yet this boils down connecting with others into mathematical equations that are hidden behind copyrights. Perhaps the most obvious application of such is in dating. Before the rapid rise of dating applications such as Tinder and OkCupid, dating websites were very much primitive: One would have a profile and list his or her interested and users would send each other messages and photos, and then maybe go out on dates as such. These actions were pretty much reflective of old dating habits, where acceptance and rejection of potential partners would take days if not weeks. Now, dating applications straight up tell you how much "chemistry" there is between you and a potential partner. It removes the "getting to know stage" and does it all for you. Hang the DJ, episode four of the fourth season, is a strong dramatization of how these apps process compatibility. Although the episode ends on a happy note, its message is still quite chilling.
Keeping Our Children Safe
Any parent would be scared if anything would happen to their children. The greatest fear of any parent is perhaps failing to protect their little ones from a preventable tragedy. Today, there's a handful of technology that allows parents to track their children and their activities. From internet-accessible baby cribs to usage-monitoring programs on children's cellphones, it is entirely possible to know the exact location of a child is and what he or she is doing at any given time. The brilliant Arkangel, season four's first episode, takes this current technology into much more advanced extremes where an implantable device allows parents to literally see what their children are seeing, as well as see their current emotional and physical well-being. While this technology seems apt during a child's formative years, it becomes an authoritarian type of control once these children enter their adolescence and adulthood.
Drones for Everything
Perhaps the one technology that's near but not quite here yet is the emergence of drone technology. Once just a staple of many sci-fi stories, these autonomous robots are now beginning to replace much of our everyday activities. The Roomba, perhaps, is the most popular drone that's commercially available. For all intents and purposes, the small hockey puck has replaced most vacuum cleaners for floors. Amazon has also recently started to test drone package deliveries to get items much faster to buyers. Medical technologists are also developing medical nano drones that make invasive surgery much less intrusive. Black Mirror takes this a step further in their episode "Hated in the Nation." In a future where honeybees are near extinction, drones have taken their place of pollinating plants in the natural ecology. But of course, the problem lies in who controls such technologies. Nature itself has no master, but artificial replacements do. The thought of these technologies being hijacked by a malicious third party is always a threat that governments and corporations alike discuss when dealing with these new autonomous technologies.
