Black Mirror and Preparing for the Future

A New Season of Dystopia

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No new episodes have been out since joining Steemit so I haven’t been able to write about one of my favorite shows on ‘TV’ (or more accurately Netflix) - Black Mirror. Ever since being introduced to it when it was still a small British production, I’ve watched ever episode in anticipation and to be honest, the series beats out most movies that have come out recently, It some of the most wild story-telling I’ve seen and each packs a disorienting punch to the head.

• Source: Pro Net MK

For those who don’t know, Black Mirror is a series of stand-alone hour-long episodes. It’s kind of a modern-day version of the Twilight Zone but instead of anything supernatural or mysterious, each narrative arc presents a plausible future where a single technology causes an extreme scenario amongst regular people. What’s so magnetizing about these situations is that we can so easily trace our lives in this moment to the presented future. Artificial intelligence will happen. Replicated consciousness will happen. Sensorial implants will happen. The real question, which Black Mirror attempts to situate, is how those extreme technological developments will socially affect human life.

I’m a sucker for sci-fi, everything from the most alien-embracing alternate universes to very subtle forks from actual life. For me, science-fiction gives best reason to stretch the most out of one’s imagination, taking real elements of real life and real experiences and crafting all of that into a future projection. Of course, traditional sci-fi throws in wrenches like beings from Pluto or winged invaders but the underlying thrust is that actual humans are placed in these strange situations.

• My absolute favorite on robotic bees. Source: IMDb

I can understand a great deal of criticism levied against this latest season of Black Mirror. The newest episodes are a bit tamer than the previous and mostly rely on a single twist at the end rather than a layered stack of narrative decisions. Whereas past episodes pushed concepts to their extreme limit, the dystopic futures of the recent 6 episodes are rather subtle. Still, the stories are very coherent and very plausible, drawing the viewer in to believe that this could very well happen within the next decade or two.

Preparing for the Creative Worst

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• Learning from Sarah Connor. Source: Hey U Guys

When watching Black Mirror or the Matrix or any of the Terminator movies, you begin to understand one thing - there will be a future where something we’ve created will threaten us. I don’t mean to spread doomsday sentiments but essentially I believe that man will create something, whether it be a deadly manufactured disease or aggressive sentient technology, that will challenge the very lives we believe to be secure. Sci-fi often goes to the extreme end of zombie apocalypses and android armies, but we’ve already seen this happen in modern day. We’ve already created virus strains that come about as a confluence of chemicals and man-made environments or robots that can process complex emotions and reason. It isn’t far-fetched that one day we’ll find ourselves in a situation that is adversely created by these advancements.

More and more each day, we create things that are more disruptive than the previous technology at a faster rate. We already live in a world where cars drive themselves and sex-dolls are emotionally responsive. As the speed of these transformations quickens and deepens into greater sudden impact, we as a population have less and less time to adapt to the greater change. It will outpace us at some point.

• Source: The Blaze

A perfect recent example is Facebook’s shutdown of their ‘chatbot’ program. Facebook gave little explanation as to why this AI program was terminated and from public reports, it generally seems as if the computers were performing autonomously and although communicative with each other, no human could comprised their speech. This seems like one of those steps past our boundaries of comfort.

This brings me back to Black Mirror and sci-fi in general, which for me has become such a necessary creative task to project all the ‘unlikely’ scenarios that we may find ourselves in in the coming years. The ’14 movie “Ex Machina” for instance pushed AI into an ethical realm, years before the mainstream clamored for debates on the treatment of artificial consciousness. The more we’re able to project what life may be like or how technology might govern our social beings, the better equipped we will be in handling their potential impact.

• Source: A24

We’re All Doomed

Well, unless we figure some of this stuff out. In the end, Black Mirror offers a very dramatic and engaging way for us to talk about these potential futures and create our own “What would you do” scenarios between friends and family. What would you do if you found out you were a simulation? What would you do if you had the choice of modifying your child’s perception? What would you do…?

Let me know your thoughts below!