This article contains some SPOILERS for Black Mirror, currently available to stream on Netflix.
Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror paints a dystopian picture of society’s relationship with technology. Satirical and allegorical tales set in dark fictional future worlds feature characters who’ve become victims of the technology they’re surrounded with, or have an unhealthy obsession with the media. Others are extreme metaphors for a “Tech Apocalypse” that could very well be happening in the present day.
The frightening thing about Black Mirror is that, as sci-fi goes, it’s not that far-fetched. Every day, new technology develops and existing tech is refreshed, potentially bringing the real world closer to Brooker’s macabre realities. So, is life imitating art as it did in the past with novels like HG Wells’s The Time Machineand George Orwell’s 1984? As the old cliché suggests, perhaps reality is stranger than fiction.
USS Callister
Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) creates his own virtual world that’s populated by digital clones created from his co-workers’ DNA. In this Star Trek-style virtual world, he rules his trapped virtual clones with an iron fist.
There are two types of technology at play in this episode, both of which already exist. DNA-based cloning is evolving by the year. And though consciousness has yet to be cloned, scientists have already physically cloned a sheep (Dolly) and other animals since.
The other technology that’s prominent is the immersive virtual environment. And in the broad sense, this exists in many forms today. In the context of USS Callister in relation to today’s tech though, virtual environments and MMORPGs are currently a global phenomenon, with millions of players living immersive lives completely separate from their real-world ones, in virtual environments that become more realistic with every new release.
Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too
Popstar Ashley’s (Miley Cyrus) consciousness is uploaded into “Ashley Too”, a small robotic version of her belonging to teenage fan Rachel (Angourie Rice). And Ashley Too, Rachel, and her sister Jack (Madison Davenport) embark on a rescue mission to save the real Ashley, who has been put into an induced coma by her aunt.
While Ashley is comatose, her captors use “Vocal Mimicry Software” to reproduce her singing voice. In the real world today, emerging technologies like “Deep Voice” claim to be able to clone a voice by sampling just 3.7 seconds of audio. Later on, a visual simulation of Ashley is created for a performance, mimicking her physical characteristics and mannerisms. “Deepfake” technology is already doing this on a slightly more rudimentary level. Brain uploading is still science fiction. But organizations like Carboncopies are working on it.
Fifteen Million Merits
Season 1’s Fifteen Million Merits presents a few technologies that are already out and about in the world. Bing Madsen (Daniel Kaluuya) and all the other characters consume their media and interact via touchless screens, which have already appeared on several devices in the real world. The food the characters eat is “grown in a petri dish”, as mentioned by Swift (Isabella Laughland), and produce grown from cells is turning out to be a reality already, with many start-ups in the testing phase.
The episode also sees everyone riding exercise bikes to power the world around them and earn their “Merits” (this world’s version of money). That’s a concept that’s currently taking off because of new eco-friendly technologies that use the kinetic energy generated by humans to create sustainable electricity solutions.
Hated in the Nation
Hated in the Nation is set in a world where humanity has developed robotic bees powered by artificial intelligence to supplement real bees’ diminishing population. But the bees are hacked and used as murder weapons.
In the present day, a group of scientists from the Delft University of Technology in Holland aims to counteract our declining bee population with the robotic “Delfly”. The Delfly is a bee-like drone which is designed to pollinate plants and crops for the benefit of Holland’s invaluable agricultural industry. There’s no sign of them killing anyone yet though.
Shut Up and Dance
Kenny (Alex Lawther) and Hector (Jerome Flynn) both fall prey to malware that hijacks their webcams and has a blackmailer send them off on a series of frightening errands under threat that compromising video footage of them will be released. The premise is very much based on current technology and hacking methods that are frequently used by blackmailers today.
One incident involved Cassidy Wolf, a former Miss Teen USA, who fell victim to a blackmailing hacker who used malware to hack into the computer in her bedroom. The hacker threatened to release compromising images of the beauty queen unless she took her clothes off for him on camera.
The Entire History of You
Liam Foxwell (Toby Kebbell) lives in a society in which people have “grains” or chips implanted behind their ears. The implants record everything users see and hear, allowing them to “re-do”, playing back their memories through their eyes or a monitor.
Elon Musk’s proposed Neuralink interfaces directly with the human brain through a series of tiny sensors, implanted using “minimally invasive” micro-robotic surgery. The implant sends data to a computer or smartphone for a variety of purposes. Musk claims that the Neuralink has potentially far-reaching benefits for the advancement of medicine and the treatment of diseases like Parkinson’s. But is humanity ready to get this personal with technology?
Hang the DJ
Two star-crossed lovers, Frank (Joe Cole) and Amy (Georgina Campbell) are brought together and then torn apart by “The System”, which guides each of them through a series of encounters with potential life partners. Each encounter comes with an expiration date, based on supposed compatibility, and all the data collected by The System is collated to match people with their perfect partners.
The algorithms used by Tinder and other dating apps are founded on the same principle. They find potential matches for people based on a variety of factors like interests, personality profile, a prescribed “type”, and physical location.
Smithereens
Chris (Andrew Scott), a driver for a taxi app called “Hitcher,” picks up Jaden (Damson Idris) - an employee of social media giant, “Smithereen” and holds him hostage at gunpoint, demanding a direct line to the company’s CEO, Billy Bauer (Topher Grace). While all of this is going on, the police listen to Chris via his phone.
None of this is unfamiliar. Taxi apps like Uber and Bolt are getting people rides every day. And the social media app in this episode, “Persona” is basically Facebook. The technology the police use to listen in on Chris and Jaden isn’t a leap of the imagination either. Devices can be hacked, and law enforcement agencies are cleared to do it in many instances. Many smartphone users are also convinced that companies like Google and Facebook listen to their conversations.
Nosedive
Nosedive is a disturbing take on social media that’s extremely close to home. In the episode, social media opinion becomes the currency that is used to establish people’s status and position in society. This mostly happens on mobile devices - much as it does in our everyday lives.
The episode sees protagonist Lacie Pound (Bryce Dallas Howard) desperately trying to claw her way up from a 4.2 rating to a 4.5 (out of 5) so that she can qualify to get a fancy apartment. Today, social media connectivity is already there. And social media opinion is a tool through which “influencers” are adored and pariahs are ostracized for their actions or opinions.
The National Anthem
In Black Mirror’s debut episode, The National Anthem, politics and the media collide under nasty circumstances. A malicious kidnapper holds a British Princess hostage and demands that England’s Prime Minister (Rory Kinnear) engages in a sexual act with a pig on live TV and online media.
None of the technology featured in this episode is futuristic. In fact, it’s all existed for quite a while. YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are all part of our everyday lives and so is the news media. And while a prominent politician having intercourse with a pig is quite extreme, it’s an effective metaphor for the influence the media has in government and public opinion.
