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Black Mirror: 10 plots from the popular Netflix series could predict the future

Credit: Video screenshot: Black Mirror/Netflix, Edit: Laliste.net

Unless you have been hibernating these last few years, everyone has heard of the visionary British TV series on Netflix called Black Mirror.  This radical series, often sends shivers down your spine with their plots that are both perceptive and terrifying at the same time.  The ideas of the show seem to predict what could happen in the future of technological advances.  Here are 10 episode plots which are possible in real life.  It is like the directors have predicted the future.

Black Mirror is an additive and disturbing TV series which skillfully juxtaposes technologies from our overly connected society in a virtual reality not too different from our own society. The plots, although very radical, are often worryingly realistic. In fact more than one plot line from the series has come true…  Is Black Mirror inspired by real facts or does the series anticipate events that will happen in the future? In any case, Back Mirror makes us think…

1/ Rating system for people (Episode 1, Season 3)

In the first episode of the third season of Black Mirror (Nosedive), we follow the character of Lacie in her daily life.  Her society is submitted to an extreme rating system.  Everyone rates their work colleagues, clients, friends and even their family.  Depending on the ratings you receive you win or lose points which then determines your social status.  It also determines whether you can be well placed on an airplane, in the cinema or in a queue or even if you can receive a bank loan or mortgage.

Does this really happen in real life?

It is easy to make a comparison with this extreme rating system and the rating system we use everyday.  We are all aware of rating systems like Google Reviews for commercial companies, TripAdvisor for tourist destinations and restaurants or leaving a rating for accommodation providers like Airbnb.  In today’s society anything that is found online has a rating which is shared with the rest of the internet community.  However this doesn’t yet happen for people.  Nevertheless, the Chinese government have announced they’d like to developed a credit system in 2020 so they can rate the population’s reliability… chilling!

Black Mirror
Video screenshot : Black Mirror/Netflix

2/ Cloning your dead partner so you can continue living together (Episode 1, Season 2)

Be Right Back is not the cheeriest of Black Mirror episodes.  A women brutally loses her partner and then decides to resurrect him using the most recent technological advancements.   Using information taken from social media accounts online and telephone communications a company can recreate new virtual version of her partner.  She can then talk to the artificial intelligence over the phone, using messages and then can later recreate an almost identical android version.

Can this happen in real life?

Realistic plastic clones haven’t been invented yet but artificial intelligence does exist in a less advanced form.   However in 2016 a young Russian managed to recreate their deceased best friend in a computerised robot called chatbot using information taken from the web.

Black Mirror
Video screenshot: Black Mirror/Netflix

3/ Robotic dog assassins  (Episode 5, Season 4)

In the shortest of episode of the series which is entirely shot in black and black we follow the daily life of Bella.  She is trying to escape the onslaught of robotic dogs after the unexplained collapse of human society.

Could this happen in real life?

There is nothing new here when we think that the American army have already used robotic killers in the past. Although there robots don’t take the form of rabid monsters, there were several squadrons of trapped drones seized during terrorist attacks in Iraq. The mechanical dogs in this series were influenced by BigDog robots designed by Boston Dynamics.

Black Mirror
Video screenshot: Black Mirror/Netflix

4/ See your life moments in a loop (Episode 3, Season 1)

In the episode The Entire History of You, the characters can watch redo images of their life thanks to “grains” implanted behind their ears that record everything they see, do and hear. When everything is going well the retrospective looks light and happy however when daily life gets hard, especially relationship dramas, the redo image makes the characters paranoid and depressed…

Could this happen in real life?

Memory implants are soon to be released. Samsung have apparently patented their own digital  smart contact lenses which are able to record memories, both happy and sad. Google, Sony or MHOX are also trying to create similar technologies, with the aim of “improving the capabilities of human sight” with the ability to immortalize (even download) selected moments …

Black Mirror
Video screenshot: Black Mirror/Netflix

5/ Robotic bees and media killings (Episode 6, Season 3)

Hated In The Nation doesn’t have the same radical style as other Black Mirror episodes however it is even more close to reality than many.  The episode follows a police inquest into a series of murders that have strange similarities.  The killers seem to be targeting people who have published controversial photos or articles.  A gigantic swarm of robotic drone bees then starts to envelop London.

Could this happen in real life?

The director of this episode was meant to be inspired by personal experience.  In 2004 he received death threats after publishing slandering articles about President Bush. When it comes to robotic drone bees, American scientists have actually thought of the idea as a means to prevent their extinction. They are already meant to have designed a few prototypes. When watching this episode it is hard not to think about the growing hype for personal drones. In 2017, the Pentagon released mini-drones which are like a real autonomous swarm.

Black Mirror
Video screenshot : Black Mirror/Netflix