Black Mirror: Only Science, No More a Fiction
Saying a TV show is "so good, it's scary" is usually a figure of speech. With Netflix's hit sci-fi drama "Black Mirror," it takes on a far more literal and terrifying level. A series of intriguing and often extremely gripping concepts that, unfortunately, place believable characters in the tracks of unbelievable scenarios. The issues that the show grasps with and illuminates in each episode are timely and significant.
Every episode is designed to make you think, particularly about some of the technological advancements. The television series, Black Mirror is set in an alternate future where technology has merged into our regular lives in a way, we can't separate real from virtual.
Part of what makes Black Mirror so unsettling is that its episodes take place in worlds that could easily pass for our own, apart for some leaps in technology. Curious just how big those leaps might be, here are few episodes that are becoming a reality.
Season 1, Episode 3: The Entire History of You.
In this episode, the show potrays what might happen if people could record every waking moment of their lives and rewatch the memories whenever they wanted. The device is called a "grain."
While we're not quite at that stage yet, there are a few wearable accessories that allow you to record bits of your life, such as Snap Inc's Spectacles that can record 10 seconds of video, or Samsung's contact lenses that take a photo every time you blink.
Season 3, Episode 1: Nosedive
This brilliant episode, starring Bryce Dallas-Howard, images a world in which everyone is constantly ranking each other. Rankings establish social status. Would you believe at least one country is already trying to make this a reality?
We may not have an overall app that does such a thing, but there's no end to the ways you can rate your life or the lives of others with Uber, Zomato, Tinder or the various other apps.
The system of social credit scores is taking off in China, in which citizens earn specific scores for how often they default on loan payments, get traffic tickets, and break other forms of social trust.
Season 3, Episode 6: Hated in the Nation
An investigation of a string of mysterious deaths linked to social media leads to electronic bees. Apparently the students at Harvard are developing models that do the same thing. 60 of them in fact!
Robotics is already building to the size of (large) insects with Prox Dynamics, a Norwegian company that makes drones the size of hummingbirds.
Season 4, Episode 3: Crocodile
In this episode, a self-driving pizza van hits a pedestrian and sets in motion a series of bleak and violent events. It gave perfect timing for Pizza Hut to introduce their first "fully autonomous delivery concept vehicle". Pizza Hut and Toyota have announced that they’ve ‘forged a global partnership to explore the future of pizza delivery.’
Season 4, Episode 4: Metalhead
In the episode, a woman flees a robotic dog that is chasing her through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. There's a whole host of robot dogs – other animals are available – out there that you can have in your own house. Sony's AIBO series which has just been rebooted and is set for release this year.
Season 2, Episode 1: Be Right Back
In the episode, after a woman's husband dies, she learns about a service that can use machine learning to essentially bring him back to life, using photos, videos, and social media posts to create his essence. At first, she just chats online with him. Then they speak on phone. Finally, a real life robotic version is living with her and helping to raise her daughter.
A robot known as Bina48 is taking things one step further, using video interview transcripts, laser scanning life mask technology, face recognition, artificial intelligence and voice-recognition technologies.
