It is very possible that many of you have known the popular series Black Mirror for years. We are referring to a series focused on technology that has been with us for more than a decade, releasing chapters from time to time.
In fact, for many it has become a reference that has tried to stay ahead of its time since its launch last year 2011. That was when the first chapter was released and since then it has tried to go one step further technologically speaking. But of course, more than a decade has passed since its premiere and some of the advances that Black Mirror advanced at the time have now become a reality.
Initially it was a dystopian fiction series that has attracted the attention of millions around the world over the years. What we initially saw in some chapters and that could have seemed like science fiction, little by little has become real. It is true that not all the technological advances that we have seen in Black Mirror have come to fruition in real life, but we are going to review some that we can already use and that at the time seemed almost impossible.
Technologies announced by Black Mirror that are real
Precisely that is one of the main attractions of this popular series that many of you have followed since its inception. And many of its chapters tried to be ahead of their time technologically speaking, and it seems that they succeeded.
Digital avatars. This is the title of one of the chapters of the second season of Black Mirror where the protagonist interacts with a digital copy of her deceased boyfriend. This is something that, for example, is already being carried out in China using AI, such as through digital avatars. Another example of this is found in another chapter in which Waldo, an animated character, wants to run for president of the country.
Miniature drones. In the third season we find an episode in which miniature bees in the form of drones are used to pollinate flowers and replace real bees. To say that currently at Harvard University they have already managed to manufacture drones of that same size. In turn, Walmart is creating technological devices of this type for those same tasks, pollinating flowers.
Intelligent dog-shaped robots. In the fifth episode of the fourth season, in an apocalyptic world, the protagonist is a survivor, she is chased by a dog-shaped robot that wants to kill her. Currently and for some time now, robotic dogs similar to those in the Black Mirror episode have already been developed.
Human power generator. In the other of these dystopian futuristic chapters we find a prison in which prisoners are used to pedal and generate energy. This allows them to earn credits and benefits. Well, this is something that is already being tested in some prisons and that helps prisoners reduce their sentences.
Contact lenses and smart glasses. Black Mirror has also shown an episode where its protagonists had contact lenses that recorded everything they saw. This allows them to relive any moment. By now, I’m sure many of you have already heard about Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, which do something similar.
Status on social networks. Another disconcerting chapter of this series shows us a world where people’s status depends on their ratings on social networks. Well, in China a similar method is already beginning to be used that rates citizens according to their behavior.
