Black Mirror is a dystopian science fiction series with stories that, no matter how crazy they may seem, are not as far from reality as we think. Its chapters demonstrate how technology could change our society and human behaviors, awakening in many a feeling of “techno-paranoia.” Its first season premiered on December 4, 2011, so it recently celebrated its 13th anniversary and, in all this time, we have seen how some of its technological predictions have come true (or are about to come true).
The creator of Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker, explained in interviews prior to the launch of the series that his objective was to warn about the dangers that technological dependence could pose to humanity. In fact, the name of the series is “black mirror” in Spanish and he pointed out that it referred to what we find on a wall, a desk or even in the palm of our hand: “The cold and bright screen of a television, a monitor or a smartphone.
Although the dystopian fables told in Black Mirror aim to raise awareness about the responsible use of technology, some ideas that have emerged throughout its six seasons have left the screen. Over the years, there are real cases that have reminded us of the plots of the series.
Human batteries
Episode 2 of the first season addresses a dystopian theme that makes us feel chills. In it, they tell us how a group of humans must pedal all day on stationary bicycles to generate energy. Only in this way can they accumulate merits to buy goods and escape from that routine.
Although this idea seems far-fetched, it has already been applied in one of Brazil’s prisons. Inmates can pedal stationary bicycles to generate electricity and, in return, their sentences are reduced.
Remember moments lived with glasses
The third episode of the first season imagines a world in which humans can put on contact lenses with integrated cameras. These record the moments of our lives, allowing us to relive some of them if we want. At the moment, there is nothing like it in real life, but Samsung has registered a patent that invites us to believe that this technology may be possible in the future.
The closest thing we have today are glasses like the Ray-Ban Stories by Meta. These take photos and record videos from the perspective of the wearer and can then upload them to social networks.
Politicians made with AI
In episode 3 of season 2 of Black Mirror we meet Waldo, a digital avatar who is running for president. That’s what happened for this year’s UK general election. One of the candidates was AI Steve, a virtual avatar created with artificial intelligence who was inspired by Steven Endacott, a businessman from Brighton.
Although many took it as a joke, they actually nominated AI for the British Parliament as an independent candidate. In fact, he even had his own page on the Internet. On the website, he highlighted that he was the only candidate capable of holding a conversation with 45,000 voters at a time and making political decisions based on those topics.
Steven Endacott’s cybernetic alter ego only got 179 votes and they were not enough to win a seat. However, his candidacy was very controversial and was quite reminiscent of the episode “Waldo’s Moment” from Black Mirror.
Points matter for your life
The first episode of the third season of Black Mirror presented us with a society in which the evaluations of others determined a person’s social status. The series took this idea to the extreme with Lacie, a young woman obsessed with rankings whose score quickly drops until she is frowned upon in the eyes of society. We can see this with business reviews or with the numbers of followers on social networks, but in China they have already tested a social classification system that is even closer to the plot of the chapter.
Although the idea of the Chinese social credit system dates back to the 1980s, the national pilot with eight credit rating companies was launched in 2014. Furthermore, it was in 2020 when this project was established uninterruptedly. China rates citizens based on their behavior. If they do not pay their debts or similar, they may lose some privileges, such as discounts on flights or credits.
Robotic bees, and killer ones?
Episode 6, also from the third season, no longer sounds so crazy. In this episode of Black Mirror, robotic bees appeared that pollinate flowers to replace real bees, now extinct. However, someone manages to hack them into deadly weapons.
Although they have not been hacked at the moment, Harvard researchers have created tiny drones, the size of bees, that are designed to pollinate flowers. Those who watched the episode of the series may fear that these robotic bees will rebel and end up being killer robots.
Neural implants
Episode 2 of the fourth season of Black Mirror tells the story of Arkangel, a mother who implants a neural device in her daughter. With this he seeks to have it under control at all times, but in the series they warn us of the dangers that may lie behind.
Possibly, as soon as we started talking about neural implants, Elon Musk’s company Neuralink came to mind. This company has been developing these devices for some time that will control brain activity and is even designed to help people with neurological diseases.
At the beginning of the year, they placed the first neural chip in a human and little by little they are making important progress. However, many users are concerned about the health and privacy problems that this technology could pose.
autonomous vehicles
The third episode of the fourth season of Black Mirror focuses on self-driving cars. Throughout the plot, we will see how they try to hide an accident related to an autonomous van that delivers pizzas.
The Toyota automobile brand has collaborated with Pizza Hut to develop an autonomous vehicle that will be specially created to deliver pizzas without the need for a human delivery driver. It is e-Palette, and it could be another of Black Mirror’s predictions.
Robotic dogs
Robotic dogs have been a reality for a long time. In particular, Spot stands out, developed by Boston Dynamics, which is used to inspect dangerous areas. There are cases in which it has been used for police surveillance, but they are not loaded with weapons and we hope they never do. Thus, we will prevent the post-apocalyptic world of chapter 5 of the fourth season of Black Mirror from becoming a reality. In it, they told the story of a survivor of a post-apocalyptic world who escaped from a robot dog capable of eliminating humans if it considered them a threat.
