Have you watched 'Black Mirror'? The Elementh team is a big fan of it! This dystopia series shows a alternative present or nearest future where the greatest innovations meet the darkest human instincts. Today we will discuss the most terrifying episodes and find out which of them predict the future realistically.
Before starting the story, we should warn you on spoilers ;)
The Entire History of You
In this episode we might see what happens if people are able to record every moment of their lives and rewatch such memories whenever they want. Though no technology can tap into one’s memory directly, experts believe that we are moving towards it. For example, devices like Snap Inc.'s Spectacles— camera-equipped sunglasses can record up to 10 seconds of video. And this technology will become cheaper, better, and more widespread in the nearest future.
Be Right Back
One of our favourite topics devoted to high-class machine learning. The main character is a woman, whose husband died. She gets to know about a service that can recreate human essence, using photos, videos, and social media posts. At first, she chats with him online, then they speak by phone. Finally, a cyborg version is living with her and helping to raise her daughter. Did you know that the first two forms of human recreation are real? There are chatbots with artificial intelligence and personality detection services like Crystal, which pulls online data about people. So users can tailor emails and messages to their personality, reveal the steps we're taking to make AI as smart as humans someday.
Nosedive
This episode shows a system of social ratings similar to those in the Uber network. There, each person rates everyone, influencing the score in real-time mode. Nowadays, the closest analogues are Microsoft's Hololens and the system of social credit scores in China. Chinese citizens earn specific scores for how often they default on loan payments, get traffic tickets, and break other forms of social trust. Chronic trust-breakers won’t get access to certain services.
Shut Up and Dance
Cybersecurity is the main point of this episode. Hackers spying through a teenager's webcam started to blackmail him. They draw him into a series of high-risk encounters and fatal actions.
Now, hackers already take over people’s webcams and spread personal information around the world. "Black Mirror" one more time shows what might happen if hackers decide to have some fun.
Hang the DJ
It is another story about future where dating system automatically pairs people together with no free will. The main characters, a man and a woman, decide to escape after realizing that they live in a simulation made by the dating app.
At the moment, different dating sites already use algorithmic matching. When we provide more data about ourselves, about how people are reacting to different situations, dating apps would be smart enough to run similar simulations.
Hope you enjoyed our review on "Black Mirror" dark predictions. Leave comments and share your ideas of a better technological future!
