Black Mirror has always felt like technology fear mongering to me.
[QUOTE=Killer monkey;51993997]Black Mirror has always felt like technology fear mongering to me.[/QUOTE]
Understandable, but it's still a very solid series from what I've seen and heard, and it's always good to have someone raising counterpoints. If they're wrong, we can counter them back, and if they're not, what do we have to fear?
It's technology fear mongering but it's [I]good[/I] technology fear mongering. They don't outright hate technology, but they understand that technology, if used incorrectly, can be scurry.
[QUOTE=Killer monkey;51993997]Black Mirror has always felt like technology fear mongering to me.[/QUOTE]
I can see how it comes across as that but I see it more as a warning what the technology could drive humans to do or how to act.
If you ask me the show does a really job of showing how individuals could get corrupted or abuse the technology the specific episode is focusing on. It's like with any other tool humans have made, the tool is never bad by itself rather the human who abuses it should be put to blame.
But I'm also really biased because I love Black Mirror and I think everyone who hasn't seen it should watch it. I think it's a genius commentary on current (or coming) times and how the world could change because of advancement in technology.
I think the show does a great job presenting the idea that technology is inherently amoral. It can be used equally for good or bad, and it totally depends on us.
[QUOTE=Killer monkey;51993997]Black Mirror has always felt like technology fear mongering to me.[/QUOTE]
I think its more like they use technology to be the medium of a Dystopian atmosphere because it's extremely relevant to how technology is progressing now, and it gives the illusion of "this will be coming" because of how 'close' the technology is to modern day's technology being,[I] 5-20~ years[/I] off.
it's how everyone got so spooked about 2012 doomsday event, because it's something that was predicted to happen in the short future. obviously this is different but the same principle imo
It's not really saying technology is bad. It's not a technological problem. It's a human problem.
[editline]22nd March 2017[/editline]
Black Mirror just uses technology to highlight a flaw of society and/or make fun of it.
I kinda want to watch this tv show now
I think some episodes are especially ham-fisty in their messages, but overall imo the show has a great look into how society at large can abuse technology and how in turn that abuse folds back into society again.
If you ignore some of the more crazy plot elements thrown in to make it more exciting, a lot of episodes have a pretty dark forecast of how people abuse technology.
In fact you could see some things as plausible even with today's world.
I feel like I'm in the minority because Men Against Fire (S3,e5) was one of my favorites because it seems absolutely plausible in the next 25 years. Sure the episode was predictable, but made a fantastic point about [sp]the psychological barriers of killing people and how to overcome them through virtual reality[/sp].
It's a good show, but I feel like it's overpraised. I just found the series somewhat inconsistent in quality. Some episodes weren't that much better than a subpar syfy original, while others were interesting enough that you'd want to see more of the world explored. It's pretty fun though, and if you don't like an episode you can still look forward to what new ideal the next episode unwraps.
[QUOTE=shadow_oap;51994338]It's a good show, but I feel like it's overpraised. I just found the series somewhat inconsistent in quality. Some episodes weren't that much better than a subpar syfy original, while others were interesting enough that you'd want to see more of the world explored. It's pretty fun though, and if you don't like an episode you can still look forward to what new ideal the next episode unwraps.[/QUOTE]
I thought even the worst episodes were at least somewhat clever, and the best were genius. It's almost cliche to say at this point, but San Junipero was seriously one of the best TV episodes of all time.
[QUOTE=Killer monkey;51993997]Black Mirror has always felt like technology fear mongering to me.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Funktastic Dog;51994045]It's technology fear mongering but it's [I]good[/I] technology fear mongering. They don't outright hate technology, but they understand that technology, if used incorrectly, can be scurry.[/QUOTE]
It's not technology fearmongering; it's a commentary on where we are in society today, and where we may be going to in the future, that simply uses current and futuristic technology as a plot device for making that commentary. Four good examples from the show include:
S1:E1 The National Anthem: [sp]How the rise of the Internet and social media have fundamentally changed the way that we live our lives, the dangers of resulting things such as social media hiveminds and providing a solid platform for extremists (eg alt-right), and how governments have to adapt to these issues.[/sp]
S1:E2 Fifteen Million Merits: [sp]I shouldn't have to explain this episode if you are already critical of contemporary TV shows such as America's Got Talent, The X Factor or Married at First Sight; the episode is a commentary on how many people these days are throwing away their spare time otherwise spent in self-development or learning or whatever, instead for free or cheap, shallow entertainment.
Eg look at the struggle that Bing and Abi each have to go through to get on that show to earn a chance at freedom or at least the idea of something different from their normal lives, just so that they can be put in front of a camera for the cheap amusement of the dickheads on the pedalling machines.[/sp]
S2:E3 The Waldo Moment: [sp]Donald. Fucking. Trump. And note that this episode was released more than four years ago.[/sp]
S3:E1 Nosedive: [sp]How today, given that so much of our lives are spent on social media, that we tend to spend more effort on trying to get more likes on our Facebook posts than everyone else, rather than actually just living life. Note how Lacie's 'rating' started at above 4 stars out of 5, and yet she was miserable all the way through the episode. All the way until the end when she got downrated to 0 stars and was thrown in a metaphorical 'social media outcasts prison', where she ended up genuinely smiling for the first time in the entire episode while freely sharing insults with another inmate, without fear of repercussion.[/sp]
The episode with the husband and wife, and memory implants. Got to me so bad, I can't watch that episode again. This show is too damn real.
[QUOTE=Killer monkey;51993997]Black Mirror has always felt like technology fear mongering to me.[/QUOTE]
The technology on the show is only as bad as the characters that utilize it.
[QUOTE=Killer monkey;51993997]Black Mirror has always felt like technology fear mongering to me.[/QUOTE]
Fun fact: The creator loves technology.
Tech can be good and bad, black mirror shows the bad side.
[editline]22nd March 2017[/editline]
Or rather, the ugly side.
[QUOTE=Antimuffin;51995098]Fun fact: The creator loves technology.[/QUOTE]
I don't even see why statements like this have to be made. No offense, but technology has and always will be a tool, and tools lack morality - the rock that started the first fire could have been the rock that Cain used to kill Abel, after all.
[QUOTE=The Rifleman;51994885]The episode with the husband and wife, and memory implants. Got to me so bad, I can't watch that episode again. This show is too damn real.[/QUOTE]
this episode tapped into massive insecurities i've previously learned to tuck away and not affect my way of life after several shitty relationships. i literally had to just take a hard walk around the city after watching this to shake off the feeling it gave me.
the one with the musical talent show made me stay away from porn for like a week.
The ones set strictly in the present are the best I'd say, they have the most to say despite being more about people than the gizmos.
S1:E2 Fifteen Million Merits fucked me up bro...
[QUOTE=TheJoey;51996217]this episode tapped into massive insecurities i've previously learned to tuck away and not affect my way of life after several shitty relationships. i literally had to just take a hard walk around the city after watching this to shake off the feeling it gave me.
the one with the musical talent show made me stay away from porn for like a week.[/QUOTE]
Exactly how I felt. I just kinda set there for an hour. It was heavy.
[QUOTE=Killer monkey;51993997]Black Mirror has always felt like technology fear mongering to me.[/QUOTE]
I think it's more of a "worst-case scenario of a technological society" vision of the future. Meant as a sort of gentle warning of what technology is capable of, but not a "THE END IS NIGH, THROW AWAY YOUR IPHONES" kind of message.
Isn't the slogan for Black Mirror "We've got a human problem"?
[editline]22nd March 2017[/editline]
oh no I'm just thinking of our thread on the show
[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;51998133]Isn't the slogan for Black Mirror "We've got a human problem"?
[editline]22nd March 2017[/editline]
oh no I'm just thinking of our thread on the show[/QUOTE]
It is a human problem. Black Mirror is a commentary on society today. It simply uses technology as a plot device; it certainly isn't about 'technology could be evil'.
What about San Janipero? That was a fucking beautiful episode.
I'm surprised no one has talked about White Bear yet, that episode gave me a lot of questions to think about at the end.
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