Black Mirror Season 6 premieres this Thursday (15th) on Netflix. If you enjoy dreaming up weird, innovative, and/or bizarre scenarios, you should know that some situations depicted in previous seasons have already received traces of reality.
Episode “Free Fall”
Season 3 Episode 1 revolves around a system of classifying people that fuels a society obsessed with selfimage.
In the scenes, a woman tries to use a friend’s popularity to improve her life.
What already exists: Rating and notes of people and services
Anyone who uses Instagram and Uber has already seen it. We classify people, propagate lifestyles that are considered perfect, and many people admire those who have many followers.
And tech companies have been embracing facial recognition technologies for some time. Your phone is there to prove it.
What doesn’t exist: Augmented reality eye implant showing realtime facial recognition classification of people.
While online popularity and recommendations sometimes help Instagram and YouTube creators in certain situations, these criteria do not bar you from using services or purchasing products like you do with Black Mirror.
Follow Fifteen Million Merits
In the second chapter of the first season, people live in cabins with screens and ride bicycles to produce electricity and earn “merits” (virtual currencies). A young woman tries her luck as a singer on a reality show to escape semislavery, but is convinced she will become a porn star.
What already exists: Bitcoins, anonymous reality shows, animated avatars in games and social networks, online pornography, gym TV screens.
Apps like Heartbit and DietBet give money or rewards to users who exercise. The company VirZOOM has already developed a virtual reality headset synchronized with exercise bikes.
TikTok is a popular app that allows you to lip sync share and rate music videos.
What doesn’t exist: The physical strength of the population is used as an “engine” for energy production and as a source of income in an extremely limited regime, with few alternatives for personal growth.
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