Believe it or not, our natural world is turning into a robotic one real soon. We are in the process of futuristic developments as more and more high-tech inventions and innovations are taking place, aiming to provide ease to human life. But the question is, Is that what we really need? Is this world really progressing towards positive aspects of technology?
Not all of us are unaware of what lies ahead of us though, “Black Mirror”, one of the hit Netflix science-fiction anthology series created by Charlie Brooker, shows the dark side of the life influenced by technology.
As the name suggests, ‘Black Mirror’ is actually the screen you’re reading this article on; Smart phones, TV LCD, Laptop and computer screen etc, this is where the show starts from. Each episode has an insight into futurism, revealing what’s coming next and how it is going to affect our daily lives, and much to our shock, most of their predictions are coming true. Here’s how!
CONTACT LENSES THAT RECORD VIDEO:
In a Black Mirror’s Episode named “The entire history of you”, they show an advanced society where everyone is wearing the high-tech kind of contact lenses which can record everything you see. The contact lenses preserve memories for you to replay them later and everything from your past starts rolling in front of your eyes in a video format. It can also take pictures, preview your social media accounts and re-watch and revive moments of your life ‘in your eyes’. People can also allow other people to watch their memory-videos on TV screens.
This episode was aired on 18th December 2011 when people had absolutely no idea about how could such innovations be made, but it was proven wrong 4 years later in 2016 when a renowned company in the tech-world “Sony” filed to patent their new invention of digital contact lenses that can record video, store and replay it, which is exactly the same concept that was shown in the show ‘Black Mirror’.
Samsung also patented smart lenses that have similar features but they require smartphones to be controlled, unlike Sony’s smart lenses that can be operated by the movements of your eyelids. Now, Imagine the world where people start wearing such smart contact lenses OR Watch it yourself in the episode of Black Mirror.
RATING PEOPLE OUT OF FIVE:
Rating public places like hotels, restaurants, theater etc is a common thing, but rating random people out of 5 stars ‘publicly’ sure isn’t!
Rating something or someone means you’re judging its reputation in the market or society. That was the basic idea of “Nosedive”, the first episode of season 3 Black Mirror, which aired on 21 Oct 2016. ‘Nosedive’ depicts the world in which the entire system works on the basis of ‘Ranking’ – people, using their smartphones, rate the individuals around them out of 5 stars. People receiving highest ratings enjoy the top positions of the social hierarchy, whereas those who are low in their social rating face restrictions and have to suffer.
Right after the release of this episode, it was reported that China’s government is also planning to launch a “Social Credit System”, aiming to develop a national reputation system by assigning a ‘Social Credit’ which will rate every Chinese citizen based on the data collected by the government, regarding their financial and social status. Ratings will also be taken from Chinese citizen’s online behavior.
Although this program hasn’t been launched yet and is still just a proposal, there’s, however, a mobile application present which has been designed and released for this same purpose of ‘rating people’, and it came out way before ‘Nosedive’. Named “Peeple” is a controversial social app that, with its first update, allowed people to review and rank anyone who has an established Facebook account. Its purpose was to look up a person’s personality and character status and rate him accordingly to build his social image, and leave it for the entire world to see and judge him.
Since the app drew a lot of criticism over concerns of cyber-bullying, Peeple’s creators relaunched the app with a watered-down version update in March 2016. But even after the update, Peeple couldn’t grab the attention of a lot of People.
INSECT ROBOTS:
The mind-bending finale of the third season of ‘Black Mirror’ shocked all by a very thought-provoking prediction about the usage of robots in the modern world. In the episode “Hated in the Nation”, they show robotic honey bees called Autonomous Drone Insect (ADI) invented to counteract the acute collapse of the bee population and preserve the process of flower pollination. But things turn absolutely disastrous when a preparator turned traitor decides to hack the bee-system and commit a massacre using those ADIs.
In reality, back in 2013, Harvard Scientists created a Robo-fly, size of a bee, made up of carbon fiber, invented with an aim to help in the rescue operations of Earthquake or other natural calamities.
Also, a Norwegian company is making drones the size of a hummingbird. Now, as shocking and terrifying that episode was, the idea of misusing robots is even more horrifying. Companies really need to maintain a backup plan if any mishap occurs.
Apart from these major technology predictions coming true, there are a lot more in every episode of this epic sci-fi series ‘Black Mirror’, that will blow your mind and make you wonder if high-tech advancements are the route to success only or are we totally ignoring the drawbacks?
For example, the scariest episode of the third season “Shut up and Dance” will make you cover and block the webcam of your laptop because the show revealed how hackers can see and record you through it if they want to.
Technological advancements is definitely a divine futuristic approach and can help humanity in many ways but safety measures should always be taken first, because “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”