7 shocking technologies from the Black Mirror series that are already a reality

When the first season of the British series Black Mirror was released in 2011, The innovative technologies in each chapter have attracted the attention of science fiction and suspense fans.

So much that Netflix saw the potential in the proposition and purchased the idea in 2015. once the first three seasons have been broadcast on British state television .

As the first seasons developed, technologies like Neural implants or artificial intelligence were just ideas in niche first-world universities. , so they were perfect for a series that shows dystopian futures. This production invites us to reflect on the weight that technologies have on human life, exposing a series of ethical and moral dilemmas.

“If this technology existed, it would be very difficult to resist it, because these are ‘useful’ things for society” commented director and screenwriter Charlie Brooker in 2016 in an interview for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.

“There’s actually no reason why they shouldn’t be created.” he declared on this occasion, despite the twists and turns and tragic situations that each chapter of the series presents.

Today, this series has six seasons and a film. There are 27 different stories in total, explored in self-contained chapters. Some technologies are becoming more and more common, even though they may still seem a little crazy.

Arkange (2017), the first episode of the fourth season, presents the tragic consequences that a chip implanted in a girl’s brain. This curious element allows, among other functions, that its mother can monitor her health in real time, clinging to the fear that something bad could happen to her only daughter without realizing it .

It is the same objective of Neuralink, the neural implant patented by billionaire Elon Musk and which was recently tested for the first time in a human. According to its official website, this implant would have functions to monitor the wearer’s cardiovascular rate, brain activity and other parameters. It is expected that this technology can provide new data for treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease.

There pollination It is crucial for life, because It allows vegetation and flowers to proliferate where they are needed. However, the pollution and other environmental factors have significantly reduced the global bee population over the past decade. For that, Walmart In 2018, it patented the license to produce small drones which fulfill the mission of these insects, by flying near the flowers and carrying out pollination.

In the chapter Hated in the nation (2016) from season 3, it is revealed that the robot bees intended to pollinate a country which has suffered a great crisis in its agriculture is causing a great catastrophe in the cities.

One of the most memorable chapters of the series is Dive (2016), from season 3, in which thePeople are qualified after every social interaction they have, through an application. This score allows the most qualified people to access a series of social and economic benefits, such as improving their housing and lifestyle, while the worst-off people become social outcasts.

Somehow, Google “stars” and other apps work like this . Ratings can lead people to prefer one service over another, for example when making an appointment with a doctor or choosing a hotel. However, China took a step towards this chapter a few years ago, implement in 2020 its Social credit system a system very similar to the one seen in this episode. It is not yet as advanced or as massive as in the series, but it is expected that in the future it will become mandatory for all people living in the Asian country.

In the most recent version of Future Congress, at the CEINA cultural center in Santiago, A four-legged robot has attracted public attention. It is place , a robot dog designed by the company Boston Dynamics and already used by companies in northern Chile. One of its main functions is look for dangers inside mines, before they are explored by humans, so as not to risk disasters.

These four-legged robots are reminiscent of the device present in metalhead (2017), described as one of the strangest chapters of the series, since unlike others, the context is never entirely clear. The “villain” of this episode, the only one in black and white of Black Mirror, is a robot dog that acts as a deadly weapon and continues the protagonists of this chapter.

In theory, this may seem like one of the most harmless inventions on this list. This is a technology that allows you to animate emojis using facial recognition technology, which ensures that the image seems to speak. Manzana It has had this service for several years with its “Memojis”, and there are even content creators on YouTube who make all their videos behind an animated avatar.

Technology virtually identical to this tool goes out of control in episode 3 of the second season. The chapter The Waldo moment (2013) shows how an actor uses a animated blue bear to criticize politics, running as a candidate for the United Kingdom Parliament. The cartoon garners better approval than the real humans, generating intense political debate in the country.

Apps like Tinder have become popular not only because of the ccontroversies, scams and curious stories that have been shared by users of this platform dating. The secret to finding an ideal potential partner is not magic, but rather a effective algorithm which matches people based on their shared tastes and physical proximity.

In the chapter Hang the DJ (2017) from season 4, the protagonists find each other through an app that uses these analytics to find “soul mates” based on data managed by the app . Although in fiction it is much more sophisticated, since it can even predict whether the relationship with a person will last a few weeks or a few years.

The chapter Shut up and dance (2016) is known for keeping the viewer in suspense for more than forty minutes of the story. The episode’s protagonist is a young adult who must complete a series of tasks to prevent leaking of videos and images from your computer camera, which were extracted without your permission.

Currently, There are a series of programs that allow access to a person’s mobile device or computer, and allow you to view items such as history or contacts remotely. Most of them require user permission and have multiple uses, such as running computer cleanups or fixing problems such as software. Any office but there are also viruses that can affect the devices of the same episode, obtaining unauthorized access to the cameras of computers or phones.