How Close to Black Mirror Are We?
34 comments
·June 19, 2025Lerc
haswell
Arguably it’s about both.
Much of the technology is dangerous in the way guns are dangerous.
It may be true that human behavior is what is reflected back to us, but the potential for danger co-emerges with the capability of the technology we’re using.
pieds
It think the site is an interesting exercise. If nothing else to show that science fiction doesn't have to happen like we might think it does. There is no space elevator, but 1 million people in the air at any given time. There is no matrix, but many lifetimes have been spent in World of Warcraft. Reality doesn't need to switch context for things to change, which is often what science fiction does.
mrtksn
This doubles as an excellent episode guide, I was wondering what I've already watched and what I want to watch again and the short analysis style of this is superb.
That said, I don't agree with the assessments that much. For example, the Metalhead episode which is about a robotic dog chasing people is stated as %40 achieved but IMHO it is %90 achieved and it just takes a will for this to happen. They are already doing it on the battlefield in Ukraine BTW, just needs better batteries for similar fiercity.
simpaticoder
I was about to post Metalhead (https://www.howclosetoblackmirror.com/metalhead) but found you got there first. Interestingly I read that the initial draft had the robots being remotely piloted by humans, which would have been much less frightening (and it would have ruined the apocolyptic setting). The only real fantasy element are the super-high density batteries and extremely fast solar charging. The embed-in-the-skin tracker tech doesn't seem realistic, either - but I suppose if you have those batteries it's possible. Each tag appears separately powered, and needs enough power to transmit through walls and over great distance. The AI and robotics are, ironically, the least fantasy of the elements.
The theme of technology continuing without humans was treated in Ray Bradbury's excellent, melancholic, still-relevant tale written in 1950 "There Will Come Soft Rains". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Come_Soft_Rains_(sh...
wagwang
This has to be engagement bait built so that you can get mad at the bar%'s lol.
treetalker
But we're 90% of the way toward demons' telling meek sales assistants to commit dark acts to prevent the apocalypse in 1979!
docdeek
‘Shut Up and Dance’ at 60% seems low. The three technologies the article references (Hacker blackmail, Webcam spying, Online coercion and extortion) all seem to be realities today. It’s one of the episodes that I think it most likely to reflect the present day.
arrowsmith
There’s already a common type of email spam that says, essentially, “I hacked your computer and watched you jerk off through your webcam, send me bitcoin or I’ll publish it along with your porn history.”
This is basically the premise of that Black Mirror episode, except if the spammer had actually hacked you for real and wasn’t just shotgun-blasting the message to stupid people.
ainiriand
Yeah that is 100% straight.
mtlynch
I don't understand the percentages. Loch Henry is at 80% despite all criteria being reached.
To me, Loch Henry is already reality. People treat true crime documentaries and podcasts as pure entertainment and lose sight of the actual people involved. What's the gap?
gorfian_robot
How did they fail to mention a British PM did fuck a pig? Just for funnies too not to "save" anyone.
pacifika
The article is not proof of your claim AFAICS?
kylecazar
The first episode of season 7, Common People, messed with me pretty hard. I've always been a little hostile toward subscriptions services, but... damn.
It seems far away -- but really if Neuralink et al manage to correct brain disorder(s) in the near future, and slapped a subscription on it, we'd be there.
bandoti
The thing is though, this story is a metaphor for life we’re living right now. Consider up in Canada the paper mills that were built near water streams, dumping mercury into indigenous people's food.
Many of which corporations exploited and/or mislead chiefs into believing the project would be safe.
Same premise, different package.
notahacker
As a Brit, I'm disappointed the first one regarding the Prime Minister and the pig hit 80% based on some vague social media trends rather than a rather more obvious connection between a [former] Prime Minister and a pig...
gumbojuice
Every sci-fi is a contemporary author's idea of the future. The further our the more unlikely the idea. Would love the site to be extended to any sci-fi. The percentages could be automated. How close to Dune are we?
eloisant
I don't think it's true, sci-fi rarely tries to be an accurate prediction of the future.
Rather it's talking about the present, by accentuating some trends of the present to make people think about it. Black Mirror in particular is all about that, it's exaggerating some trends from the present to make us aware of them and the potential consequences if pushed too far.
cgio
If the bars are any accurate, the fact that the last season is the closest to reality, would be an indication that it becomes less imaginative.
hobofan
That's actually the second-to-last season. Season 7 has been out since April.
comrade1234
I never made it past the pig-fucking episode...
jackthetab
You've missed out on a lot.
b3lvedere
I haven't seen any episode. Lots of people told me i should watch them all, but i'm just scared i will feel depressed for a long time if i did.
jackthetab
If you also avoid movies and books of the same ilk for the same reasons, yeah, I can see that.
To me, they're just great SF stories (well, the first three(?) seasons before Netflix bought them and Americanized them): some poignant, some horror-ish, some uplifting.
I found the "unforeseen consequences" of technology fascinating, but that's just me.
prophesi
I tell friends to skip that first episode if they want to get into the show.
gorfian_robot
same. weird choice for ep1.
I think it's an interesting thing how much people consider Black Mirror to be about the dangers of technology.
Black Mirror is about technology, and the dangers of people.
Charlie Brooker loves technology and makes no bones about it. It is perhaps a degree of irony that so many watch Black Mirror and blame the technology because they fail to see the Mirror.