2023-06-15 23:18:09
Black Mirror, the series created by English writer Charlie Brooker, has been on television for more than a decade. It was first broadcast on the British channel Channel 4 from 2011 to 2016, when it was transferred to Netflix. This June 15, after four years without having a delivery, it premiered its sixth season with five chapters loaded with raw stories, which according to the creator himself, have not been seen before.
“This season it gets weirder. There are episodes that I’m intrigued to see how the audience reacts, because we’ve done things like never before and I also think the five episodes have some of the strongest endings in the history of the series,” Brooker said.
However, he did offer some advice: “Black Mirror always works best if viewers go in blind, without much detail, that way they’re going to be surprised.” It has a cast with actors like Aaron Paul from Breaking BadZazie Beetz, Michael Cera, Salma Hayek, Pinault, Kate Mara and Anjana Vasan, among others.
The series brings back dystopian and dark worlds, where technology is the protagonist and the one in charge of imposing the relationship of society, a group or even a single person with machines and technological advances. It proposes scenarios that, although in 2011 they were crazy, are no longer so today.
In just four years, technology has advanced rapidly, according to the experts consulted. Terms that were not as well known before as they are now are on the rise but were already alluded to in the series such as the metaverse, artificial intelligence with ChatGPTself-driving cars, robots, intelligent instant messaging, and even brain implants to improve the abilities of human beings.
This is no longer fiction. They are technological developments that are being perfected. “These technologies proposed by the series already exist. Despite the fact that the series poses them in extreme scenarios, they are all palpable and achievable. For example, people can access virtual simulators through headsets or glasses, but they still can’t be accessed through a chip. Programmers can create all kinds of simulations”, explained Samuel Acosta Ortiz, professor of the Interactive Design undergraduate course at Eafit University.
The specialist added that “here in Medellín, the Eafit University has made educational simulators in the field of health to simulate knee or laparoscopic surgery and thus ensure that people are immersed in that environment and thus learn the procedures. Just as for health, virtual worlds and the metaverse are also used for entertainment or business, you can choose an avatar and personalize your life in that world.”
For Óscar Sánchez, professor at the Faculty of Digital Entertainment Engineering at UPB, Black Mirror he proposes alternate realities that could arrive should these technologies advance so far that they materialize and somehow get out of control.
It also addresses the importance and use of man-machine interfaces: “One of the biggest current interests that is also shown in the series is the sensors incorporated into the body of people. Digital devices in the future will be able to be carried with us at all times, something similar to what we already do with the cell phone, we carry it in our pockets everywhere”.
The third episode of season one, The entire history of you, it proposes a reality where people have access to a memory implant, which records everything they do, see and hear and thus can review all the memories of their life.
Although in the real world technology does not have these scopesthere are already some implants that help certain people to achieve what was previously impossible, such as restoring mobility after an accident in which they became paraplegics or bringing vision back to a person who could not do so.
And so it happens with many chapters: they are the representation that technology has no limits. The series has proposed stories of people who live off the popularity of their social networks, soldiers with implants that do not allow them to realize who they are really killing, immersive video games and virtual worlds such as St. Junipero (season three, episode four) a place where they download the consciousness of people who have passed away to create a new virtual life.
That is where society is headed but the speed with which these mechanisms develop and the slow response of governments in terms of regulation, worries the experts. She’s getting out of hand.
a fast pace
If terms like the metaverse and artificial intelligence have become popular in just four years, it is likely that the technology will continue to expand. That accelerated pace is not equal to the cultural response of societies due to inequality in terms of education, economy, generational barriers. How are we going to control all these new ways of relating?
“Technically, there are already a lot of possibilities that can be achieved with technology, however, in addition to the fact that they are expensive — for example, glasses have prices that oscillate around two million pesos — not all people feel comfortable with them. . There is an ergonomic issue, but also a cultural one. It is obviously a slower process”, added Oscar Sánchez.
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Specialists point out that concerns about these technological advances focus on risks and regulation that has so far been little, more in Latin American countries, according to Paola Hincapié, content director of Agencia El Grifo.
The new episodes are already available on Netflix and, although it is a new production, experts consider that they should address issues such as the risks faced by some business models and jobs that could disappear and continue exploring how technology can be used in favor of humanity. .
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