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.
haswell · 1h ago
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 · 3h ago
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 · 3h ago
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 · 3h ago
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.
This has to be engagement bait built so that you can get mad at the bar%'s lol.
treetalker · 4h ago
But we're 90% of the way toward demons' telling meek sales assistants to commit dark acts to prevent the apocalypse in 1979!
docdeek · 3h ago
‘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 · 3h ago
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 · 3h ago
Yeah that is 100% straight.
mtlynch · 2h ago
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 · 2h ago
How did they fail to mention a British PM did fuck a pig? Just for funnies too not to "save" anyone.
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 · 3h ago
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 · 4h ago
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 · 3h ago
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 · 3h ago
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.
comrade1234 · 3h ago
I never made it past the pig-fucking episode...
jackthetab · 3h ago
You've missed out on a lot.
b3lvedere · 3h ago
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 · 10m ago
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 · 3h ago
I tell friends to skip that first episode if they want to get into the show.
gorfian_robot · 2h ago
same. weird choice for ep1.
cgio · 4h ago
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 · 4h ago
That's actually the second-to-last season. Season 7 has been out since April.
amazingamazing · 3h ago
Odd that nosedive isn’t at 100%. Even here on this site, right now, everyone votes. Votes and flags restrict either obscure or hide your posts. in the case of things like uber you’re kicked off, can’t work based on ratings as well.
jwald33 · 3h ago
40% to Striking Vipers is the most depressing aspect of this site
bee_rider · 3h ago
Yeah, we should be at like 80% by now.
hsbauauvhabzb · 4h ago
This is just an episode summary and arbitrary percentage assigned by the author, effectively another ‘which avengers character are you?’ Clickbait trash. Is this really the quality of a normal HN post?
hobofan · 4h ago
I do think that at least on the conceptual level there is some more merit to it. People often through around remarks like "just like Black Mirror", so I think it's interesting to dive into it a bit more, and decypher whether those are just vapid remarks or there is some substance behind it.
Especially on some of the more technologically advanced topics the average viewers might not be aware that those technolgies already exist in the early stages.
But yes, the execution is quite lacking (hopefully it's just a start?), with most of the content trying to mostly tick the content boxes rather than being of substance, and there being quite thin justification to the percentages. (What needs to happen for Lock Henry to go beyond 80%? I'd wager apart from that concrete instance happening we are essentially there.)
tyleo · 3h ago
I disagree that this is low quality. Blog posts are often a summaries plus opinion. I don’t think HN would ban blogs and I don’t see how this is different. It does not seem like the ‘rate my character’ paradigm you reference.
alganet · 3h ago
> Clickbait trash. Is this really the quality of a normal HN post?
Hi, it's 2025. The whole internet has been like this for more than a decade now, and it's getting worse by the year!
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piggate
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.
Many of which corporations exploited and/or mislead chiefs into believing the project would be safe.
Same premise, different package.
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.
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.
Especially on some of the more technologically advanced topics the average viewers might not be aware that those technolgies already exist in the early stages.
But yes, the execution is quite lacking (hopefully it's just a start?), with most of the content trying to mostly tick the content boxes rather than being of substance, and there being quite thin justification to the percentages. (What needs to happen for Lock Henry to go beyond 80%? I'd wager apart from that concrete instance happening we are essentially there.)
Hi, it's 2025. The whole internet has been like this for more than a decade now, and it's getting worse by the year!