In “San Junipero,” two women named Kelly and Yorkie meet in a beachside town and form a special connection. As the episode unfolds, however, we learn this isn’t any simple tourist destination, but a virtual reality playground for the dead and terminally ill, where you’re assigned era-specific outfits and dope Barbie cars. As each creeps closer to death in the flesh, the two grapple with whether they should continue their relationship in the virtual world,  to “pass over” rather than “pass away.” In other words, they live in a future where they can choose to either disappear, or have a replica of their human consciousness uploaded to the all-powerful cloud, existing in a fantasy land forever.

I don’t think it’s possible, because  transferring our consciousness to a computer to be remotely feasible, not only would we need a computer capable of handling the computational load of our brains and of replicating the complicated web of neural connections, we’d also need a method for transferring the parts of our brains that make us who we are to a computer: our memories, our unique way of processing information, our personal quirks, all into a digital format. The things we don’t know about the brain vastly outnumber the things that we do know, making building an artificial brain a tough task.

I found both of these episodes of Black Mirror to be really interesting. In the episode titled “History of You” people in this society have a tiny grain implanted in the back of their ears. This grain records anything they hear, speak or see and they can access these memories anytime on a TV or their eye. I thought this was a really cool thing to have until Liam practically went insane after going through many redos. These grains could also be an invasion of privacy. Someone could force a person to play one of their memories on a video player. The grains are also similar to social media today. Anyone could see what you post on social media. A lot of times, social media users post their memories such as pictures or thoughts. Things that were posted in the past can be brought up and be damaging to a person’s life. In the episode, the grain destroyed the marriage of Liam and his wife.

The episode San Junipero is about a simulation that deceased or elderly get uploaded into a simulation where they could be in their younger bodies. In the beginning I didn’t think much of the episode. Later on in the episode, I learn that Torkie and Kelly are in a simulation and that they are actually really old. I thought this was a really interesting idea. A way for anyone to live forever, even after they die. Although this might sound nice, to never die, I feel like life could get boring. Personally, I don’t think I would want to be put into San Junipero. I feel like knowing that I am in a simulation, I would realize that there really isn’t a purpose in this simulation so what is the purpose of living.

I will concentrate on the episode San Junipero because I really enjoyed it and thought the technology and ideas behind it were fascinating. The episode starts out with Yorkie and Kelly meeting each other in a dance/game club. They were opposites in many ways but attracted to each other most likely for that exact reason. As the show progresses Yorkie can’t find Kelly and you quickly start to realize that there is something strange going on but it difficult to realize what.
Before long I finally realized that they are in a virtual world (probably took me longer than most). This was immediately a brain buster. I was confused on how they got there and if it was by choice or maybe because earth got over populated. The facts start rolling in during the scene where Kelly visits Yorkie at the nursing home. They are both old now and apparently back on Earth. Kelly finds out that Yorkie is a paraplegic and her time is limited. Yorkie has chosen to marry to be able to get consent to basically commit her time after death to San Junipero. We also learn that people alive can only visit for a limited time before having to come back to Earth.
My first thought was is this an option over Heaven? Like you can choose to live in a cloud-based reality that you know and have visited over taking the unknown route of life after death. Obviously, Yorkie had made her decision to commit to San Junipero, but we see later in the show that Kelly hasn’t quite been able to process the decision yet. This led to an emotional scene where Kelly shed light on her past and the conflicts she had. The end of the episode was weird when Kelly’s hard drive was being uploaded to the data bank. Makes you wonder if something like this is possible one day…