I don’t need to tell anyone just how terrifying the realities in these two Black Mirror episodes are. The concept of eternity in these episodes spooks me the most. In San Junipero, your entire life is eternal once you pass over. Eternal life is a concept that is riddled with philosophical dilemmas like how to feel fulfilled with your daily life after 1000 years or just about any aspect off life that you can think of. Everything we do is motivated by our fear of death, so what would people in San Junepiro REALLY be doing? I think they would all be psychotic eventually.

This is just an example of an extreme feat that technology presents to the human identity and condition. Both San Junepiro and The Grain rewrite what the expectation of being human in normal society is. For example, forgetting the right things is how our brains make abstract thoughts, but with a Grain, that is not possible, so you will get obsessed over all the wrong details, like in the episode. Another example, Hallam gets ignored by the police when she is reporting the assault because she doesn’t have a grain feed to show them. They obviously make some kind of personal judgement, and chose to ignore her. They now don’t know how to trust people because they have outdated the need with technology. This is the kind of danger that many different technologies present. They irreversibly change the way we interact and in doing so atrophy the parts of ourselves that we have subjugated to a technology outside.

It seems to me that the debate is one of self-confidence. Do we really need to replace our humanity with advanced technology at such an alarmingly fast pace? Maybe it is wiser to look inward and try to bring ourselves as a species upward along side the tools we use? Only time will tell I guess. Maybe it will be awesome when we are all robots 😛

I ENJOYED THE READING IMMENSELY. These notes were my strongest.

#Week8

Black Mirror – Season 3 Ep: 6- San Junipiero; & Season 1 Ep: 3 – The Entire History of You

My time watching these two episodes was actually done in my recreational time a few weeks ago. I actually until now have not had the opportunity to discuss the concepts these episodes touched upon. Especially how it was creatively done; employing the possibilities of “cutting Edge” technology into a ambiguously timeless society. Facilitated obviously by the piece of technology in question by each particular episode. 

San Junipiero struck me as what it was, Dante’s Paradiso. It was seemingly beautiful. Obviously to the program that experienced the “paradise” as a result or consequence of a ful/un-fulfilled life. The characters in San Junipiero got to enjoy the “present” that the paradise offered. And…could choose to stay forever in digital bliss. However, as the story’s taciturn introduced the dilemma of leaving one’s physical body behind the choice of what was experienced already was made easier. I would stay in paradiso. If I were the one who had experienced my own experiences up until the point of the character in the hospital bed. The image of a ful-filled life versus the co-stat’s life who’s testimony to the richness of her life was her own character.

“The Entire History of You” was simply a test of the human reaction to nature around him. Man wants to control nature. I think that if given the opportunity to control my memories it’s databank the way I deemed operationally necessary to continue a healthy life. However, that sort of power in conjunction with another individual in the face of a society continuously plagued by “corruption,” maintaining a healthy trusting relationship could result in the outcome of ep.

#Week7

Black Mirror – Season 3 Ep: 1 – Nosedive 

Nosedive was one of my favorite episodes. It fairly depicted what social media could possibly already be doing to society’s temperament of it’s individuals. It was heightened and made more scary by denoting it’s data as the core for all other goverment technology. Everything a person did was denoted by their rating of every interaction. However, the introduction of her co-worker looking to get good ratings by offering coffee to the whole office but she falling for the bait as she was “late to the party” was awesome! It captured the essence of the weakest link. A phrase used to describe a component of a team that has been quantified and it’s capacity recorded by some experience or happenstance. However, with technology and these ratings, the temperament of being a “weak link” in a team get’s stressed by the concept of ratings that one has to work to the decimal point to better. Forget worrying about a GPA, your life is rated and freaking out about that in my opinion based on this episode is down right necessary. The ending where she crashes her best friends wedding is where I established my ultimate connection with this episode. I know the synopsis of the story is kind of the detail but the subtle elephant in the room is directed and conveyed so well that I had to ask myself where I stood amongst my buddies in a wedding setting. Not just any wedding setting. The wedding of whom I consider to care for me as a friend as I care enough to proclaim to the whole world that I consider that person a solid control in my program. Social media as a sensor for such a deep concept is a dangerous facilitator when it comes from such a adolescent generation. It’s almost like asking a robot to give a patient bad news because it’s mechanical cousin “life-support machine” has been keeping Johnny alive so long. Why not?!

#Week6

 Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 Episode 16, “The Offspring” (Netflix)

This episode was a good one to compare to today’s robot revolution. Data’s connection to Lal was somewhat cold and antiquated. Although the later denotes a negative vibe, it would be better restated as “colloquial” amidst robots akin to robot life. Data is a remarkable machine capable of calculating and analyzing large and complex sets of data very fast. As it goes on the show, he embodies walking, living technology. I don’t know how else to ascribe the following criteria to some principle of intelligence other than to share the following: I still remember the smartest kid in my high school class. And although he is not my “brain-child” nor I his. I will forever compare my idea of intelligence and standards for being smart by his scale. Similarly to how Data is portrayed on the show. Data embodyies high-tech hardware with human characteristics and not to mentions is smartest specimen in the galaxy. And he just created a “child.” An entity new to the universe that maintains his abilities and some….  If I properly adhere to the principles of mechanical engineering then as it evolves I won’t have to worry about my morals changing with the demographic of my scope. Data’s offspring did not live to see his age. Which is the key element. His age, like technology will soon be timeless. If humans integrate technology the way they intend for the future to do, like toilet appear; then the many facets of its influence will be endless and that much more monumental to the human temperament. 

#Week5

Ex Machina

Ex Machina was a brilliant film. Artificial Intelligence portrayed that way was very interesting. It was as though it were an imminent threat in the hands of our unlikliest offenders of it’s natural law. Caleb never could wish for the chance to meet one of his idols the way he did. The scenes of luxury leading up to the meet and the kind of person Nathan was denoted to be was full of many sensations. The colors of the environment and the anticipation of a character who appears to be an up-and-coming genius led us to Nathan; whom created Ava. Our feelings about Ava our developed by Caleb and his experiences interviewing her. Which were some very intense and interesting scenes. What this scenes say about A.I. I think were pretty obvious. It wasn’t until the other autonomous beings were unearthed that my own fears played a part in the story. AI is built up of many components. Google’s search engine and it’s ability to complete searches based on phrases or even loosely translated or even relevant information is uncanny. Place that one monumental capability into a walking, seemingly nature-sustaining, entity and you have what is to the beholder a powerful tool. A self learning tool; or a weapon; or a sensitive companion as AVA proved to be the above in many situations. However, again, it wasn’t until Caleb’s assistance revealed itself to be an entity as well. Nathan in essence surrounded himself with the only controls worthy of his intelligence. Caleb was simply a hired hacker whose sole responsibility was to find the flaws in Nathan’s ultimate creations.