Charlie Brookers latest creepy predictions are coming true even faster than the previous Black Mirror ideas.
This article originally appeared atDen of Geek UK.
It contains major spoilers forBlack Mirrorseason 3.
Not least a certain situation involving a pig and a Prime Minister.
And when the bountiful harvest from Netflix arrived last month (six newBlack Mirrorinstallments, all at once!
), the news stories came even quicker.
Brookers imagination and modern day society/science seem to be scarily in sync now.
Heres a look at theBlack Mirrorpredictions that might be coming true in real life…
The headline was this: Chinas plan to organize its society relies on big data to rate everyone.
You might also like to know that a people-rating app does exist, and its cutesy name is Peeple.
It allows you to score people on professional, personal, or romantic interactions.
The appsiTunes reviews boxis currently full of unimpressedBlack Mirrorfans.
Sony is also developing its ownsmart lens.
Playtest
Playtest frightened the bejeezus out of me.
It was a fun experience.
But still, watching Playtest was extra unsettling for me.
Finding aBlack Mirrorprotagonist highly relatable isnt exactly where I want to be in my life.
A greatGuardian articleby Keith Stuart goes into the specifics of how Playtest apes modern gaming phenomena.
Back in 1997, KonamisOshiete Your Heartwas altering game content based on the players heart-rate and skin conductance.
More recently, weve seen software like Affectiva monitoring facial expressions to try and judge player emotions during gameplay.
We dont need to worry about anyone injecting deadly test games into our spinal columns just yet.
Im sure someone could cook up a version of that which doesnt require an injection.
A vague plan was forming to fill this section with stuff about online trolls in general.
Maybe I could go into the history of the troll face meme thingy.
First, an attractive woman added him on Facebook and got chatting.
Next, she added him on Skype.
Eventually, she was encouraging him to masturbate on camera for her.
Listen, it says, Im a man, and I recorded a video of you masturbating.
Do you want to see it?
He sends me the video.
Its about five minutes of me masturbating.
He changed his security configs so the scammers couldnt tag him in any posts.
He hoped that nobody would tap on a random video sent to them by someone they dont know.
Then the blackmailer uploaded the video to YouTube.
After about an hour YouTube takes the video down.
From what I can tell, all the views were mine, except for one.
That could have been him viewing it after he uploaded it, or one of my relatives.
Ill never know for sure, but Ive never heard from anyone.
The idea of someone getting into your webcam and blackmailing you really isnt unrealistic or impossible at all.
Humai is the most well-known.
Its a digital world with cutting edge graphics that you might plonk yourself into and explore for hours.
Theres no word yet on whether it will have offer 1980s skins, though.
Nostalgia therapy is a real thing, too.
San Junipero is essentially a combination of different ideas that are being developed in the real world right now.
But Im starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist again, so lets move on.
And just last month, a company emerged that is trying to make this a reality.
Thats when you know youre dreaming but dont wake up.
Even orgies with multiple versions of the same person, one assumes.
But, scarily enough, these actually exist in the real world already.
(Fun fact: theres also a company called Festo working onrobotic ants.)
It was entitled, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr where are you now that we need you?
In an interview withEntertainment Weekly, Brooker confirmed that this book was Jon RonsonsSo Youve Been Publicly Shamed.
In the months that followed she saw software after software ignored as she tried to find a new job.
That service isnt particularly different to the consultancy firm that Bryce Dallas Howard visits in Nosedive, is it?
But Im going off-topic now.
Its a chilling read.
