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Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

theguardian.com

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Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#71

Post by simpaticoder »

anyfoo wrote: post #38

While I don't fully agree with the article, I really like this sketch about "Black Mirror in medieval times": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1aSqZ23ydk It does show rather well (and rather funnily) how it can be a fine line between warning about technology, and taking it too cynically.

Thanks for the link - that was great. Yeah, with some exceptions (15 million merits being one, given that it's pure allegory) the show seems to ask, "given some new technology, what is the cruelest most horrifying situation in which it could be used?" This basic premise can indeed be applied to anything, past or present. Personally I'd take the automobile, call the episode "Meat Grinder," reference the ~30k deaths/year in the US from car accidents, noting the ambivalence of literally everyone to that fact.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#73

Post by nickpsecurity »

So, it starts by showing Black Mirror is playing on people's fears in cheap ways that could have negative, long-term effects. Then, it switches to throw out lots of political, talking points with loose connection to the original story. I wish they stuck with that line of questioning.

So, in the Psalms, many of them are lament. The structure addresses God, lists the complaints, and usually ends on a positive note citing His future promises. They might cite previous times God delivered them. So, the pattern is a unifying, objective truth followed by a mix of bad news and good news that offsets it. This helped the Israelites stay mentally strong as they faced circumstances like the Exile.

The author wondered if Black Mirror could explore the risks without pessimism porn. I think the pattern in the lament Psalms could be helpful. We know, though, that Hollywood often appeals to the dark, sinful part of our psyche. The producers know people often want to watch horrible things more than pleasant things. That's the real reason.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#74

Post by handoflixue »

Tronno wrote: post #52
wyldfire wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoyed several episodes, some more than others. "San Junipero" is one of the better ones IMO and IIRC it's a good bit more upbeat than the others.

Not very upbeat actually. The episode drops several reminders that the simulated people can't die, by accident or choice. After they tire of life, they are trapped in an eternity of boredom and madness.

There's explicitly a conversation of "fine, not forever then - however long you like. You can always choose to leave."

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#75

Post by nickpsecurity »

alabastervlog wrote: post #19
bawolff wrote: post #14

Huh, i guess i both agree and disagree with this article. I disagree that black mirror has to save the world. Art doesn't have to literally save the world to be useful, it just has to add to the conversation. The fact we are talking about it proves that it has. On the other hand, i've never really liked black mirror that much. It feels polemical to me. Its unrelenting pessimism robs it of nuance, which makes it feel…

Nosedive is easily among the worst Black Mirror episodes and I was very confused by so many people praising it when it came out.

It was the one many of us thought was most likely to happen. Some aspects of it were in prior, media reports. It connected to people's memories on top of believable speculation. Then, something like that happened in China.

I believe it was popular for those reasons.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#76

Post by Barrin92 »

>It is an inherently populist narrative, one that appeals to nostalgia

I don't agree with this or the article at all. There's very little nostalgia, if any, in Black Mirror. (nostalgia being a desire to return to the past, or romantic display of the past). The show is very firmly centered on present day or future abuse of technology, that much is true, but there's nothing wrong or inaccurate about that.

The article just does what is common but wrong, fetishize technology, that is to claim that technology itself makes the world better. But that is to attribute agency to something that has no agency. We're not better off than the past because of technology, but because of ethical progress. Technology is a lever. It as easily makes you a virus as it can make you a cure.

Give modern technology to a dictator and you get the most total surveillance state on earth. Black Mirror makes an accurate observation, that technological progress is outrunning our ethical progress. Insofar pessimism is justified. When you're at the mercy of at best idiots and at worst despots not handing them bigger levers is not nostalgia but just means you have a healthy survival instinct.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#77

Post by hsuduebc2 »

The problem is the constant fear-mongering instead of simply presenting the facts. Honestly, the emotional overdrive in our culture is exhausting. It's like everyone's hooked on a steady drip of doom, and for some reason, they crave it.

That said, I won't lie-watching a corrupt politician fuck a pig on a livestream was a hilarious idea.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#78

Post by intrasight »

wyldfire wrote: post #27
bawolff wrote: post #14

Huh, i guess i both agree and disagree with this article. I disagree that black mirror has to save the world. Art doesn't have to literally save the world to be useful, it just has to add to the conversation. The fact we are talking about it proves that it has. On the other hand, i've never really liked black mirror that much. It feels polemical to me. Its unrelenting pessimism robs it of nuance, which makes it feel…

I enjoyed several episodes, some more than others. "San Junipero" is one of the better ones IMO and IIRC it's a good bit more upbeat than the others.

The only episode I really enjoyed.

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#79

Post by intrasight »

simpaticoder wrote: post #71
anyfoo wrote: post #38

While I don't fully agree with the article, I really like this sketch about "Black Mirror in medieval times": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1aSqZ23ydk It does show rather well (and rather funnily) how it can be a fine line between warning about technology, and taking it too cynically.

Thanks for the link - that was great. Yeah, with some exceptions (15 million merits being one, given that it's pure allegory) the show seems to ask, "given some new technology, what is the cruelest most horrifying situation in which it could be used?" This basic premise can indeed be applied to anything, past or present. Personally I'd take the automobile, call the episode "Meat Grinder," reference the ~30k deaths/ye…

Every weapon ever devised by humankind has been used

Re: Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future

#80

Post by nullc »

dexwiz wrote: post #20
weinzierl wrote: post #2

"Absent is the plot twist of Pandora’s box that made it philosophically useful: the box also contained hope and opportunity that new knowledge brings." Yes, add that and it might be something interesting but sure not the Black Mirror I want to watch. I mean it is called Black Mirror for a reason. And it is not even true. Take the episode "San Junipro" for example? Isn't there some hope and opportunity in it? And yet,…

I dunno about you, but I don't care about a computer program that believes it's me living on after I die. You can wrap it with all the feel good trappings you want, that set of bits is not you. If anything, living a life in a way that you put off doing the fun things until the after life, spiritual or digital, sounds awful.

> I dunno about you, but I don't care about a computer program that believes it's me living on after I die.

1% of your cells are replaced daily. Presumably you still believe you're you even though much of you is constantly being replaced. If it were an option would you really deny your future self an arbitrarily long happy life because you got hung up on Theseus's Paradox?

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