10 Technologies From Black Mirror That Have Already Been Invented – Screen Rant

This article contains someSPOILERS for Black Mirror, currently available to stream on Netflix.

Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror paints a dystopian picture of society's relationship with technology. Satirical and allegorical tales set in dark fictional future worldsfeature characterswho've become victims of the technology they're surrounded with, or have anunhealthy obsession with the media. Others are extreme metaphors for a "Tech Apocalypse" that could very well be happening in the present day.

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The frightening thing about Black Mirror is that, as sci-fi goes, it's not that far-fetched. Every day, new technology develops andexistingtech is refreshed, potentially bringingthe real world closer to Brooker'smacabre realities. So, is life imitating art as it did in the past with novels like HG Wells's The Time Machine and George Orwell's 1984? As the old clich suggests, perhaps reality is stranger than fiction.

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Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) createshis own virtual world that's populatedby digital clones created from his co-workers' DNA. Inthis Star Trek-style virtual world, he ruleshis trapped virtual clones with an iron fist.

Thereare two types of technology at play in this episode,both of which already exist. DNA-based cloning is evolving by the year. And though consciousness has yet to be cloned, scientists have already physically cloned a sheep (Dolly) and other animals since.

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The other technology that's prominent isthe immersive virtual environment. And in the broad sense, thisexists in many forms today. In the context of USS Callister in relation to today's tech though, virtual environments and MMORPGs are currently a global phenomenon, with millions of players living immersive lives completely separate from their real-world ones, in virtual environments that become more realistic with every new release.

PopstarAshley's (Miley Cyrus) consciousnessis uploaded into "Ashley Too", a small robotic version of her belonging to teenage fan Rachel (Angourie Rice).And Ashley Too, Rachel, and hersister Jack (Madison Davenport) embark on a rescue mission to save the real Ashley, who has been put into an induced coma by her aunt.

While Ashley is comatose, her captors use "Vocal Mimicry Software" to reproduce her singing voice. In the real world today, emerging technologies like "Deep Voice" claim to be able to clone a voice by sampling just 3.7 seconds of audio. Later on, a visual simulation of Ashley is created for a performance, mimicking her physicalcharacteristicsand mannerisms. "Deepfake" technology is already doing this on a slightly more rudimentary level. Brain uploading is still science fiction. But organizations like Carboncopiesare working on it.

Season 1's Fifteen Million Merits presents a few technologies that are already out and about in the world. Bing Madsen (Daniel Kaluuya) and all the other characters consume their media and interact via touchless screens, which have already appeared on several devices inthe real world. The food the characters eat is "grown in a petri dish", as mentioned by Swift (Isabella Laughland), and produce grown from cells is turning out to be a reality already, with many start-ups in the testing phase.

The episode also sees everyone riding exercise bikes to power the world around them and earn their "Merits" (this world's version of money). That's a concept that'scurrently taking off because of new eco-friendly technologies that use the kinetic energy generated by humans tocreate sustainable electricity solutions.

Hated in the Nation is set in a world where humanity has developed robotic bees powered by artificial intelligence to supplementreal bees' diminishing population. But the bees are hacked and used as murder weapons.

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In the present day, a group of scientists from the Delft University of Technology in Holland aims to counteract our declining bee population with the robotic "Delfly". The Delfly is a bee-like drone which is designed to pollinate plants and crops for the benefit of Holland's invaluable agricultural industry. There's no sign of them killing anyone yet though.

Kenny (Alex Lawther) and Hector (Jerome Flynn) both fall prey to malware that hijacks their webcams and hasablackmailer send them off on a series of frightening errands under threat that compromising video footage of them will be released. The premise is very much based on current technology and hacking methods that are frequently used by blackmailers today.

One incident involved Cassidy Wolf, a former Miss Teen USA, whofell victim to a blackmailing hacker whoused malware to hack into the computer in her bedroom. The hacker threatened to release compromising images of the beauty queen unless she took her clothes off for him on camera.

Liam Foxwell (Toby Kebbell) lives in a society in which people have "grains" or chips implanted behind their ears. The implants record everythingusers see and hear, allowing them to "re-do", playing back their memories through their eyes or a monitor.

Elon Musk's proposedNeuralink interfaces directly with the human brain through a series of tiny sensors, implanted using "minimally invasive" micro-robotic surgery. The implantsends data to a computeror smartphone for a variety of purposes. Musk claims that the Neuralink has potentially far-reaching benefits for the advancement of medicine and the treatment of diseases like Parkinson's. But is humanity readyto get this personal withtechnology?

Two star-crossed lovers, Frank (Joe Cole) and Amy (Georgina Campbell) are brought together and then torn apart by "The System", which guides each of them through a series of encounters with potential life partners. Each encounter comes with an expiration date, based on supposed compatibility, and all the data collected by The System is collated to match people with their perfect partners.

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The algorithmsused by Tinder and other dating appsare founded on the same principle. They find potential matches for people based on a variety of factors like interests, personality profile,a prescribed "type", and physical location.

Chris (Andrew Scott), adriver for a taxi app called "Hitcher," picks up Jaden (Damson Idris) - an employee of social media giant, "Smithereen" and holds him hostage at gunpoint, demanding a direct line to the company's CEO, Billy Bauer (Topher Grace). While all of this is going on, the police listen to Chris via his phone.

None of this is unfamiliar. Taxi apps like Uber and Boltare getting people rides every day. And the social media app in this episode, "Persona" is basically Facebook. The technology the police use to listen in on Chris and Jaden isn't a leap of the imagination either. Devices can be hacked, and law enforcement agencies are cleared to do it in many instances. Many smartphone users arealso convinced that companies like Google and Facebook listen to their conversations.

Nosedive is a disturbing take on social media that's extremely close to home. In the episode, social mediaopinionbecomesthe currencythat is used toestablishpeople's status and position in society. This mostly happens on mobile devices - much asit does in our everyday lives.

The episode sees protagonist Lacie Pound (Bryce Dallas Howard) desperately trying toclaw her way up from a 4.2 rating to a 4.5 (out of 5) so that she can qualify to get a fancy apartment. Today, social media connectivity is already there. And social media opinion is a tool through which "influencers" are adored and pariahs are ostracized for their actions or opinions.

In Black Mirror'sdebut episode,The National Anthem, politics andthemedia collide under nasty circumstances. A malicious kidnapper holds a British Princess hostage and demands that England's Prime Minister (Rory Kinnear) engages in a sexual act with a pig on live TV and online media.

None of the technology featured in this episode is futuristic. In fact, it's allexistedfor quite a while. YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are all part of our everyday lives and so is the news media. Andwhile a prominent politician having intercourse with a pig is quite extreme, it's an effective metaphor for the influence the media has in governmentand public opinion.

NEXT: Black Mirror: Every Reference to the Pig Prime Minister in later Episodes

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10 Technologies From Black Mirror That Have Already Been Invented - Screen Rant