Showtime docu-series sees the ‘Dark’ side of tech – LA Daily News

What: Second season of docu-series that explores aspects of new technologies.

When: Premieres 10 p.m. Thursday.

Where: Showtime.

In the first episode of the second season of Showtimes docu-series Dark Net, the narrator asserts, In the future technology wont just complement reality, it will create a new one.

While the first season of the series looked at what is known as the Dark Web and its shady activities such as biohacking, cyber-kidnapping, digital warfare and the webcam sex trade this season seems to be getting out into the world to examine how technology is bending our perceptions.

In the opening episode called My Mind, we meet a military vet with post-traumatic stress disorder. His unease has torn up his family, and the usual approaches of therapy havent worked.

The vet eventually found help from a scientist who is developing a virtual-reality program that lets the ex-soldier work out his issues and relive some traumatic moments, sometimes recreating firefights he has been in.

VR headsets will be likes toasters. Soon everyone will have one in their home, the scientist says.

In a whole other dimension, we meet Harmony, the worlds first artificially intelligent sex robot. (Female, of course. Men are so inept, it seems.) Her goal is to not only learn to recognize her owner, but to recognize her owners desires.

A third part of the episode finds a Canadian woman spending her days and nights uploading her mind to create algorithms that will be used for artificial intelligence. Shes convinced that what she is doing will make people obsolete.

While Dark Net spins out some interesting material, its dystopian view is too humorless at times. It skips around far too much and never digs into anything. Annoyingly, it also has that grave found on real-life crime shows.

When the inventor of the sex robot says he hopes his creation can be used for human companionship, you want someone to ask him, Why?

In fact, why does someone even need a robot to anticipate their desires?

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Showtime docu-series sees the 'Dark' side of tech - LA Daily News