History LifeImitatesArt / BlackMirror

** [[http://www.bbc.com/news/health-38761461 "A brain-computer interface was used to read the thoughts of patients to answer basic yes-or-no questions."]] It is simply just Germany in real life inventing the technology that becomes outlawed in this episode. Charlie Brooker [[https://twitter.com/charltonbrooker/status/826752402632081408 tweeted about it]] ''before'' the episode, too.

* ''Black Museum'': The (Arizona-only) 2018 Superbowl commercial for Cox's new [=g1gablast=] internet service there featured an animatronic talking monkey stuffed toy, with the voice actually being a little girl's grandma. It was creepy, but apparently a real thing now.

* ''Fifteen Million Merits'': British people were not happy when it was revealed that some public bathrooms, and all bathrooms on national express trains, [[https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/technology/2017/11/2017-virgin-trains-daddys-home-2-forced-advertisement-toilet would play unskippable adverts on repeat whenever the doors were locked]]. What's worse: uncontrollable privacy, or uncontrollable advertisements?
** That news article includes reference to Orwell and the line "If a novelist tried to create the worst dystopia they could think of as a harrowing but necessary warning to us all, [[FreakierThanFiction this plot point would easily be dismissed as too ridiculous]]." to give more reason for facepalming.
** Sony ''almost'' attempted this on the [=PS4=], as shown by this [[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=514438 patent]].

** Sony ''almost'' attempted this on the PS4, as shown by this [[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=514438 patent]].

---> ''"A scan of a bike’s QR code revealed a four-digit number that unlocked the back wheel, and a ride across town cost roughly 15 cents. Because of my middling score [(550)], however, I had to pay a $30 deposit before I could scan my first bike [...] a car rental company allows people with credit scores over 650 to rent a car without a deposit [...] people with scores over 750 could even skip the security check line at [the airport] [...] [Lazarus Liu] had reached 722, a score that entitled him to favorable terms on loans and apartment rentals [...] To see if I could do anything to pull my score up, I took a taxi one morning to a chic open-air shopping center outside Shanghai’s city center to meet with Chen Chen [and she] explained how to boost my score. "They will check what kind of friends you have," she said. "If your friends are all high-score people, it’s good for you. If you have some bad-credit people as friends, it’s not nice." [...] [Liu Hu, a man blacklisted] became, effectively, a second-class citizen. He was banned from most forms of travel; he could only book the lowest classes of seat on the slowest trains. He could not buy certain consumer goods or stay at luxury hotels, and he was ineligible for large bank loans [...] The way [the credit system] is designed, being blacklisted sends you on a rapid downward spiral. First your score drops. Then your friends hear you are on the blacklist and, fearful that their scores might be affected, quietly drop you as a contact. The algorithm notices, and your score plummets further [...] After I left China, I checked back in with Lazarus Liu [and we] talked about a new facial recognition feature called Smile to Pay."''

* ''Metalhead'': About a month after this episode aired, Boston Dynamics released a video showing one of its "SpotMini" robots opening a door on its own. Certainly not intentional by Boston Dynamics...

* ''Black Museum'':
** The (Arizona-only) 2018 Superbowl commercial for Cox's new [=g1gablast=] internet service there featured an animatronic talking monkey stuffed toy, with the voice actually being a little girl's grandma. It was creepy, but apparently a real thing now.
* ''Multiple'':
** Franchise/TheSims, those videogames where it is perfectly acceptable for us real people to [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential torture and abuse fake characters]] ForTheLulz. Encouraged, even. The implications of human behavior is bad, but what if the sims have feelings and we don't know.

* ''[=ArkAngel=]'':
** While rudimentary parental controls have been around for years, they've gotten increasingly smarter in the last decade; the Mobicip app, for instance, allows parents to block not only sites promoting gambling or alcohol but also dating and chat sites, and blocking adult or violent content. Other apps allow parents to track their child wherever they go, spy on who they talk to, and shut their phone off whenever they choose.
* ''Hang the DJ'':
** Netflix actually made a version of the app from the System, just for fun, for Valentine's Day 2018. Apparently it will gather some kind of data to give it's best accurate answer, though. Find it at coach.dating

* ''Be Right Back'': Artificial Intelligence recreating a dead loved one through messages? Say hello to [[https://decider.com/2016/10/06/black-mirror-woman-texting-dead-friend/ Luka]], an A.I startup created specifically for doing this. Extra points for being ''directly'' [[https://www.theverge.com/a/luka-artificial-intelligence-memorial-roman-mazurenko-bot inspired]] by this episode.

*** ''[='=]"You could imagine a future where people are watching to see if their friends’ credit is dropping and then dropping their friends if that affects them," says Frank Pasquale, a big-data expert at University of Maryland Carey School of Law. "That’s terrifying."[='=]''

---> ''"A scan of a bike’s QR code revealed a four-digit number that unlocked the back wheel, and a ride across town cost roughly 15 cents. Because of my middling score [(550)], however, I had to pay a $30 deposit before I could scan my first bike [...] a car rental company allows people with credit scores over 650 to rent a car without a deposit [...] people with scores over 750 could even skip the security check line at [the airport] [...] [Lazarus Liu] had reached 722, a score that entitled him to favorable terms on loans and apartment rentals [...] To see if I could do anything to pull my score up, I took a taxi one morning to a chic open-air shopping center outside Shanghai’s city center to meet with Chen Chen [and she] explained how to boost my score. "They will check what kind of friends you have," she said. "If your friends are all high-score people, it’s good for you. If you have some bad-credit people as friends, it’s not nice." [...] [Liu Hu, a man blacklisted] became, effectively, a second-class citizen. He was banned from most forms of travel; he could only book the lowest classes of seat on the slowest trains. He could not buy certain consumer goods or stay at luxury hotels, and he was ineligible for large bank loans."''

** Similarly, this [[https://www.wired.com/story/age-of-social-credit/ article]] about Alibaba's "Sesame Credit" eerily reads like an alternate version of ''Nosedive''. To summate: "[the system] will ensure that the bad people in society don't have a place to go." Awesome, China.

** Similarly, this [[https://www.wired.com/story/age-of-social-credit/ article]] about Alibaba's "Sesame Credit" eerily reads like an alternate version of ''Nosedive''. To summate: "[the system] will ensure that the bad people in society don't have a place to go." "A scan of a bike’s QR code revealed a four-digit number that unlocked the back wheel, and a ride across town cost roughly 15 cents. Because of my middling score, however, I had to pay a $30 deposit before I could scan my first bike." Awesome, China.

** Similarly, this [[https://www.wired.com/story/age-of-social-credit/ article]] about Alibaba's "Sesame Credit" eerily reads like an alternate version of ''Nosedive''. A quote: "[the system] will ensure that the bad people in society don't have a place to go."

** Apparently the real life Chinese government is toying with plans to implement a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System "social credit" system]] plan for their people. This [[https://www.wired.com/story/age-of-social-credit/ article]] about Alibaba's "Sesame Credit" eerily reads like an alternate version of ''Nosedive''.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjNhW2mR1lM&list=PLvahqwMqN4M3d_PTQywnw74cLqK82BLEO "Look in the Mirror. Do you recognise yourself?"]]''[[note]]An official screen capture from ''[[Recap/BlackMirrorWhiteBear White Bear]]'' of Victoria's television, but playing a Steve Bannon speech from 2017, released by Netflix in a promotional video for series 4 ''[[LampshadeHanging that compares the show to real life]]''.[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjNhW2mR1lM&list=PLvahqwMqN4M3d_PTQywnw74cLqK82BLEO "Look in the Mirror. Do you recognise yourself?"]]''[[note]]An official screen capture from ''[[Recap/BlackMirrorWhiteBear White Bear]]'' of Victoria's television, but playing a Steve Bannon speech from 2017, released by Netflix in a promotional video for series 4 ''[[LampshadeHanging comparing the show to real life]]''.[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjNhW2mR1lM&list=PLvahqwMqN4M3d_PTQywnw74cLqK82BLEO "Look in the Mirror. Do you recognise yourself?"]]'']]

** The [=g1gablast=] 2018 Superbowl commercial featured an animatronic talking monkey, with the voice actually being a little girl's grandma. It was creepy.

** Apparently the real life Chinese government is toying with plans to implement a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System "social credit" system]] plan for their people.

** Franchise/TheSims, those videogames where it is perfectly acceptable for us real people to torture and abuse fake characters ForTheLulz. Encouraged, even. The implications of human behavior is bad, but what if the sims have feelings and we don't know.

You know how this show is about a NightmareFuel-inducing [[EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture technological]] {{dystopia}}? Just making sure.

** That news article includes reference to Orwell and the line "If a novelist tried to create the worst dystopia they could think of as a harrowing but necessary warning to us all, this plot point would easily be dismissed as too ridiculous." to give more reason for facepalming.