Line #23 LifeImitatesArt/BlackMirror


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2018_01_06_at_234406.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNjShVDFXGg "Look in the Mirror. Do you recognise yourself?"]]''[[labelnote:For posterity]]An official screen capture from ''[[Recap/BlackMirrorWhiteBear White Bear]]'' of Victoria's television, but playing a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bannon Steve Bannon]] speech from 2017, released by Netflix in a promotional video for series 4 ''[[LampshadeHanging that compares the show to real life]]''.[[/labelnote]]]]
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4	->''"It can't be easy for ''Black Mirror'' to constantly come up with with nightmare technological scenarios, especially when reality seems to be constantly on the lookout for ways to turn Creator/CharlieBrooker's smartphone-based fever dreams into actual, livable truth."''
5	-->--'''[[https://www.avclub.com/black-mirror-takes-credit-for-apples-latest-techno-dyst-1805640886 The AV Club]]'''
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7	You know how this show is about a NightmareFuel-inducing TechnoDystopia? Just making sure.
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9	----
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11	* ''The National Anthem'': In which the British Prime Minister is blackmailed into [[BestialityIsDepraved fucking a pig]]. Introducing [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piggate Piggate]], the scandal caused by [[UsefulNotes/DavidCameron the British Prime Minister]] allegedly fucking a pig. This one, however, was dead before penetration, and it was (reportedly) stuck in the pig's mouth. Makes it better, huh.
12	* ''Fifteen Million Merits'':
13	** 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?
14	*** 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.
15	*** Sony might have attempted this on the [=PS4=], as shown by this [[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=514438 patent]].
16	** The development of actual exercise bikes that power gaming apps on your TV. Just sounds like the gym? [[http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/04/technology/fisher-price-smart-cycle-toddlers/index.html?sr=twCNN010517fisher-price-smart-cycle-toddlers1015AMVODtopPhoto&linkId=33036057 It's educational and informational games for children]]. Bonus points: it's all recorded and able to be controlled by their parents.
17	** A Japanese company wants to make eerily similar "[[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45450238 living pods]]": bed, TV, communal living space. Thankfully, the intended city (Barcelona) has given it a strong pass.
18	* ''The Entire History of You'': The introduction of, first the [[https://www.ft.com/content/3488b1d2-fd59-11e3-96a9-00144feab7de Google Glass]], and then Facebook's Timeline feature, are coming scarily close to enabling 24/7 recordings of not just our lives, but how we perceived them.
19	* ''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.
20	* ''The Waldo Moment'':
21	** Noted as having been made ''much'' HarsherInHindsight by the rise of openly {{troll}}ish, media-driven, populist politicians who say outrageous things to get famous and win elections. Charlie Brooker himself [[https://www.thedailybeast.com/black-mirror-creator-predicts-trump-will-be-president-i-find-it-fcking-terrifying stated]] that this episode foreshadowed the appeal of people like UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump to voters.
22	-->"At the time I thought that was one I didn’t nail, I didn’t get the stakes right," Brooker admitted. "I thought it should have been a separate thing, like it should have been a two-part miniseries. And then you look at it now and go, 'fuck me, that’s Trump.'"
23	** In interviews, Creator/CharlieBrooker admitted that the character of Waldo was loosely based on UsefulNotes/BorisJohnson, who at the time was known for acting like a clownish buffoon on television and was also involved with Brexit. Lo and behold, Johnson himself would become the UK's Prime Minister in 2019, serving until 2022.
24	[[index]]
25	* ''Nosedive'' is apparently the closest to becoming real life, as it got long enough to get [[LifeImitatesArt/BlackMirrorNosedive its own page]].
26	[[/index]]
27	* ''Hated in the Nation'':
28	** Writing hate on Twitter [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Can. Be. Dangerous!]]
29	** [[https://imgur.com/dmtHsim This story]] about a school student setting up a twitter account for people to send anonymous hate to, then broadcasting all the people who had done it, shows that even children are capable of doing this.
30	* ''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.
31	* ''Crocodile'': Pizza Hut's new autonomous delivery trucks.
32	* ''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 its best accurate answer, though. Find it at coach.dating
33	* ''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...
34	* ''Black Museum'':
35	** A 2018 Superbowl commercial for Cox's new [=g1gablast=] internet service 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.
36	** [[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, likening it to ''San Junipero'' in the thread.
37	* ''Multiple'': VideoGame/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.
38	* ''Joan Is Awful'': A BlandNameProduct version of Netflix depicts an original drama of a woman's life using a CGI recreation of Creator/SalmaHayek, with the real Hayek becoming disgusted with how the service uses her likeness, only to discover that she legally can't retaliate against any usage of her likeness. A few months after this episode's release, the SAG-AFTRA strike started, with one of the reasons for the strike being that the AMPTP had proposed an agreement paying background actors for only a single day's worth of work to scan their likeness and perpetually own their CGI models to be used for whatever they wanted, without any consent or compensation for the actor involved. Needless to say, '''many'' viewers began drawing similarities to what's depicted in this episode.

Context LifeImitatesArt / BlackMirror