Headscratchers / Black Mirror: Nosedive

• Does the system work only on how people rate each other and who their friends are or does it take into account their jobs and other traceable behavior, too? Because the people from Sesame Credit (a real life version ruling Asia) explain that "Someone who plays video games for ten hours a day, for example, would be considered an idle person," (here) and this lowers their rating — wouldn't this have the same nosedive effect on Ryan's score?
  • In this situation? Because it's done by friends, it considers the scores of your friends. As such, someone such as Ryan, manages to avoid a nose dive because he's found a group that is relatively STABLE. Also, he doesn't associate with higher scores. This creates a conundrum where, if you have a middle score, you are relatively safe...But a HIGH Score can have a nose dive. (As, they associate with more high score people). In China, the issue is that the GOVERNMENT, which handles the system, is purposely putting its thumb on the scale. Ryan, in China, wouldn't be able to get 'likes' from his friends. In fact, his friends would have to disassociate from him, or THEY get dislikes.
    • The Sesame system is actually a private corporate rewards program, not the government system. The government "Social Credit System" is in it's local trial form, which has been very diverse in methods but so far does not resemble the Nosedive social media popularity system. While it has missed it's 2020 target for nationwide launch, the trials have so far focused on credit rating, compliance with local regulations (e.g. responsible pet ownership), and charity.

• How is it a means of controlling the airport's sense of safety to tell a person going into a fight-or-flight panic mode that they're going to be downgraded?
  • Presumably, a higher score means a greater likelihood that you'll be a pleasant passenger who's easy to deal with. A person with a low score might be belligerent to other passengers, ignore instructions from flight attendants, or be prone to panic attacks — all of which are unsafe things at 35,000 feet. And if you tell a passenger at the terminal that they're going to be downgraded and they don't freak out, that's a good indication they won't be a safety risk during the flight.

• How did Lacie get the motorbike? She jumped down from the highway under a bridge where these two guys were riding, and they just gave a motorbike to a clearly unhinged woman?

• At the end of the episode, when Lacie gets taken into custody for the scandal she did on Naomi's wedding, did she was imprisoned for life due her 0% rating or she was going to be there until someone bailed her out? In regards to that matter, can Ryan visit her and/or pay her bail?
  • She seems to have been locked up, at a minimum, on the basis of a psych hold and/or charges including (but not necessarily limited to) breaking and entering/trespassing and assault (pulling the knife). Where things would go from there would be anybody's guess.

• So, given that there's clearly a segment of society that has just "checked out" from the rating system (e.g. the truck driver), is there any sort of 'parallel society' of sorts operating where the rules of the system are largely ignored? The fact that the truck driver ignores it/holds it in contempt while the clerk has a fairly dismissive attitude towards it suggests a more complicated underlying reality.
  • Possibly but with even Lacie's lazy brother technically being part of the system (receiving ratings from his gaming buddies) even people who dislike the system mostly seem to be a part of it. It's probably similar to trying to operate without money in a capitalist economy - pretty much impossible outside of small controlled settings
    • Unless there are laws forcing businesses to discriminate against low-score people, actual capitalists will do business with them anyway because money is money, no matter where it comes from. Also, since low-scores can't do business with bigger establishments that ban them, anyone willing to do business with them basically has a captive customer base.

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