First of all, as a loyal fan of the "Black Mirror" series, I gave the first three seasons a five-star, five-star, and four-star high score respectively, so I won't criticize this series with a preconceived attitude. However, if the third season gives me the impression that it is weakened in general but strong in independent specific issues and specific technologies, there is no real progress in this season. This lack of progress is not because the team does not make breakthroughs, but it is precisely the breakthrough they seek that introduces a strange preset that runs through the multiple episodes of this season-consciousness virtualization/conscious upload. This presupposition without the support of empirical science is actually a step backward in creation, which greatly compromises the quality of "thinking" real problems. My understanding is that this situation reflects the crew’s exhaustion of the questions that can be discussed on the one hand (whether technical or social), and on the other hand, it is the main theme of the "Black Mirror" series-sci-fi intervention in current social issues. ——Some kind of betrayal. The core of the fourth season’s story almost completely repeats the social issues of the first three seasons. The only innovation is to base these issues on the pseudo-technical setting of the assumption of uploading consciousness (even if this technological setting is also (Extended from the little story of Oona Chaplin in the Christmas Special). The key point is that consciousness upload as a purely technical imagination sets the possibility of consciousness "copy". On the one hand, it is not the creation of the "Black Mirror" crew at all, but the long tradition of technical imagination in the history of sci-fi is just being appropriated for this. No matter, on the other hand, it completely shifted the focus from concrete embodied human and social issues to a (reissue version) virtual consciousness in which we have no way of knowing its possible existence and mode of existence. In other words, if the first three seasons of "Black Mirror" both focused on current social issues and imagined the real extension of existing technology, then the fourth season did not perform satisfactorily in both aspects. Next, I would like to support this conclusion I came to by investigating the development of the "Black Mirror" series.
We all know that the success of the first two seasons of "Black Mirror" (Channel 4 period) lies in its short but extremely shocking performance. Three episodes each season, cut into three technical-social issues:
Season 1: 1. National Anthem-Information Technology + Public Opinion and Democratic Politics in the Age of Social Networks; 2. Fifteen Million Merits 15 Million Points-Mass Media Technology + Labor-Consumerism (Biopolitics)-Public Opinion ; 3.The Entire History of You all your history-memory and visual technology + privacy and sharing
The second season: 1. Be Right Back-memory technology-artificial intelligence + what is the true meaning of love; 2. White Bear White Bear Justice Park-memory technology-theme park + what is true justice (public opinion moralism) ; 3. Waldo Moment-Information Technology in the Age of Social Networks-Motion Capture Animation + Public Opinion and Democratic Politics
In these two seasons, social networking and memory technology, as the core technical issues, have been insightfully predicted and expanded, so as to amplify existing social issues in a very likely near future. The social issues in these two seasons mainly involve the internal problems of democratic politics and public opinion under social network technology, the blurring of privacy and sharing caused by the externalization of memory and visual technology to individual consciousness, and what love is. problem. These problems are all highlighted on the basis of very specific and highly feasible technical imagination, and then achieve a kind of horror effect. The political irony involved in the first question, whether it is electoral politics (1.1, 2.3), biopolitics (1.2) or legal justice (2.2), has a distinct current character, directly reflecting the political atmosphere and political landscape of the new media era. The second and third questions are relatively more personal, mainly dealing with the possible impact of memory technology on future individual relationships (especially partnerships), and they have been more fully developed in later episodes. It can be said that the first two seasons deserve their name.
The 2014 Christmas special White Christmas as a set of narratives actually contains four short stories. The first story focuses on the live broadcast and visual (sharing) technology in the era of social networks, discussing the issues of privacy and sharing, and the second This story touches on the consciousness uploading/virtual consciousness replication technology for the first time, discussing the rights of virtual consciousness. The third story is also about the interpersonal (partner) relationship problems caused by visual (shielding) technology, and the virtual reality based on the frame story. The combination of technology and virtual consciousness replication technology discussed the justice issues brought about by the new technology. My personal feeling is that this special article is not inferior to the previous two seasons, but has major changes in temperament and tendencies. Technically, it no longer clings to the more likely augmented reality technology, and more begins to involve virtual reality and purer imagination. Virtual consciousness (copying) also focuses on social issues that no longer center on politics, but turn to individuals. This change became more pronounced after changing hands to Netflix.
The third season: 1. Nosedive plummet-information technology in the era of social networks + public opinion and democratic politics (public opinion moralism); 2. Playtest demo-virtual reality and reality (experience reality) + interpersonal (parent-child) relationship; 3 .Shut Up and Dance—Information technology in the age of social networking + (hacker ethics); 4.San Junipero—virtual reality + what is the true meaning of love; 5.Men Against Fire Battle-virtual reality and reality + biopolitics; 6. Hated in the Nation enemy of the people-information technology + public opinion and democratic politics in the age of social networks (public opinion moralism-hacker moralism)
Although the third season is more specific on the social issues discussed, it still retains the effective intervention of technology and society in the first two seasons of "Black Mirror", and reverses the more conservative temperament of the Christmas special on political and social issues. , Back to the issues related to ethics, justice, and democracy. This season technically inherited the information technology of the social network era of the previous two seasons on the one hand, and on the other hand focused on the development of the possibility of virtual reality technology, both of which are basically rooted in the technical capabilities we have achieved and will soon be achieved. The discussion of the former also inherited the issues of democratic politics and public opinion, the moralism of public opinion, etc. It is a very good return, especially 3.1 and 3.3 are the closest to the previous two seasons, because of their immediate currentity. And it has a strong political thriller effect. 3.6 Although it is related to the unformed micro AI technology, the core is still the problem of cyber violence that we are already very familiar with. Based on a few episodes of virtual reality, 3.5 has nothing new and basically copied the "Futurology Conference" while 3.2 and 3.4 are very exciting! 3.2 Proposes a layered virtual reality based on the participant's (sub)consciousness, and discusses in depth the upgrade of fear in virtual reality technology. It may also touch interpersonal (parent-child) problems. The most deadly fear is Not answering the phone call from my mother can be said to be quite frightening.
So what did the "Black Mirror" team inherit in the fourth season and what adjustments did it make?
The fourth season: 1. USS Callister-virtual reality-consciousness upload/virtual consciousness + virtual consciousness right? ; 2. Arkangel-memory and visual technology + privacy and sharing; 3. Crocodile-memory and visual technology + privacy and sharing; 4. Hang the DJ-consciousness upload/virtual consciousness + what is The true meaning of love; 5. Metalhead metal head-artificial intelligence + man and machine; 6. Black Musuem-consciousness upload/virtual consciousness-perception technology + virtual consciousness right? -Private and share
As I said earlier, this season highlights the consciousness upload/virtual consciousness (copy) technology. In the "Black Mirror" tradition, it first appeared in the Christmas special, but it is also the weakest link in the Christmas special that I personally understand. In 4.1, we saw two completely different worlds. One is the real world (the male protagonist has social barriers, is immature, and is isolated by colleagues and looked down by partners due to often staring at beautiful girls and other weird behaviors). One is the virtual world of the game developed by the male protagonist (the male protagonist leads everything, controls the destiny of all colleagues-characters, and completes his naive mission of "cosmic peace"). On the surface, this episode is about virtual reality technology and virtual consciousness (copy ) The integration of technology, but in fact the focus is entirely on the latter. The expression of the play is relatively simple. The male protagonist is not sympathetic until the end, but becomes the victim of the program he designed. First of all, in terms of technology, regardless of the nonsense of extracting a person’s DNA fragments to digitally reproduce the person’s consciousness, it is a very unreasonable assumption that virtual reality technology requires the subject to "transform" into the form of virtual consciousness. This Suppose we have also seen it in "Sword Art Online", that is, game players sneak into the virtual world through virtual reality technology, and being trapped in the virtual world is reflected in the shock state of the real world. This assumption is naturally a misunderstanding of "brain = consciousness", and it runs counter to the mainstream virtual reality's idea of "interface technology" which focuses on embodied immersion experience. Secondly, the play emphasizes the perversion of the male protagonist from beginning to end. In the end, the "victory" ending with the elimination of this social alien is a very bad and conservative thought of the play. In the narrative, the fear does not come from the attitude of colleagues towards the male protagonist, but only from the male protagonist’s perverted death house. This attitude is so different from the extreme irony and dialectical treatment of the 2.2 White Bear Justice Park episode that it almost didn’t recognize it as "Black Mirror" 4.6 as another layered narrative, re-enacting the Christmas special chapter in form. Technically, it is also very immature to use purely imagined virtual consciousness (copy) technology. The issues involved are also suspected of repetition. The short story of Dr. Dawson’s neurosensory sharing device is removed, and the female companion’s consciousness is reproduced into the brain to coexist, and the story of the toy is close to the 2.1 memory technology story, and the re-enactment of the murderer’s consciousness is based on Moral punishment for the people indefinitely is similar to the White Bear Justice Park. The framework story’s integration of the several technologies mentioned on the one hand continues the Christmas special chapter in form, on the other hand, on the other hand, it tries to emphasize the neutrality of technology and the guilt of evil users (similar to 4.1) 4. 2 Inherited the visual sharing technology in the special Christmas article, but used it on a very different social issue-parental guardianship. It is still quite innovative, but the final treatment makes the technology no longer important. It seems that there is no such thing. Technology, peeping into the daughter's diary or spying on her daughter secretly may also have similar narratives. 4.3 is the continuation of 1.3 memory technology. Both touch on the social development possibilities of externalization of individual memories and directly linked to public safety. The blurring of the boundaries between privacy and sharing may result in a series of issues involving freedom. . Although the heroine's motives for committing crimes are unreasonable, they have indeed been fully exploited. From the beginning, she subconsciously thought she was going to call the police, to the final serial murder in order to protect her existing interests. 4.5 is rather special and does not belong to the creative tradition of "Black Mirror". Many neighbors also said that this episode was very poorly filmed. My understanding is that this should have been a breakthrough point for this season, that is, it should be a place for innovation, but the script did write It’s not good. Even though the image execution is very suspenseful, it is too monotonous and the theme is too far-fetched.
So far, I have sorted out the relationship between the expression and content of the inner drama of "Black Mirror" over the past few seasons, trying to explain some unsatisfactory tendency of the crew. But I left a clue that I didn't talk about, and that was a love story. The theme of love is my personal favorite "Black Mirror" motif. On the one hand, these stories are the most anti-black mirror theme in this series, and they can best reflect the warm side of technology. "A certain comprehensive manifestation of the good dialectical attitude of the play. This theme is reflected in many episodes, from the relationship between the prime minister’s wife and the prime minister in 1.1, the male protagonist who contributes his own labor to love in 1.2, the infidelity of a lover who turns against each other with the aid of technology in 1.3, and the grief of losing his lover in 2.1. , The discovery of the truth about the male protagonist’s infidelity to the female protagonist in the special Christmas chapter, the virtual reality technology in 3.4 provides the possibility of love that people cannot bear in reality, and the highly reliable blind date based on the simulation results of virtual consciousness (copy) technology in 4.4 Software, and 4.6 from the grief of losing a wife to the distress of sharing consciousness all the time. Among them, the love theme in the first season is relatively negative, except for the male protagonist who is drinking orange juice on the table in the open end of the second episode and looking at the beautiful scenery on the virtual screen, they are basically false love exposed by technology. After all, false love is more false than virtual reality. The second season's touch on love itself is not deep. On the surface, it is similar to the same year's "She". At the same time, similar plots are repeated in the short story of 4.6. The theme of love in the Christmas special is also relatively negative, basically a variation of 1.3. Instead, the issues of love in 3.4 and 4.4 are much more interesting. Let me talk about 4.4. The story world at the main narrative level is a society where everyone needs to undergo a pairing experiment (similar to "Lobster"). When they were worthy of each other, they chose to resist and escape this evil system together to pursue their love. If so far this story does give people confidence and warmth, but at the same time it is too clichéd. The final frame story can be said to further ruin this story. It tells us that the hero and heroine are only thousands of simulations of the virtual consciousness in the virtual world, and these simulations are only the matching software used by the hero and heroine in the reality to their respective virtual consciousness ( Re-enactment) in the virtual world, and for them in reality, this is just an advanced version of the matching software. Then we can say 4.4 that although interesting love issues were discussed at the main narrative level, the power of love was completely transferred to the so-called virtual consciousness technology in the frame narrative. In sharp contrast to this is 3. 4 San Junipero, this is the most emotional and the only episode of the entire "Black Mirror" series that made me a little bit tearful. The two lovers who are different from 4.4 and 3.4 not only transcend society's restrictions on love, but also transcend gender, marriage and death. At the same time, however, the upload of consciousness beyond death (heaven) was not blown to the sky, but was deepened in Kelly's rejection of Yorkie. It is difficult to choose between death (such as Kelly's dead husband and daughter) and immortality (such as Yorkie's pass over after death). It requires a true understanding of one's own physical consciousness and existence, courage, and firmness in love. Trust. In other words, the entire "Black Mirror" finally seems to be only in 3.4. This fictitious consciousness upload/virtual consciousness (copy) technology really gives people the opportunity to choose, and the technology really reveals its interaction and mutual generation with the subject. The essence of. The rest seems to be only metaphysical deductions and assumptions.
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