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Is Black Mirror becoming a reality? Part II

As I mentioned before, this post is a continuation of Is Black Mirror becoming a reality? Part I and I will be looking into some more examples of how the Black Mirror episodes are becoming true in real life.

 'Be Right Back' and Bina48 robot
In 'Be Right Back' a woman loses her boyfriend and realizes that there is a possibility of such service that can bring him back to life using machine learning, which takes his essence from social media, photos, and videos. It first starts with chat and phone calls with her dead boyfriend and ends with her having a full replica of him.
It is known that AI chatbots exist already and also a personality prediction service Crystal. And one step further is the Bina48 social robot, which uses video interview transcripts, laser-scanning life mask technology, face recognition, artificial intelligence, and voice-recognition technologies. Company Humai is working on a technology, which will allow transferring dead person's brain into a robot, which it will control.

Image result for be right back black mirror
'Be Right Back' screenshot. (Image source:   https://twitter.com/oneperfectshot/status/924399138384605184)

'Hang the DJ' and Tinder
The episode is happening in a world where a dating system pairs people together with no free will of their own. A man and women frustrated by this system decide to escape when they realize that they have been living in an intelligent dating app simulation.
We already have Tinder dating app, where a match is made for the user based on some info given by the user and we are not that far from actually having this kind of percentages estimated for us.

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'Hang the DJ' episode date (Image source: https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/pftEVDv5gZAQpEEdTE3S2L/Dance-me-to-the-end-of-love.html)

'Shut Up and Dance' and hackers
The episode tells a story about a guy who is being blackmailed by a hacker, who gained access to his laptop's camera and is caught in a disturbing situation.
That, in fact, is already happening in real life. Hackers can and do spy on people using cameras. One of the cases is known about an “extortionist” Luis Mijangos, who spied on 200 women and blackmailed some of them.

Image result for shut up and dance black mirror
'Shut Up and Dance' screenshot. (Image source: http://blog.umd.edu/blackmirrorreflections/2017/12/05/cover-your-webcam-or-shut-up-and-dance/)

'Men Against Fire' and face swapping
In 'Men Against Fire' episode augmented reality technology is used to change what military soldiers see, smell and hear to make the dread of war more tolerable. However, the technology is used to conceal significant lies and make soldiers into killing machines.
We already can witness AR advancing every day as it becomes more and more popular amongst consumers. The most plausible now we know of Snapchat with its face-swap technology, while the creepy Face2Face face-swap project is taking place at Stanford University.

Image result for men against fire black mirror
'Men Against Fire' protagonist (Image source: https://www.neondystopia.com/cyberpunk-movies-anime/black-mirror-on-the-past-present-and-future-of-war/)

'White Christmas' and Amazon's Alexa
In this three-part episode, one of the episodes was about a "cookie" that loads a person's consciousness in an egg-like device, which after will act as a personal assistant.
We may not be able to put our own consciousness in a device yet, but Amazon's Alexa acts as a personal assistant with an ability to control house and complete a variety of given orders.  Now it is also possible to control one's house through apps as the smart house technology is rising.


'White Christmas' consciousness cookie. (Image sources: https://www.businessinsider.com/black-mirror-predictions-reality-2016-10?r=US&IR=T#nosedive-7)

I hope you enjoyed my two posts and you are curiously freaked out enough to watch the series if you haven't done that yet. If you did then let me know if you have heard any similar cases of Black Mirror becoming a reality. :)

Used for inspiration:
Chris Weller. 14 terrifying predictions from 'Black Mirror' that could become reality.
https://www.businessinsider.com/black-mirror-predictions-reality-2016-10?r=US&IR=T#the-national-anthem-1
James Wilson-Taylor. 7 'Black Mirror' Episodes You Won't Believe Actually Happened In Real Life.
https://www.popbuzz.com/tv-film/features/black-mirror-episodes-that-actually-came-true-irl/
Ian Sandwell. 8 Black Mirror things that already exist in real life.
http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/black-mirror/feature/a847046/black-mirror-technology-in-real-life-irl/
Tim Molloy. 5 ‘Black Mirror’ Episodes Inspired by Real Life (Photos).
https://www.thewrap.com/black-mirror-vs-real-life-5-real-things-the-series-barely-changed-video/

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