A new progressivism, one that embraces construction over obstruction, must find new allegories to think about technology and the future
Black Mirror fails to consistently explore the duality of technology and our reactions to it. It is a critical deficit. The show mimics the folly of Icarus and Daedalus – the original tech bros – and the hubris of Jurassic Park’s Dr Hammond. Missing are the lessons of the Prometheus myth, which shows fire as a boon for humanity, not doom, though its democratization angered benevolent gods. Absent is the plot twist of Pandora’s box that made it philosophically useful: the box also contained hope and opportunity that new knowledge brings. While Black Mirror explores how humans react to technology, it too often does so in service of a dystopian narrative, ignoring Isaac Asimov’s observation: that humans are prone to irrationally fear or resist technology.
I’m glad this conversation is happening because I hate Black Mirror for this. Everything that happens is the worst possible outcome. The ideas and situations are great, but actually watching it is a slog. Pessimism porn is the perfect designation.
I much prefer Love, Death, and Robots.
Same! I’ve been parroting this same discourse ever since the first season aired. It’s not even good science fiction, it’s just all exaggerated to invoke fear, it bears no resemblance to a real world and future, and it doesn’t reflect on it. It’s a glorified dystopian tv mindless drama. It doesn’t make you question and think about things, it just always defaults to: “this bad, really bad”.