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0 pointsdrdaeman2y ago0 comments

Black Mirror is fiction, a lot of it works well thanks to our suspension of disbelief.

Remove cloud from the equation, replacing it with a properly safeguarded fully owned hardware located on your own premises - basically make it privacy-respecting, minimizing abuse potential, do a proper audit, and it becomes a super desirable system for people with neurological differences (or just stressed folks - attention and memory suffer under the stress too), a glasses that enhance memory rather than vision. Sure, not without caveats and gotchas (don’t bring it to a poker night lol), but not that cyberpunky-bad either.

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8 comments · 2 top-level

Cyph0n2y ago· 4 in thread

Have you watched the Black Mirror episode in question (S1E3)? Because the point of it was the tech itself and had nothing to do with sharing or the cloud.

somenameforme2y ago

An extremely similar take on this, that predates Black Mirror, was in some sci-fi media whose name, appropriately enough, currently escapes me. Their premise is that there was a species who evolved to develop a flawless memory. It's a subset of the Black Mirror episode (and this dubious idea) because there, at least, memory is a purely private thing.

Yet the end too was quite predictable and logical -- frequently destroying those of this species simply because your own life and mind ends up becoming more tempting and destructive than even the most enticing of drugs. One could simply lose themselves in your own memories. What need is there for the rest of your life when you can simply endlessly relive, in perfect clarity, the best moments of your life - ones that you, in many cases, will likely never surpass?

LoganDark2y ago

> What need is there for the rest of your life when you can simply endlessly relive, in perfect clarity, the best moments of your life - ones that you, in many cases, will likely never surpass?

Even without perfect memory, this can still happen, especially if something like PTSD is involved. I myself have a dissociative disorder and sometimes it can be difficult not to just relive the past over and over. (It's not like this is a daily struggle, but during low points it comes up.)

karencarits2y ago

I am curious; ChatGPT suggests

- the science fiction novella "The Rememberers" by A.E. van Vogt, originally published as "The Book of Ptath" in 1943.

- the species known as "Trills" from the "Star Trek" universe, particularly in the series "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."

Edit: the first suggestion seems to be a hallucination

novok2y ago

IMO that is a more fundamental argument about removing information from the anxious and jealous who cannot handle the truth. Similar to medical paternalism where the doctor has to decide which test results to tell patients about. Which I understand, but can also be used to go full ham into china style totalitarian censorship regime for the 'peoples own good'.

Also you might not realize how much the hard of hearing, deaf, and other neurodiverse ADHD types would find a memory prosthetic like that very useful unless you are in their very own shoes, for possibly years.

karaterobot2y ago· 2 in thread

I have a coworker who was tracking Black Mirror premises that were being taken as inspiration by people on the internet. This may be one of those. A lot of SF authors have expressed this idea: "I meant it as a warning, not a road map". I think I read either Neal Stephenson or William Gibson expressing this about their respective dystopias and the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who were trying to implement them.

Anyway, posting this comment so I remember to send it to her tomorrow.

hu32y ago

I'd rather not make conclusions of a technology impact based on a 44 minutes episode that was optimizing for maximum entertainment.

So there's nothing fundamentally wrong in taking inspiration from sci-fi.

Sure the presented perspective is negative but that is because the producer explored local maximums to the benefit of the audience. They are obliged to paint technology in a certain way to captivate viewers.

Does that mean that the presented reality is the only possible one? Certainly not, that would be reductive.

Many popular technologies today are used to scam a defraud people. Does that mean said technologies are fundamentally bad? Not at all.

I use technology as a force multiplier.

pimlottc2y ago

“Don’t create the torment nexus”

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/torment-nexus

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