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0 pointssocalgal22mo ago0 comments

Demo.

As much I enjoyed Black Mirror I thought it's Season 1, "The Entire History of You" entertaining but was poorly conceived. It showed catching your partner cheating as a "would rather not know" thing and it ignored any possible positives. The episode wasn't really about the tech, it was about a failing relationship, a cheating partner, and an untrusting obsessive person.

In any case, in that world, which didn't have AI to review and catalog what you saw but only playback of recorded sight, positives they could have mentioned

* an end to almost all date rape - since it would be recorded - leaving only the ambiguous cases

* a likely decrease in various crimes - since they'd all be recorded

* harder for execs/government to make backroom deals - since they're be recordings of them

* might end gaslighting in personal relationships

* eyewitness reports/testimony would be way more reliable

* medical symptom checking - when did some symptom start would be recorded

* better performance review - like a pilot reviewing a training landing or an athlete reviewing their own performance.

* proof of abuse by customers or by staff.

* checking your actual time spent vs you're perceived time spent - I studied for 4 hours, checking though you studied for 45 minutes and kept getting distracted with non-study

* less lost items - check where you left your keys, etc....

* more accountable police - everyone is recording them

* no more need to take photos for memos, since you know everything you looked at is recorded

* all car accidents recorded - easier to determine blame

Of course adding AI to all of that would add orders of magnitude more usefulness.

I'm not saying there are no downsides. As one example, every bowl movement, shower, self pleasure, sex, cold, vomit, misspoke word, awkward situation, etc would be also recoreded.

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latexr2mo ago

> The episode wasn't really about the tech, it was about a failing relationship, a cheating partner, and an untrusting obsessive person.

Good (or decent) science fiction is never about the tech, but about its impact on people.

swiftcoder2mo ago

Yes, this is sort of the point. Technology in science fiction is just there as a lens through which to observe humanity (if the point were the technology itself, we'd be writing science-fantasy instead). Not clear that a bunch of the people in charge of bringing tech products to market understand this distinction (see also, Torment Nexus).

socalgal2OP2mo ago

And this tech in the show had zero impact. The guy would have had the same issues with or without the tech. The rest of society was doing fine in that episode and nearly everyone had the tech

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saikia812mo ago

because the tech is hard to envision right (or sci-fi writers would be rich), but the consequences are clearer

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sublinear2mo ago

And yet we live in a world where even a basic surveillance camera, dashcam, or bodycam are often broken, missing, or turned off.

It's not always nefarious. The friction is just too high and people don't actually care about any of those things you listed as much as you might believe. If they did, we'd just as easily employ people performing audits on every interaction of every waking moment since the beginning of humanity. A nanny, if you will.

In the real world, simplicity wins. You can say it's irrational all you want. Nobody cares. Cost, reliability, and impedance are more important. No amount of engineering or economy of scale will overcome those things. Doing nothing is always an option and so this is all ultimately political.

What humanity has learned again and again is that trust is too important and intrinsic to leave it up to politics. All that will result in is brittle rules that are easily abused worse than the original problem they intended to solve. It's much easier to convince people to socialize accordingly and ignore or punish the people who refuse to comply.

Making sure that every decision in a flowchart leads somewhere is not necessarily valuable or even desirable to anyone.

socalgal2OP2mo ago

I did’t say anyone wanted those things. I said they were positives the show ignored and don’t require AI

with Ai added the use cases are so compelling they fly off th shelves once they get the form and ux right.

Everything you wrote above was said about PDAs in the 90s and yet here we are in 2025 an 85% of the planet has a PDA, renamed smartphone

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latexr2mo ago

> The episode wasn't really about the tech, it was about a failing relationship, a cheating partner, and an untrusting obsessive person.

Good (or decent) science fiction is never about the tech, but about its impact on people.

swiftcoder2mo ago

socalgal2OP2mo ago

And this tech in the show had zero impact. The guy would have had the same issues with or without the tech. The rest of society was doing fine in that episode and nearly everyone had the tech

1 more reply

saikia812mo ago

because the tech is hard to envision right (or sci-fi writers would be rich), but the consequences are clearer

2 more replies

sublinear2mo ago

And yet we live in a world where even a basic surveillance camera, dashcam, or bodycam are often broken, missing, or turned off.

Making sure that every decision in a flowchart leads somewhere is not necessarily valuable or even desirable to anyone.

socalgal2OP2mo ago

I did’t say anyone wanted those things. I said they were positives the show ignored and don’t require AI

with Ai added the use cases are so compelling they fly off th shelves once they get the form and ux right.

Everything you wrote above was said about PDAs in the 90s and yet here we are in 2025 an 85% of the planet has a PDA, renamed smartphone

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse